Seurat began to employ his knowledge of color theory before attempting to do so in La Grande Jatte, but this collection of studies and masterpiece most clearly exhibits the chronological progression and eventual regression of his pointillist style. Fortunately, in looking at La Grande Jatte, we are really looking at an entire series of 59 paintings, showing the methodical process Seurat led to produce one of his six large-scale masterpieces (Herbert 264). The increasing pointillist brushstroke techniques and contrasting color harmony in the studies positively evolve over time, illustrating Rood and Chevreul’s growing influence on Seurat as his career progressed, not to mention his increasing artistic capability. The earliest cataloged study for La Grande Jatte, called Figures on the Shore (1883) brings us back to typical Impressionist style. That is, it uses broad, imprecise brushstrokes to give us an impression of the scene. Seurat attempts no blending, leaving lumps of paint to define whole shapes of one color. In fact, a total of two colors, aside from black and white, are used. These two colors, green and yellow, fail to complement each other. In fact, they are so near each other on the color spectrum, as seen in Rood’s color circle, that they literally blend with each other on the canvas. While Seurat was clearly familiar with color theory at this time, he probably chose not to use it for such a simple sketch.
Over time, his sketches became more detailed and finished in order to practice the real techniques he would be using in the final. In Fisherman (1883), the next supposed study for La Grande Jatte, Seurat again uses steady, broad brushstrokes to depict the static scene. This approach is still quite far off from the tiny dotted brushstrokes typical of pointillism, but it shows improvement from the wider color blocks in Figures on the Shore. In terms of color, after looking at it in close detail, it appears to contain only three main hues: blue, green, and beige, not even close to the wide palette of the paintings to come. There is minor color blending and accenting with yellow in the water’s background, teetering between two pairs of complementary colors presented by Chevreul and Rood: blue and orange and yellow and violet. While the colors do not have the desired calming effect that Seurat intended, they nonetheless show some development from the bichromatic Figures on the Shore, painted just months earlier.
The spacing between the studies averaged approximately one month, allowing sufficient time for Seurat to complete the painting as well as revisit it for self-evaluation. Two years after reading Rood’s publication, he had been able to experiment with color juxtaposition for some time. Maybe he hesitated to employ it in his first few studies in favor of a hasty portrayal of the sun-lit bank of the Island of the Grande Jatte. However, if the final composition in this series was to use the pointillist technique, it had to surface at some point for practice. For ten drawings and paintings, he timidly (or unknowingly) painted the same scenes, unembellished by his characteristic splashes of unnatural color. Finally, in 1884, one year after his first study and three years after his scientific research, a painting surfaced that marked the transition of Seurat’s style: Sailboat (1884). Sailboat captures the dotted brushstroke appearance so familiar to us today, in addition to incorporating cobalt blues and bright pinks into the shadowed grass. In this example, Seurat used blue in the shadows of the trees to make the illuminated areas appear more sunset-orange. While viewing this painting, the audience practically feels the warmth of the sun, a result of this pair of colors. The pink, which is actually a light shade of red, directly contrasts with the green grass, conveying the peacefulness of the figures relaxing in the shade. Seurat undeniably employed Chevreul’s law of juxtaposed complementary colors to achieve this sense of calm, which he continued to do throughout the rest of his preparation studies.
Seurat’s last great turning point leading up to the masterpiece can sometimes be mistaken for the final copy, but only if the viewer is unfamiliar with the painting from close proximity. The compositional study for La Grande Jatte served as Seurat’s rough draft for his mammoth undertaking. Its layout anticipates the final copy almost without exception and the only variance is the style of brushstroke. It seems that Seurat settled back into a cross-hatch haphazard application of paint, reminiscent of Impressionist artwork. However, we all know that Seurat was far from a haphazard character and such a method of paint application would not conform to his systematic color application scheme. While he succesfully introduces blues and pinks into the green grass, just like he did in Sailboat, and blues into the orange parasols, he does not capture the full calming effect of contrasting colors because the brushstrokes are so large that they overwhelm the image. As Chevreul and Rood both set forth in their books, the complementary colors must be contrasted abruptly or very near each other, for the pleasing sensation to take effect. The cross-hatching allows for significant blending on the canvas, and not in the eye.