This brushstroke size problem is resolved in Seurat’s final painting of the series. Its size alone alerts the viewer to its importance as a development in the art world. Covered in a multitude of tiny points, which range in size from a pin head to a dime, the painting’s presentation is utterly breathtaking. Was this the effect Seurat had intended? It excites the viewer to see the effects of years of meticulous work, but it fails to calm the viewer to a relaxed, blissful state as Seurat had envisioned. The busyness of the points overwhelms the canvas. For example, the man’s outstretched leg in the left foreground is a rainbow of colors; the pants appear white in the illuminated portion, but in the shadows, they are really speckled with a myriad of primary and secondary colors. Seurat has the right idea of using unexpected colors to enhance the image, but in this case, he went overboard. He used at least six different colors in the white pants alone, dizzying the audience to the point where they have a hard time absorbing the rest of the two-by-three meter painting.
On the bottom of the painting, the dominant color, green, is embellished with dots of blue, yellow, violet and pink. If Seurat had wanted to abide by Chevreul and Rood’s laws, he would have used only two colors to dot the lawn: red to complement the observable green color and a more subtle blue tone, just as he did in Sailboat and La Grande Jatte’s Compositional Study. Occasional blue speckles would have created the effect of a warm orange sun spilling between the shadows of the illuminated figures, yet as a result of Seurat’s overzealous application of paint, the lawn looks as if it was sprinkled with confetti.
Interactive Enlargement of La Grande Jatte
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