Detail of Gray Weather, Grand Jatte by Seurat in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2008

Title: Gray Weather, Grande Jatte

Artist: Georges Seurat (French, Paris 1859–1891 Paris)

Date: ca. 1886–88

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 27 3/4 x 34 in. (70.5 x 86.4 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: The Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection, Gift of Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, 2002, Bequest of Walter H. Annenberg, 2002

Accession Number: 2002.62.3

This view extends from the island of La Grande Jatte, framed by trees, to the red-roofed houses of the Paris suburb of either Asnières or Courbevoie across the Seine. Seurat had earlier celebrated this stretch of the river with his ambitious compositions Bathers at Asnières (1883–84, National Gallery, London) and A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884–86, Art Institute of Chicago). Here he sought "to transcribe most exactly the vivid outdoor clarity [of nature] in all its nuances" using a technique known as Divisionism (also called Pointillism). The painted border was added shortly before the picture was first exhibited in 1889.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438015