Georges Seurat’s 1884 painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte has remained a favorite of art lovers since its creation. This masterpiece of pointillism shows a group of Parisians enjoying an afternoon on the River Seine—an excellent way to celebrate a riverfront!
The idea all started with local photographer Mark Preuschl, who scouted the area in order to find the perfect setting for this modern version of Seurat. By involving Civic Theater Director Loren Sass, they were able to devise a system where numbered disks would be laid out on the grass.
“The wind was still there, playing havoc with the two boats and umbrellas—inverting numerous umbrellas—while crashing the canoe and sailboat into rocky rip-rap along the shore,” Preuschl told. “If you look at the top of the tree in the center-top of the photograph, you can see how the wind severely bends its branches. We staged about three combinations of people places and re-shot, but the photo I chose to share (and we later chose to use for promotion) was just the fifth frame I shot.”
“Great art impresses with magic that transcends words. Great photos freeze a moment of time that is forever beyond words. There was ‘magic’ that day. I know, I was there. We managed to capture the ‘magical impressionism’ that resonates in the original painting, with real people, at a real place, and in a singular moment.”
“A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat (Photo: Public domain via Wikipedia)
