George Seurat's La Grande Jatte Painting

As I gaze at the still, fixed figures in Georges Seurat's La Grande Jatte (1884 -1886), I feel myself moving into the frame, becoming one of the women dressed in Sunday finery, staring at the rippling surface of the lake before me. I hold a parasol above my head, slightly angled to prevent the sun from beating down on my exposed neck. I am accompanied by my husband, who stares straight ahead, occupying a space next to me but somehow separated from my presence. I feel the heat of the day, I hear the sounds of children sailing their boats on the lake, and I smell the scent of blooming flowers and the picnic lunch of a family seated before me. I am calm, happy, and fixed in time and space.

I have entered into a world that no longer exists, a world that is evocative of Paris at the close of the 19th century,

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