# Study for "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte"

**Georges Seurat** (French, 1859–1891)  
1884  
Oil on canvas  
27 3/4 x 41 in. (70.5 x 104.1 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 51.112.6. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437658).

## About this work

This is one of the most complete of Seurat’s preparatory studies for A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884: most of the figures of the final painting are already in place, from the couple with a monkey on a leash to the dog in the foreground and the strollers and boaters along the river. Seurat painted it in 1884 to fix the composition before beginning the huge canvas now in Chicago. The handling is freer than in the finished work, so it lets us see the scene as it was taking shape.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Georges Seurat painted this in 1884, aged 25. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [Georges Seurat](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/georges-seurat)

French, 1859–1891; born in Paris; died in Paris

Seurat trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and studied the colour theories of Chevreul and others before developing pointillism, building pictures from small, separate touches of pure colour meant to combine in the eye. His large compositions, planned through many drawings and oil sketches, include Bathers at Asnières and A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884, shown at the last Impressionist exhibition in 1886. His black conté crayon drawings are equally distinctive. He died suddenly at thirty-one.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Paintings
- The artist was 25
- Real size: about 28 × 41 in (71 × 104 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 11 × 14 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Post-Impressionism](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/post-impressionism)
- Subjects: Leisure, Children, Men, Women, Dogs, Monkeys, Rivers
- Colour: olive
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1156.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1156/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/study-for-a-sunday-on-la-grande-jatte-met-437658).