Critical Art

Seurat’s final edition from Study For A Sunday on La Grande Jatte was not well received by the Parisian art community in its debut in 1886. His work stood out in stark contrast to his contemporary impressionist and representationalist associates. What made his work so revolutionary—aside from his near scientific method of painting, an application of individual points of color in near ascetic effort with an eye to form and complementary colors—was how he broke with the standing tradition of having clearly demarked relationships between the figures in his paintings. Whereas his contemporaries painted to model social mores—depicting the hard laborer, the virtuous Madonna—Seurat composed his piece without any such commentary, leaving his viewers unsure exactly how the people in his painting related to one another. Critics of his time were confused as to his intent in making the painting and viewed it as retrograde at best, an assault upon art at worst. Of course, time has since vindicated Seurat, and this exhibition is centered around his theme: art that challenges the status quo. This show contains pieces from America, France, and Japan all from the 1800s to give a more global sense of what was emerging at the time. 

Edgar Degas, Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub, 1885, Charcoal and pastel on light green wove paper, now discolored to warm gray, laid down on silk bolting, 29.100.41

Edgar Degas was a frequent challenger of the Paris art scene. In 1885 he finished Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub and was promptly received with bashing from the established art critics for the ‘compromising’ and ‘ungainly’ positions his models often occupied. His work takes a shot at Parisian double standard of portraying women—nudity under the guise of divinity was acceptable, but an ordinary woman in ordinary environs was considered low and off limits.

Katsushika Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei), 1830–32, Polychrome woodblock print; ink and color on paper, JP1847

Around the same time as Degas and Seurat, Katsushika Hokusai of Edo/Tokyo was marching to a much different drummer. His famous print Under the Wave off Kanagawa (1830) crossed his native culture in how it was deeply influenced by Dutch printmaking style. From his use of Prussian blue to his adoption of Dutch linear perspective, Hokusai stood in stark contrast to preceding generations of Japanese artists—who had been tightly constrained under anti-western trade laws which also constrained art collaboration—by how heavily he borrowed from western tradition.

Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Field Where General Reynolds Fell, 1863, Albumen silver print from glass negative, 2005.100.502.1 (37)

Meanwhile, Timothy O’Sullivan was embroiled in the US Civil War. Not as a soldier, but as a wartime photographer. During the 1800’s, photography was viewed primarily as a documentary exercise, and was often propagandic in nature. O’Sullivan broke with the established practice of the time with Field Where General Reynolds Fell (1863) and emphasized the more gruesome side of the civil war. He focused on the bloated bodies rather than polished military parades, paving the way for modern artists by emphasizing the executive decision of the photographer as inherently art-worthy.

Paul Cézanne, Gardanne, 1885–86, Oil on canvas, 57.181

Also in France, Cezanne was working on Gardane (1885). Known by many as the father of post-impressionism and a forerunner of cubism, Cezanne inspired such notable persons as Picasso and Henri Matisse. Contrary to the overriding impulse of the impressionists to capture a momentary ‘impression’ of the subject matter, Cezanne labored to create simple forms and color planes. His work laid the ground for cubism in the future with its highly geometric and angular design.

Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884/86, Oil on canvas, (Chicago Art Institute), 1926.224

Georges Seurat, A Study for A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884, Oil on wood, 1975.1.207

Finally, we come full circle to the finished piece of Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1886), and its predecessor, Study for Sunday on La Grande Jatte. When it was displayed in the salon it drew harsh criticism for its lack of clearly distinguished relationships between the figures in the painting. Some thought it was a throwback to Egyptian or Greek art with its regal, processionlike nature. Those who understood Seurat best knew the painting was primarily an exercise in establishing his new method of Pointilism, focusing on the careful application of color with form, light, and contrast in mind.