Politics: Bathers and Grand Jatte

It is crucial to note that whereas Grand Jatte clearly contains a message of incisive social satire, Seurat intentionally avoided all social commentary in Bathers by depicting characters that were neither upper nor working class. Most of Seurat’s early studies for Bathers, including Black Horse, Rainbow, and Horse and Boats (all created between 1883-4), show figures who are clearly working class, as demonstrated by the breaches and overalls worn by the figures as well as the brown, earthy tones used to depict their skin. However, Seurat deliberately excluded these lower-class workers from his final version of the painting: the men in the final version have smooth white skin and wear suits, bright shorts, and rimmed sun hats. The appearance of the figures gives the impression that they are members of the middle class. Seurat even stays away from making a social statement against the factories in the background of Bathers, potentially a contrast to the purity and cleanliness of the foreground, by portraying the smoke from the factories as innocuous cloudlike puffs. This demonstrates how Seurat repeatedly chose to remove all potentially political material from the final version of Bathers so as not to make a social statement about the working class.

Grande Jatte, on the other hand, is unquestionably a social statement. Nineteenth century critic J.K. Huysmans immediately picked up on what is so strange about the figures in Grande Jatte when he said, “Strip [Seurat’s] figures of the colored fleas that cover them, and underneath you will find nothing, no thought no soul; nothing. Nothingness in bodies whose contours alone exist.” (qtd Rewald 64) Although Huysmans found this “nothingness” distasteful, this internal nothingness, the sense of external importance and superficiality, is what makes the painting so meaningful. With this "nothingness", Seurat lampoons the rigidity and superficiality of the bourgeoisie by making their postures rigid and clothing elaborate and constricting. Furthermore, the inclusion of symbols, most obviously a monkey on a leash and a woman fishing, is indicative of the painting’s satirical nature. In nineteenth century slang, ‘singesse’ (female monkey in French) meant prostitute. The wordplay of ‘pêche’ (fishing) and ‘péché’ (sin) was a pun often made in French cartoons with reference to prostitution. (Thomson 123) Such symbols speak to the ability of “the proletarian woman [to] become superficially bourgeois through prostitution.” (Thomson 124) Through this subtle imagery, Seurat adds another dimension to the comparison of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, noting the superficiality and immorality within high class society. The inclusion of Grande Jatte’s social statement of the superficiality of the bourgeoisie contrasts strongly with Seurat’s exclusion of a social statement from Bathers. When looked at as a pair, the contrast between the relaxed lower-middle class figures in Bathers and the rigid upper-class figures in Grande Jatte furthers the social message found in Grand Jatte. However, when each painting is examined individually, it is clear that Seurat intended to make Grande Jatte, and not Bathers, into a social statement.

Due to the importance of the content itself (the figures, their activities, and their clothing) in conveying the painting’s message of the rigidity and superficiality of the bourgeoisie, the colors in Grande Jatte take a back seat to content. Whereas the colors in Bathers directly convey the painting’s meaning, the colors in Grande Jatte work to highlight the content, thus indirectly conveying the painting’s message. Complimentary colors are used in Grande Jatte, but to a different effect than in its predecessor. Whereas in Bathers Seurat’s most prominent color combination was orange and blue, a color combination that was soothing and vibrant, in Grande Jatte the dominant contrast is that of red and green. In Grande Jatte, almost every figure wears or carries a red item (parasols, dresses, pants, shirt, hat/hair, etc.). Because complimentary colors work by creating a sharp contrast at the edge between the two colors, the red on green distinguishes the rigid outlines of the figures from the sunlit, green grass. It is crucial for Seurat to draw attention to the outlines of the figures because it is primarily the repetition of the figures’ rigidity which gives the painting its satirical nature. Although the symbols of Grande Jatte add to the social satire, the base of the satire is created purely by style: by the color which intensify the rigid outlines of the bourgeoisie figures.

Bathers and Grande Jatte demonstrate how, through an innovative use of complimentary colors, Seurat is able to convey messages to the viewer that he would not be able to convey merely through content. It is an impressive accomplishment that the deeper meaning of Bathers, a mood rather than a specific social message, is completely conveyed through the use of color. In order to create the social message of Grande Jatte, Seurat relies more on substantive details, such as the fashion of the bourgeoisie and the symbols of the monkey and the woman fishing. However, Seurat’s accomplishment in Grande Jatte is that he is able to present these substantive details in an interesting, subtle way by using an innovative use of color. Though Seurat’s color is less innovative in Grande Jatte than in Bathers, the interplay between style and content makes Grande Jatte’s social commentary as effective as the mood conveyed by Bathers.