About A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
Georges Seurat began A Sunday on La Grande Jatte in 1884 and worked on it for about two years. It shows Parisians relaxing on an island in the river Seine, just outside the city: couples strolling, a woman fishing, children playing, a monkey on a leash, boats on the water. Seurat made dozens of drawings and oil sketches on the island before composing the final picture in his studio.
The painting is famous for its technique. Instead of mixing colors on the palette, Seurat placed small dots and dabs of pure color side by side, trusting the viewer’s eye to blend them from a distance. The method became known as pointillism. Seurat later added a painted border of dots around the edge of the canvas.
The painting is about two meters high and three meters wide. It was shown at the last Impressionist exhibition in 1886 and has belonged to the Art Institute of Chicago since 1926.
Tips for this puzzle
Up close every piece is a field of dots, so judge by color and shape instead. The dark figures in profile, the parasols and the patches of sunlit and shaded grass are the best places to start.
Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884. The Art Institute of Chicago. Public domain (CC0); image: www.artic.edu. Image source. All image credits
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- Pick 12 to 150 pieces (up to 48 on a phone). Each piece count keeps its own puzzle, so you can switch and come back.
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Keyboard
Press Tab to go from piece to piece. The arrow keys move the piece one place at a time, lined up with the places in the frame, and Enter or Space drops it.
A jigsaw is a puzzle about seeing shapes and colors, so there’s no way to play it with a screen reader. We’re sorry about that.
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