Rick Doble: People Standing Around Before A Pot Luck Dinner

Public Domain Image: Seurat: Study for 'La Grande Jatte'

I have been familiar with 'La Grande Jatte' from a very young age. My father had a copy of it when I was growing up. As I grew older I began to appreciate both its simplicity and its sophistication. I have spent hours looking at every detail of Seurat's masterpiece. It is at once very formal and very informal, relaxed and yet disciplined. I think that Seurat was a keen observer of people so that this carefully (one might say painfully) worked out composition feels easy and comfortable. In addition he gave ordinary working people a dignity and grace that had not been depicted before. I have always been intrigued by the way that people naturally arrange themselves and have used Seurat as a model.