Georges Seurat created A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. He painted the monumental work between 1884 and 1886, depicting Parisians relaxing on an island in the Seine near Paris.
The painting is a landmark of Neo-Impressionism and one of the best-known examples of Pointillism. Seurat applied small touches of contrasting color so that hues would blend optically in the viewer’s eye rather than being fully mixed on the palette. His approach drew on contemporary theories of color and perception.
The work was first exhibited in 1886 and helped establish Seurat as a leader of a new, more systematic direction in modern painting. It is now held by the Art Institute of Chicago. A common mix-up is calling the painting Sunday in the Park; that is the title of the later Stephen Sondheim musical inspired by it.