George Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte is one of my most favorite paintings. It has such bright, vivid colors, and when you realize that the entire painting is made of individual dots of paint instead of strokes, you realize how much time and effort Seurat put into his masterpiece. Truly, it is an amazing sight to behold when you see it in person, as I did a few years back when I visited the Art Institute of Chicago.
My favorite thing about this painting, however, is the wide variety of characters represented. No matter what age, gender, or economic status you are, you can find yourself in this picture. Not only that, I think it is possible to relate to everyone in this picture. Each character is an individual, it's true, but they all show something about themselves that is intrinsic to humanity.
Man with Pipe and Man in Top Hat
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These two men have little in common at first glance. The man in the foreground seems to be of the working class, and has no qualms about a few grass stains on his practical, comfy clothes as he reclines, smoking his pipe. The man in the background seems to be a gentleman on holiday, and he perches forward in his fancy suit. While these two people would have little cause to ever meet in an everyday occurrence, here they are, sitting in companionable silence, watching the same scene, reminding us all that our economic background has little to do with our ability to enjoy a day out.
Quiet Man and Music Man
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These two men struck me a foils as well. In the foreground, we see a man hunched over, hiding beneath his umbrella. The man in the background stands proudly in the sun. Although it is difficult to see exactly what he is doing, to me it looks as though he is playing a trombone or trumpet. Perhaps on their day off from work, one chooses to shut himself off from others while the other chooses to play his music loud and proud for all to hear. Either way, both the introvert and the extrovert have their own ways of enjoying a nice day at the park.
Dancing Girl and Sitting Girl
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Here we have two girls, one dancing freely on the grass, and the other watched over by perhaps her mother and her governess. Perhaps the two girls envy each other, one wishing she was allowed to frolic about, and the other wishing that she had a mother in her life who paid attention to her. Don't we all want to have a little freedom as well as someone to look out for us at the end of the day?
Embracing Couple and Somber Couple
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Here are two fairly different couples. In the foreground, we have an upper class couple that seems to be tolerating each other, but not exceedingly thrilled to be in the other's presence. In the upper left-hand corner, there is a couple leaning towards each other, with the woman's arms flung around the neck of the man. These stories, one perhaps tragic and the other sweet, show love gained and love lost, both stories abundant in human history.
Coming of Age and Loss of Innocence
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My final series of people contains four different stories. It adds up to a continuum of age. It begins with the young girl, holding the hand of her mother as they go for a walk at the park. She gazes at the preteen girl, perhaps wishing that she was old enough to have her own parasol. The preteen girl looks at a bouquet of flowers in her hands, perhaps given to her by her first crush, and contemplates what it means. Her governess or older sister watches the mother and the child, perhaps caught in the throes of wanting to be young and carefree again and wanting to start to raise her own family. And the mother looks out at the lake, remembering what it is like to be all of these ages.
As my friend Sara Hovren pointed out to me, each character is like each individual dot of paint. Separately, the characters have their own specific life stories that are beautiful in their own way. But put together, they create a richer, more colorful communal story. To take this one step farther, each of the characters has a foil, like colors on opposite sides of the color wheel. From this, we can see that everyone is truly connected, not just on a beautiful Sunday afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte, but in the infinitely colorful world that we live.
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