Study for “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”

George Seurat’s best-known and most beloved work, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte-1844, was received to great critical fanfare at the eighth annual Impressionist exhibition of 1886. However, soon after earning the plaudits of the notoriously exacting Parisian art scene, many of the lively colors that distinguished Seurat’s greatest painting began to noticeably deteriorate. This change was most apparent in the once-vibrant yellow pigment of the painting, which rapidly began to darken into a murky yellowish brown.

In painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte-1844, Seurat heavily relied on the then-new and cutting edge pigment zinc yellow (zinc chromate), most notably in creating the effect of the sun dappled lawn, but also in mixtures with other pigments used in the piece. In the late 1880’s, many new, untested pigments were introduced to the artists, who were understandably eager to expand their palates. These brilliant hues seemed to provide artists with the previously unavailable spectral colors for which they had longed for, and zinc yellow’s vibrant sunny hue proved especially attractive to light-obsessed and experimental impressionists like Seurat.

Some painter’s manuals, notably G. Field’s, Chromatography (1869), warned that these new pigments were likely to deteriorate with time, “[T]he yellow and orange chromates of lead, withstanding as they do the action of the sunbeam, become by time, foul air, and the influence of other pigments, inferior to ochres.” Field inveighed against the zinc yellow that was to darken Seurat’s other masterpiece, The Bathers at Asnieres (1883-84), muddy the lawn of A Sunday on La Grande Jatte-1844 and wilt Van Gogh’s brilliant sunflowers. However, Field’s cautionary words proved no match for zinc yellow’s vibrant charms, and many artists elected to throw caution to the wind in the service of experimentation.

In an effort to stave off further deterioration, art conservators and curators have permanently placed A Sunday on La Grande Jatte-1844 behind special glass that blocks all utraviolet light. As for the fate of zinc yellow, it was found to be highly toxic and is rarely used in art anymore. However, it has found new life as a corrosion resistant agent used by the U.S. Navy aircrafts, to protect aluminum from corrosion by sea salt.

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