La Grande Jatte (Study II)

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, exhibited at the final Impressionist show in 1886, applied Seurat's newly codified Pointillist technique to an ambitious, monumental composition of Parisian leisure. The painting's systematic color theory and geometric figures deliberately opposed Impressionism's spontaneity with scientific rigor. Its influence was immediate: Pissarro and Signac converted to Pointillism; within a generation its principles would be recognized as foundational for Fauvism and Abstract art.

Seurat applied pure color in small, uniform dots following his theory of Chromoluminarism (Pointillism), trusting optical mixing on the retina to produce luminosity impossible with physical blending. His compositions are monumental and static, with figures simplified to geometric silhouettes.