Oil Sketch for "La Grande Jatte"

Painted in 1884 and now at the Art Institute of Chicago—home also to the final Grande Jatte canvas—this oil sketch records an intermediate stage in Seurat's preparation, later and more resolved than the earliest studies but prior to the final systematic version. The Art Institute possesses both this study and the finished canvas, making it possible to trace the evolution of the composition in a single collection. The sketch occupies a crucial position in the preparatory sequence: it shows the landscape and figures in their essential arrangement while the pointillist dot system is still being worked out.

The oil sketch applies a broader, more fluid handling than the finished canvas—strokes are longer and more directional, figures somewhat looser in form. Yet the essential colour temperature relationships are already established: warm sunlight, cool shadow, the characteristic palette of greens, blues, and muted reds.