Interpretation
When was Seurat's "Bathers at Asnières" completed?
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Seurat's painting was a mirror of "Bathers at Asnières", completed shortly before in 1884. While the bathers are doused in light, almost every figure on "La Grande Jatte" appears to be cast in shadow, either under trees or an umbrella, or from another person. Some of the characters are doing curious things. The lady on the right hand side has a monkey on a leash. A lady on the left near the river bank is fishing. The area was known at the time as being a place to procure prostitutes among the bourgeousie, a likely allusion of the otherwise odd "fishing" rod. In the painting's center stands a little girl dressed in white (who is not in a shadow), who stares directly at the viewer of the painting. This may be interpreted as someone who is silently questioning the audience, "what will become of these people, and their class?" Seurat paints their prospects bleakly, cloaked as they are in shadow and suspicion of sin. The border of the painting is, unusually, in inverted color, as if the world around them is also slowly inverting from the way of life they have known. Seen in this context, the boy who bathes on the other side of the river bank at Asnières appears to be calling out to them, as if to say "we are the future, come and join us".