Wurtele Thrust Stage / June 17 – August 20, 2017

music and lyrics by STEPHEN SONDHEIM

book by JAMES LAPINE
directed by JOSEPH HAJ

STUDY GUIDE
Inside
THE PLAY
Synopsis • 3
The Characters • 4
Responses to the Play • 5, 6
Songs and Scenes • 5

THE PLAYWRIGHTS
Sondheim and Lapine • 7, 8
In the Authors’ Words • 9

CULTURAL CONTEXT
The Painter: George Seurat • 11
The Painting: Sunday Afternoon
on the Island of La Grande Jatte • 13
The Movement: Neo-Impressionism • 14
Elements and Principles of Art • 15
Paris in the 1880s • 16

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For Further Understanding • 18

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Carla Steen: 612.225.6118

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2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER
 THE PLAY

“A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte, ” Georges Seurat

Synopsis
Early on a Sunday morning in 1880s ongoing romantic entanglements going to America with Louis, who
Paris on the island of La Grande become clear. Dot arrives with has been hired by Mr. and Mrs.
Jatte, a young painter named Louis and works on reading lessons
George [Seurat] draws his mistress from a grammar book. Mr. and Mrs., Back on Grande Jatte, George
Dot. People enjoy their day off at an American couple, love Louis’ tells his nostalgic mother that he
the park, including painter Jules pastries but not much else about makes things beautiful in his art.
and his wife Yvonne, who have just Paris. George meditates on having Dot arrives with her baby daughter,
seen George’s most recent painting lost Dot because his art comes first. Marie, hoping to get the painting
on exhibit, and a Nurse and an Old Dot returns to show George that of her before they all leave for
Lady, George’s mother. Later that she is pregnant with his child. America. As more visitors arrive,
day at his studio, George works tempers flare and they all descend
on his next painting while Dot Later, at George’s studio, Dot asks into chaos, which George brings
prepares for the evening out that for a painting George made of to order. He arranges them into
George promised her. When he her and tells him she is marrying a tableau of Seurat’s “A Sunday
gets absorbed in his painting and Louis. They’re interrupted by Jules Afternoon on the Island of La
forgets, Dot storms out. and Yvonne. While Yvonne and Grande Jatte.”
Dot commiserate over being in a
Another Sunday and George relationship with an artist, George Having held these positions
sketches while two young women explains to Jules his color theory for a long time, the characters
named Celeste gossip about how and style of painting, hoping Jules complain about being stuck in a
Dot is now with Louis the baker. can get the new painting seen. painting for eternity. The action
More visitors arrive, and new and When they leave, Dot tells him she’s moves to the American museum

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 3
 THE PLAY

where the Seurat painting hangs The Characters

and where another artist named
George is presenting his latest 1880S
sculpture, Chromolume #7, with
his grandmother, Marie, to honor George, Georges Seurat, an innovative painter
the painting’s 100th anniversary. Dot, his mistress
During the reception, while George Old Lady, George’s mother
works the room, everyone talks Nurse, to the Old Lady
about the hustle that is being an Jules, a famous painter
artist. Marie looks at the Seurat Yvonne, his wife
painting, finding her mother Dot’s Louise, their daughter
image and telling George that Franz, a coachman working for Jules and Yvonne
their family, including his great- Frieda, married to Franz, also works for Jules and Yvonne
grandfather Seurat, and his art are Boatman
both important. Celeste #1, a shopgirl
Celeste #2, a shopgirl
George visits La Grande Jatte to Louis, a baker
present the Chromolume. Marie has Soldier
passed away, and he is sad, restless The Soldier’s Companion
and hoping to find something in Mr. and Mrs., an American couple visiting from Charleston
the park that will confirm Marie’s
story about their family. In Marie’s 1980S
grammar book, he finds notes Dot
wrote long ago about the painter George, an innovative sculptor
George. The island – and Dot – help Marie, his grandmother, Dot’s daughter
him to recognize that there is still Elaine, George’s ex-wife
more he has to say as an artist. Dennis, an engineer working with George
Naomi Eisen, a composer working with George
Robert Greenberg, the museum’s director
Lee Randolph, the museum’s PR director
Harriet Pawling, a board member for the museum
Billy Webster, her friend
Charles Redmond, a museum director from Texas
Alex, an artist
Betty, an artist
Blair Daniels, an art critic
Waiter
Photographer

Setting

Island of La Grande Jatte and George’s Studio, Paris, 1880s.

An American art museum then La Grande Jatte, 1980s.

4 \ GUTHRIE THEATER
 THE PLAY

Scenes and Songs

Responses to the Play ACT I

Scene 1: La Grande Jatte
“Sunday in the Park with George”
GEORGE, DOT

The painting, Georges Seurat’s A Theatergoers always know when “No Life”
Sunday Afternoon on the Island they’re being addressed with JULES, YVONNE

of La Grand Jatte, depicted the burning passion: When “La Grande

Scene 2: George’s Studio
French bourgeoisie passing a Jatte” snaps into its finished
“Color and Light”
sunny day on a small island in the form on stage, the spectacle is DOT, GEORGE
Seine, apparently doing not much more dramatic and emotionally
of anything. Lapine and Sondheim transporting than any conventional Scene 3: Another Sunday
had the intriguing notion of trying story Sondheim has ever tried to on the Island
to answer two questions in their tell. “Gossip”
CELESTE #1, CELESTE #2, BOATMAN,
musical: Who were these people – NURSE, OLD LADY, JULES, YVONNE
what were their lives really about? Frank Rich, “A Musical Theater
“The Day Off”
And who was Georges Seurat that Breakthrough,” The New York Times COMPANY
he felt so compelled to depict them Magazine, October 21, 1984
“Everybody Loves Louis”
in an apparently documentary DOT
fashion – an elaborate snapshot Mr. Sondheim brought to fruition “The One on the Left”
of a community in repose that his view that a relationship, SOLDIER, CELESTE #1, CELESTE #2,

presented many more questions successful or not, was a giving of GEORGE

than it answered? True, the actual knowledge from one person to “Finishing the Hat”
GEORGE
subject was the artist’s insatiable another [in Sunday in the Park with
need to create and connect. But George]. … On the surface, Dot
Scene 4: Back in George’s Studio
there were lots of stories to tell resembles the classic masochistic “We Do Not Belong Together”
along the way, and no one had musical heroine. Her lover is DOT, GEORGE
done that in a narrative musical temperamental and difficult; he
before. supports her, employs her; he Scene 5: Final Sunday
on La Grande Jatte
even controls her public image by
“Beautiful”
Jack Viertel, “Bushwhacking 3: The painting her. And though the two
OLD LADY, GEORGE
Multiplot, and How It Thickens,” The Secret love each other, the tenor of their
“Sunday”
Life of the American Musical, New York: life together is dictated entirely by COMPANY
Sarah Crichton Books, 2016 George’s whims and his needs.
ACT II
As befits a show whose subject Dot has no expectation of ever Scene 1: It’s Hot Up Here
is the creation of a landmark in finding anyone she loves as much “It’s Hot Up Here”
COMPANY
modernist painting – Georges as George, but she’s remarkably
Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon on the attuned to timing, and she carefully Scene 2: Museum Auditorium
Island of La Grande Jatte” (1886) monitors the fragility of her own “Chromolume #7”
– “Sunday” is itself a modernist self respect. She knows when she ORCHESTRA

creation, perhaps the first truly has to move on, as she says. She
Scene 3: Reception in the Gallery
modernist work of musical theater tells George the words that no
“Putting It Together”
that Broadway has produced. Oscar Hammerstein heroine could
COMPANY
Instead of mimicking reality ever have uttered and actually
“Children and Art”
through a conventional, naturalistic meant: No one is you and / No one MARIE
story, the authors of “Sunday” can be. / But no one is me, George,
deploy music and language / No one is me. / We do not belong Scene 4: Return to La Grande Jatte
in nonlinear patterns that, like together. “Lesson #8”
GEORGE
Seurat’s tiny brushstrokes, become
meaningful only when refracted The show’s second act leaps “Move On”
GEORGE, DOT
through a contemplative observer’s forward in time to find Seurat’s
mind. … great grandson, also named “Sunday”
COMPANY
George, stuck in a painful artist’s

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 5
 THE PLAY

block. … Feeling desperately alone, result is Sondheim’s most personal

George wanders on the Parisian statement and thus, with all its odd
island where Seurat painted Dot a corners and occasional wanderings,
hundred years before. Dot appears his most moving.
to him there. After a momentary
confusion, George understand that What it isn’t is topical, not in the
she wants to help him find wisdom way we use the word in the theater
and give him back something of today. It has nothing to say about
what Seurat gave to her. … fascism, except perhaps as it
George finally begins to absorb applies to gallerists, salonistes, and
what Dot is telling him when she critics. It does not weigh in on race
touches on what is by now a or religion, though it touches on
recurring theme in Sondheim, the gender and class. (The boatman in
exchange of love as a willing and the lower left of Seurat’s painting
magnanimous act. She sings: has some salty views on the
Look at all the things you’ve done subject.) So many great musicals
for me / Opened up my eyes, / take on such topics that it’s easy
Taught me how to see, / Notice to think they are the only kind,
every tree, / Understand the light … besides flat-out comedies, worth
/ Let me give to you / Something in treasuring; in Sondheim’s own
return / I would be so pleased … catalogue, Sweeney Todd plays as
a cautionary tale of class injustice
Laurie Winer, “Why Sondheim’s Women Are and Assassins always teeters on the
Different,” The New York Times, November verge of nightly news. But at a time
26, 1989 when art and politics are merging,
when the latter is so often trotted
out as if it were a necessary excuse
Despite the eccentricities I’ve for the former, it may be useful,
alluded to in Lapine’s book, it is a crucial even, to recall that some
great one at least in part because great artists have done everything
it provided Sondheim with such in their considerable power to
magnificent carrion from which to keep the two apart. Beauty can be
concoct his feast of a score. a public virtue. When a character
But more than that, it helped sings to his wife that “Work is what
Sondheim, after the disaster of you do for others, Liebchen; art is
Merrily We Roll Along in 1981 what you do for yourself,” it gets a
and the breakup of his long laugh of acknowledgment. But in
creative partnership with Hal Sunday in the Park With George,
Prince, to “move on” — just as Dot Sondheim and Lapine ask us to
encourages George to do in the consider that the opposite may
song of that name. (“Stop worrying also be true.
if your vision is new. / Let others
make that decision — they usually Jesse Green, “Theater Review: Jake
do.”) Having threatened to give Gyllenhaal in Sunday in the Park with
up on musical theater to write George,” Vulture.com, February 23, 2017
murder mysteries or video games,
he was instead reinvigorated by the
downtown purity and formal daring
of Lapine’s writing, which released
a different voice in him. The key
thing about that voice is that it
offers no excuse for itself: not for
its intelligence, its faith in art, its
bloodhounding for rapture. The

6 \ GUTHRIE THEATER
 THE PLAYWRIGHTS

presented it to Hammerstein,
and asked him to critique it as
though Sondheim was another
professional. Hammerstein bluntly
told him it was terrible, then
offered to help him understand
why. “In that afternoon I learned
more about songwriting and the
musical theater than most people
learn in a lifetime,” Sondheim said
later. Another great influence
on Sondheim was his first music
teacher at Williams College, Robert
Barrow, who taught Sondheim
the logic behind music. Sondheim
loved Barrow’s practical, dry
approach to something he had
once seen as “romantic.”

In 1957, Sondheim was asked to

write the lyrics for a new musical
re-working of Romeo and Juliet,
which would become West Side
Story. It was his artistic introduction
to the Broadway stage. Sondheim
worked alongside composer
Leonard Bernstein to write the
show’s lyrics despite their vastly
different approaches. Sondheim
later said that he regretted some of
the more poetic and romantic lyrics
in the show.

1962’s A Funny Thing Happened

Composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim (left) and writer-director James Lapine during on the Way to the Forum was the
dress rehearsal for Sunday in the Park with George, 1984. first show for which Sondheim
wrote both music and lyrics. The
musical won many Tonys, including
Stephen Joshua Sondheim of Foxy – the wife of lyricist Best Musical, but Sondheim’s
was born on March 22, 1930, in Oscar Hammerstein II. Sondheim score was not well received. This
Manhattan to a wealthy Jewish befriended the Hammersteins’ has been a recurring theme for
family. His parents, Etta Janet son James and spent more and many of Sondheim’s musicals: he’s
“Foxy” and Herbert Sondheim, more of his time away from his received consistent criticism that
were distant parents and spent mother and with the Hammersteins. his lyrics are too dark, his tunes are
most of their time working in the Estranged from both of his parents, not “hummable,” and the subject
fashion industry. In later years Sondheim found a father figure matter “wrong” for a musical.
Sondheim described his childhood in Hammerstein, who brought Sondheim’s response to those
as one of an “institutionalized Sondheim with his family to see who think his work inaccessible
child, meaning one who has no Broadway shows. Hammerstein is that “what I write has to be
contact with any sort of family.” became both teacher and listened to more than once.” His
His parents divorced when inspiration. shows would often flop after a
Sondheim was 10, and Foxy and short run with little profit gained,
Stephen moved to Pennsylvania, In his teens, Sondheim wrote a but receive critical acclaim much
not far from a designer friend musical called By George, proudly later. Sondheim’s many awards

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 7
 THE PLAYWRIGHTS

(including an Academy Award, are encouraged to undertake a his hand at film directing, with
eight Grammys, eight Tonys and project in an area with which they his first project being Impromptu
a Pulitzer Prize) are testament to are unfamiliar, Lapine’s students (1991), the screenplay of which
that critical acclaim. His body of persuaded him to direct a show. was written by his wife Sarah
work includes Anyone Can Whistle Lapine chose an adaptation of Kernochan. He went on to direct
(1964), Company (1970), Follies Gertrude Stein’s Photograph, a and write other film projects,
(1971), Sweeney Todd (1979), Merrily three-page-long play that consists including the 2014 screenplay for
We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the of five acts. The adaptation was the movie adaptation of Into the
Park with George (1984), Into the well received and after it moved to Woods. He has also continued
Woods (1987), Passion (1994) and a small, Off-Broadway performance directing on Broadway, including
Road Show (2008; formerly titled space in SoHo, was positively the 2012 revival of Annie. In 2013,
Bounce). reviewed by The New York Times he directed an Emmy-nominated
and earned Lapine an Obie Award. Stephen Sondheim documentary,
Sondheim doesn’t write for the Shortly afterwards, Lapine was Six By Sondheim, for HBO.
approval of his audience: “If they asked to write a piece for the
don’t like it because they don’t Music-Theatre Group which became In an interesting full-circle
understand it, that’s bad. That is Twelve Dreams, a work in progress development, Lapine’s niece Sarah
the writer’s fault. If you write it based on a case history by Carl Lapine is the director of the 2017
and it’s clear and they don’t like it, Jung. Broadway revival of Sunday in the
that’s not your fault. That’s what Park with George.
art is about.” His unconventionality In 1981, Stephen Sondheim saw
greatly changed the face of Twelve Dreams and was inspired
American theater. He has stated by it. A partnership between the
that he did not set out to change two men was formed. Lapine’s
the genre, but rather kept directorial approach was always
innovating because he didn’t want very visual due to his design
to get bored. “Does it ever occur to background and tended towards
me that I am developing any new the avant garde, which attracted
kind of musical? … Never!” Sondheim. Sondheim and Lapine
created Sunday in the Park with
James Lapine was born on January George (1984), Into the Woods
10, 1949, in Mansfield, Ohio, to (1987) and Passion (1994) with
Lillian and David Sanford Lapine. Sondheim composing and writing
The Lapines lived in Mansfield lyrics and Lapine writing the
until Lapine was in his teens, when books and directing each show.
the family moved to Stamford, Lapine said of their partnership,
Connecticut. Throughout college “I’m sort of the go-getter. I’ll throw
and graduate school, Lapine’s anything on a piece of paper … And
focus was not on theater – his [Sondheim]’s like ... everything’s so
undergraduate degree is in meticulous. It’s hard for him to let
history and his M.F.A. in design. go of things. We’re a good combo
After finishing graduate school in that way.” At the same time, Lapine
California, Lapine moved to New has admitted to being the more
York and began creating freelance artistically pessimistic of the two,
design work for the Yale School of fearing that everything will be a
Drama. Impressed with Lapine’s flop, whereas Sondheim always
work, Dean Robert Brustein asked assumes that his shows will be
him to design in a full-time capacity successful.
and gave him a part-time faculty
position teaching advertisement After success on Broadway, winning
design. a Pulitzer for Sunday in the Park
with George and several Best Book
During the annual January term at and Best Director Tonys for George,
YSD, in which faculty and students Passion and Falsettos, Lapine tried

8 \ GUTHRIE THEATER
 THE AUTHORS

In the Authors’ Words

There are certain images that people’ means to me is people with is exactly what makes him do it.
always haunt me and that [the conflicts. And that’s like saying I But he’s the one who comes to a
painting of “La Grande Jatte”] was like to write about character. I don’t recognition at the end. If you don’t
one of them. I remember when I like to write about oversimplified connect with the past, you can’t
saw the original, being mesmerized people unless it’s for something go on. People who say the second
by it. … like farce, like ‘Forum.’ Songs can’t act’s not necessary misunderstand
develop uncomplicated character the play. The second act is what it’s
We hit on the idea of theme or unconflicted people. You can’t about. The first act’s the set-up.
and variations, as opposed to just tell the sunny side and have
something that was rooted in a a story with any richness to it. Stephen Sondheim, quoted in In Their Own
linear story. … I thought about Good drama is the study of human Words: Contemporary American Playwrights
the “Grande Jatte,” which was passions. by David Savran, New York: Theatre
a painting Steve knew, and that Communications Group, 1988
was it. I just sat down and started •••
writing the play. …
Seurat experimented with “Move On” is both an extension
What happened was it became so the color wheel the way one and a development of “We Do Not
rich. The more one looks at that experiments with a scale. He used Belong Together,” which in turn is
painting, the more one discovers complementary color exactly an extension and a development
these things going on that initial the way one uses dominant and of the lyrical section of “Color and
investigation doesn’t reveal. It tonic harmony. When you start Light,” the seeds of which, both
became apparent there was a lot to thinking about it, there are all kinds musical and verbal, have been
explore. Steve tends to wait for the of analogies. It started from the planted in the interlude of “Sunday
book before writing his material. He painting and the more I found out in the Park with George.” They
thinks a great deal about what he’s about Seurat, the more I realized, are four parts of one long musical
going to do, and he was exploring ‘My God, this is all about music.’ arc, something more apparent
the musical structure he was when they are sung than on the
going to base the score on. But he Stephen Sondheim, quoted in “The Words printed page. They could be read
worked along with me the whole and Music of Stephen Sondheim” by Samuel as a mini-musical of their own:
time. G. Freedman, The New York Times, April 1, Boy Loves Girl, Boy Loves Art,
1984 Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets Both Girl
I’d bring in six or seven pages, and and Art a Hundred Years Later.
we’d talk about it and see where All the musical themes of the love
it went, and it became clear it [W]e wanted an ending that would story culminate and intertwine
would be more interesting and be sort of ineffable. Both Steve in “Move On.” The lyric is meant
challenging to do not a theme and and I really like mystery – we like to connect with the earlier ones,
variations but something that grew unexplained things. distantly, just the way the young
a little more linear, something more George connects with his roots in
rooted in plot and characters. That James Lapine, quoted in “How Two Artists the painting; words and phrases
was what we finally decided on. Shaped an Innovative Musical” by Michiko like “the way she catches light” and
Kakutani, The New York Times, June 10, 1984 “the color of her hair” are echoed
James Lapine, quoted in “An Artist’s along with the music. If it works,
Masterwork Comes to Life as a Musical” by if “Move On” feels like a satisfying
Lester Bernstein, The New York Times, April Dot is the antagonist and George is and touching resolution as it does
29, 1984 the protagonist. It’s the old classical to me, it’s a tribute to my First
principle: she makes him change. Principle: Less Is More.
I like neurotic people. I like troubled He takes the trip. It’s all about how
people. Not that I don’t like he connects with the past and •••
squared-away people, but I prefer with the continuum of humanity.
neurotic people. … What ‘neurotic The spirit of Dot in the painting

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 9
With Sunday in the Park with
George, of course, the structure
was built in: the creation of the
painting had to be one act, its
consequences another. This
simplicity was both the good
news and the bad news. Some
people who saw the show thought
it should have been a one-act:
the first. James and I never even
considered such a possibility. The
second act is the point of the show,
whether we conveyed it or not. To
confine the piece to the first act
only would be little more than a
stunt; in fact, our worry was not
that people might think the second
act unnecessary but that they
would leave after the first simply
because they felt satisfied.

Stephen Sondheim, Look, I Made a Hat, New

York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011

I write personal because I get into

characters who are real people, the
playwright’s invention. They’re not
just vessels to sing A-A-B-A songs.
If you get inside a good character,
you will always write something
that touches people universally. It
doesn’t mean it will be a hit, but
people can identify because you
know that girl, you know that guy.
You know who they are and what
they’re about.

•••

Whenever I appeal to anybody

under 50, I feel a triumph, seriously.
Seriously! Look, popular music
changes every generation. And to Randy Harrison (George) in the Guthrie Theater’s production of
know that people – a generation Sunday in the Park with George

or two in this case, or even three

generations after you – still
like what you did, that’s a big
compliment.

Stephen Sondheim, in “Stephen Sondheim

on Seven Decades of Musical Theater, That
(Misquoted) Dig on Lady Gaga and Liking
Radiohead,” Billboard, November 13, 2015

10 \ GUTHRIE THEATER
 CULTURAL CONTEXT

The Painter: Georges Seurat

Bessin in Normandy feature human his “Grande Jatte.” He worked on
figures. One of these is at the “Grande Jatte” off and on over
Minneapolis Institute of Art.) the course of two years, visiting
the island, making sketches and
From 1880 to 1883, Seurat painting studies. The finished
developed and refined his drawing canvas was exhibited in May 1886 at
style and began to paint more the Eighth Impressionist Exhibition.
regularly. His work from these years It was his first substantial painting
show him leaving out details to to include groupings of figures, but
simplify figures and beginning to most notably “Grande Jatte” is the
build forms through value (light canvas on which Seurat first used
and dark) rather than depending his technique of painting with dots,
on line. He achieved his mature which resulted from his systematic
style sometime in 1882, when his study of color theory. The label
Georges Seurat was born in Paris drawings have almost no lines, given to this style, Pointillism (also
in 1859, the youngest of three light and dark define surfaces, and called Divisionism and which Seurat
children of bourgeois parents. he uses the whole surface of the himself called Chromo-luminarism),
Seurat’s father Antoine had retired paper. His early subjects were often describes putting pure pigments
from a civil service job and lived laboring peasants; he then turned next to each other on the canvas
apart from the family, traveling to suburban and urban settings of in small strokes rather than mixing
from his suburban house to the city industry and recreation. it on the palette to resulting in a
every Tuesday to visit them. Seurat more luminous and shimmering
received an education typical of Around 1881, Seurat likely read color mixed by the eye.
his gender and class, and at age 15 a translation of American color
he began his formal art training at theorist Ogden Rood’s Modern While Seurat was certainly aware of
a local city drawing school. Three Chromatics, which made a and affected by the work of Monet,
years later, Seurat enrolled at the particular distinction between light Pissarro and other Impressionists,
Ecole des Beaux-Arts (School of as color and pigment as color. there is some question whether
Fine Arts) in Paris to further his The work of an earlier generation he would have been identified
study of drawing and painting. As of artists like Ingres (1780-1867), with or if he self-identified as an
significant, if not more so, than his Delacroix (1798-1863) and Corot Impressionist. His inclusion in the
formal schooling was the reading (1796-1875) were also influential to Eighth Exhibition was controversial,
Seurat did independently – notably Seurat’s growing interest in color. an indication of the rift that
critic and aesthetician Charles had arisen in the movement
Blanc’s Grammar of Drawing Around 1883, Seurat began the first between romantic and scientific
Arts, from which Seurat began to of his major canvases, “Bathers impressionists. Seurat himself was
formulate his theory of color. at Asnières.” He submitted the proud of having helped to found
painting to the official government and lead the Neo-Impressionist
After just over a year’s study at Salon in 1884, but it was rejected, movement. A reaction against the
the Beaux-Arts, Seurat served a so he submitted it to the juryless observed, spontaneous realism
year’s mandatory military service Exposition des Refuses held of the Impressionists, Neo-
in Brest, Brittany, during which by the Society of Independent Impressionism applied scientific
time he continued to draw and Artists. “Bathers” was hung over principles to create formal
to read about art. He returned to the bar and didn’t receive much compositions.
Paris in 1880 to launch his career, critical attention. But Seurat never
but his time in Brest had a lifelong submitted to the Salon again and Four more major canvases
influence, as he returned to the became deeply involved with and a followed: “Circus Sideshow” and
French seaside to paint during leader of the Independent Artists. “The Models” (1888), in which
several summers in the 1880s. (Only Shortly after the Independent Seurat explored different qualities
his six 1888 paintings from Port-en- exhibition, Seurat began work on of light. His final two major

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 11
 CULTURAL CONTEXT

canvases show his interest in the

nightlife and entertainment of Paris,
followed by “The Can-Can” (1890),
an interior with a sense of humor,
and “The Circus” (1891), which
shows Seurat’s evolution to focus
less on depth of perspective and
more on line, surface and color.

Sometime in the late 1880s, Seurat
met Madeleine Knobloch, who is
pictured in his “Young Woman
Powdering Herself,” and she gave
birth to their son Pierre-Georges
in February 1890. His family only
learned about Madeleine and his
son when she brought him to his
mother’s house after he suddenly
fell ill while preparing for the latest
Independent Artists exhibition. He
passed away on March 29, 1891, and
his son died a couple of weeks later
of the same (unknown) disease.
Seurat and his son were buried in
the family vault at Père Lachaise
cemetery.

— Carla Steen, production dramaturg

Erin Mackey (Dot) and Randy Harrison (George) in the Guthrie Theater’s
production of Sunday in the Park with George

12 \ GUTHRIE THEATER
 CULTURAL CONTEXT

The Painting: “Sunday Afternoon on

the Island of La Grande Jatte”
costume” gives the observer today
an added pleasure, when he marks
how Seurat combines the billowing
skirts and the lady’s bustle with
the curve of her parasol and the
rhythm of the tree trunks and notes
the clever interplay of sunlit and
shadowed surfaces on the leaves.
All this unites in a cheerful summer
pastorale as broad and peaceful as
the river itself.

The happy colour harmony is

effected with far fewer primary
tones than is apparent at first
glance. The painter attains a
luminosity full of gaiety, chiefly by
the subtlety of his arrangement of
complementary reds and greens.
This 2x3-meter painting is the painting when he returned to Nevertheless the first exhibition of
usually considered to be Seurat’s Paris. The underlying brushstrokes this picture in 1886 was greeted
masterpiece. It was while working are in his older balayé (sweeping) with more mockery than approval.
on this painting that he developed style, with the pointillist stroke Few at that time would appreciate
his pointillist technique, painting layered on top. The painting was the power of this artist who
with unmixed dots of pure color in exhibited in May 1886 at the Eighth allowed himself to fix his figures
varying sizes placed on the canvas Impressionist Exhibition. Like with architecturally in a Garden of
to allow the colors to mix optically “Bathers,” Seurat’s studies included Eden, stretching in profile from
when viewed. Seurat began work numerous paintings on panels and left to right and carried on in due
on “Grande Jatte” after the 1884 drawings in crayon. hierarchy into the distance. But
Independent Artists exhibition, what is lost in individual abandon
visiting the Island of Grande Jatte — Carla Steen, production dramaturg by this process, is repaid a
daily for six months, according to thousandfold in the “joie de vivre”
his friend and fellow artist Paul One might call this “Sunday of the whole scene. Perhaps just
Signac, to make his studies for the Afternoon” of Seurat’s more of a this was too much for the spirit of
painting. In December of 1884, poem than a picture. Every life- the age to accept.
he exhibited a 27x33-inch canvas like detail is bathed in a flood of
landscape study for “Grande Jatte” sunlight, in which the figures have — Hermann Jedding, Gallery of Art Series,
(plus some smaller panel studies) cast away their every day cares to “Seurat”
with the Independent Artists, stroll, rest or take their pleasures
and it appears the painting was on the banks of a river as full of joy
finished in time to exhibit in March as they are themselves. It is true
1885, but the Independent Artists that the customs and fashions of
cancelled the planned show. Seurat the age imposed certain restraints
stepped away from working on the and conventions, such as the
painting to spend the summer in parasols which protect the ladies’
Grandcamp then resumed work on complexions. But this “period

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 13
 CULTURAL CONTEXT

THE MOVEMENT: where the individual colors would when they both exhibited at the
NEO-IMPRESSIONISM both be more vibrant and create a first Salon of Independent Artists,
mixing of the colors from a certain which was a direct response to the
In the late 1870s and early 1880s, distance away. (For instance, yellow difficulty new artists had getting
a new school of thought emerged and blue placed next to each other their works noticed. Signac was
within the Impressionists. Led by would appear to create a more so taken with Seurat’s ideas that
Seurat, its scientific, methodical vibrant green color from a certain he gradually “converted” to Neo-
approach was a decided pushback distance.) In reality, the colors don’t Impressionism. Together, they
against the individualistic, actually mix, but the method does were at the forefront of expanding
spontaneous style of the create a luminescent/vibratory the movement further both
Impressionists. Seurat approached effect in the painting, which more geographically and artistically.
his art from a scientific, theory- realistically portrays light as it is Seurat and Signac were invited to
based standpoint. He studied color in life. To the Neo-Impressionists, exhibit in Brussels in 1886, where
theory extensively, particularly the separating colors into the hues that Neo-Impressionism later became
theories developed by American made them creates more “light” in the major artistic movement.
physicist and amateur painter a painting and avoids the dullness The eighth and final Impressionist
Ogden Rood. He was also inspired that came from blending colors Exhibition took place in
by the French Romantic artist manually. 1886, and Seurat and Signac
Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) and participated, showcasing their
the analysis of Delacroix’s work with Neo-Impressionists at first self- Scientific Impressionist works.
color by art historian Charles Blanc. identified as Impressionistes However, their inclusion in this
scientifiques as opposed to the exhibition resulted in many of
This pushback was largely against Impressionistes romantiques the Romantic Impressionists
the formlessness and ambivalence whose ideas they were building on. refusing to participate, as they
of Impressionism. Although the Science dominated over emotion did not believe that Seurat and
Impressionists ultimately were in their techniques, or science was Signac were representative of
successful in breaking through the vehicle by which emotion was their spontaneous, emotionally-
the accepted norms of painting, expressed. Key to Seurat’s later driven Impressionist art. This was
focusing art on the modern world work in Neo-Impressionism was his the exhibition in which “Sunday
and opening the door for new study of lines and their associations Afternoon on the Island of La
forms of art to be developed, with emotion. He worked on Grande Jatte” was shown, and
there was no unified artistic inciting emotions in the viewer by the critical response largely
statement being made, particularly using specific line direction and agreed that Seurat’s work was a
because the artists who were shape in concert with his vibrant redevelopment of or next step
taking part in it applied the “rules” colors. Specifically, it was believed beyond Impressionism.
of impressionism with varying that upward-moving lines and Seurat was at the forefront
degrees of strictness. Seurat, on warm colors could be used to of Neo-Impressionism, and it
the other hand, wanted to theorize express activity and feelings of joy, essentially died out with no
everything about his art to create a whereas downward-moving lines further advancements being made
“formula” for painting. In a dramatic and cooler colors would express upon his death in 1891. Neo-
contrast to the Impressionists, he stillness and melancholy. This was Impressionism did tangentially
was more interested in using the not “new” theory when Seurat lead to other artistic movements,
contemporary science available to was experimenting with it—it such as Post-Impressionism (think
him to create something enduring, had been around informally and Picasso and Van Gogh) and the
rather than focusing on the fleeting without formula for centuries—but avant garde. It would have a
moment. his attempt to create rules about passing influence on other artists
the movements of lines and colors such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Using Rood’s theories of light speaks to his attempt to approach and Paul Gauguin.
and complementary color, Seurat painting from a completely
developed his own painting scientific standpoint for optimal — Emily Gustafson, currently an intern in the
theories. Rood believed that results. Literary Department
placing contrasting colors next to
each other resulted in a genuine Seurat met Paul Signac, a student
mélange optique (optical mixing) of the Impressionist school, in 1884

14 \ GUTHRIE THEATER
 CULTURAL CONTEXT

ELEMENTS AND Balance. Light. And harmony.” mix of a primary and secondary.
PRINCIPLES OF ART (George, act one) Complementary colors are directly
mentioned by the Georges across from each other on the color
(and Jules) in the play Order wheel [next page] and contrast
Arrangement, often methodical; well because they have no common
Design related to composition. colors.
The creative idea or plan the artist “Color and light. / There’s only
intends to execute in a work of art; Tone color and light.” (George, act one)
conveys intentionality and creation The lightness or darkness of an
(to design – an action) in addition object. Seurat’s black Conté crayon Perspective
to the way components are put drawings create forms through Putting objects on a two-
together (the design – a thing). layers of tone – more crayon is dimensional surface so they convey
darker, less is lighter and a form is a sense of proportion, position and
Composition distinguished only through light distance which relates to how they
The way a work of art is organized, and dark (not line or color). Tone would look in three dimensions.
arranged or structured to provide can also refer to color (light or Jules is also referring to Seurat’s
to the viewer with the most clarity dark) and can relate to hue (the ability to look at the canvas with
the information the artist wants to spectrum of red, yellow, green, enough distance to be able to
convey. blue, etc.). A warm or cool tone evaluate the painting’s perspective.
relates to hue; a dark or light tone “It is so large. How can you get any
Balance refers to brightness. perspective?” (Jules, act one)
The way the various elements
of art – line, shape, form, color, Form Tension
etc. – are distributed in a work of A shape that conveys three- Cnflict created by the interplay of
art, ideally conveying a feeling dimensionality (ball vs. circle). Can the various elements of art, keeping
of equilibrium or stability. Can be be geometrical or free-flowing. the piece interesting. Tension
symmetrical (similar on both sides), might be created by the pairing of
asymmetrical (different on each Symmetry opposites (hard-soft, straight-curvy,
side but still feels balanced) or An element of balance in which light-dark, loud-soft, big-small,
radial (arranged around a central elements are placed with exact or good-evil). Tension can complicate
point). similar distribution on opposite a viewer’s reaction to the art, which
parts. is good, and keeps it from being
Light “Order. Design. Composition. boring. Neutral compositions lack
Light triggers the ability to see, Tone. Form. Symmetry. Balance.” tension and are therefore often dull.
reveals texture, form and contour, (George, act one) “Order. Design. Tension. Balance.
affects the quality and value of Harmony.” (George, act one)
color. Through pointillism (the Color
technique of applying paint in dots) The constituents into which light — Carla Steen, production dramaturg
and divisionism (applying colors can be divided in a spectrum or
separately onto the canvas so they rainbow. White is pure light; black
mix optically upon viewing), Seurat is the absence of light. Color as
hoped to capture in paint the an element of art is composed of
luminosity, vibration and brilliance hue, value and intensity. Hue is the
of light as seen in nature. name of the color (red, blue, yellow,
green, etc.). Value, like tone, relates
Harmony to how light or dark it is – the hue
Combining the elements of changes with the addition of white
art so they work together and or black. And intensity is the quality
complement each other to form of brightness or dullness.
a consistent and orderly whole. Primary colors (red, yellow, blue)
“When paintings are done right, are the only true colors. Everything
harmony appears by itself,” said is a mix of those three.
Cezanne. Secondary colors are a mix of two
“Through design. Composition. primary colors. Tertiary colors are a

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 15
PARIS IN THE 1880S new Assembly was dominated by service was established. In 1878,
conservative royalists. Republicans the Republic held an International
During the Second Empire (1852- in Paris feared the monarchy Exposition that proved vastly
1870), Paris underwent substantial would be restored and objected more successful than the previous
urban renewal. Boulevards were to the dishonorable terms of the two held in the country under the
widened, streetlamps added (to subsequent treaty with Germany. Orleans monarchy and Second
create the “city of lights”), new So a rebel faction established – Empire. In 1879, the capital was
aqueducts and sewers built, the through city elections and control moved from Versailles back to
Louvre was completed, six major of the National Guard’s cannons in Paris.
railway stations constructed, the city – yet another government
many suburbs were annexed to called the Paris Commune During the 1880s, when Seurat
the city proper, huge parks were which hearkened back to the was most actively painting, the
built, and more. The population revolutionary ideals of 1789. The government was under the control
boomed, though most of the Versailles government put down of a moderate and cautious branch
newcomers settled in first-ring the Commune in what is now called of republicans. Free, secular,
suburbs because the city center “the Week of Blood,” in which mandatory primary education
itself lost substantial housing to 20,000 or more Parisians were for boys and girls to age 13 was
these changes. By 1869, the major killed (compared to 2,600 in Paris established, suffrage was given to
cities of France were connected during the 16-month Reign of Terror all men (not women), and French
by rail, the production of coal, in the previous century). Parts colonialism created the beginnings
iron and steel boomed, and the of the city were burned by both of the French empire. Secondary
financial system was overhauled sides, and a particular bourgeois- school, such as the art school
and stabilized. proletariat divide was revealed. Seurat attended, remained largely a
The fall of the Paris Commune also bourgeois opportunity, but in 1880
In 1870, the Second Empire wiped out the major leaders of the the first secondary schools for girls
collapsed, in part because of the socialist and labor factions and were established.
Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). left the working class feeling more
Hoping to secure South German alienated than before; this vacuum Army activity during the 1880s
states as part of a united Germany, was filled by Marxists in the 1880s, included military support for
Prussian chancellor Otto von which culminated in the founding in ongoing colonization, specifically
Bismarck provoked France into 1889 of the Second International (or using Algeria as a base to
declaring war. Sure enough, the Socialist International), a federation make expeditions into Tunisia,
southern states saw France as the of socialist parties and trade unions the exploration of Congo and
aggressor and came to Prussia’s that shaped the labor movement its subsequent establishment
aid. Emperor Napoleon III thought until World War I. as a French protectorate, and
the recently reorganized French expansion of French control in
army could defeat the Prussians, France’s defeat by Prussia meant Vietnam so that by 1883 the French
but France was slow to mobilize it was no longer the dominant protectorates of Tonkin and Annam
and disorganized. The primary power in Europe; Germany joined the already-established
fighting lasted less than two completed its unification, including French colony around Saigon.
months, and Napoleon surrendered the annexation of Alsace and In 1881, new laws secured liberties
in early September. But a resistance half of Lorraine from France. restricted by old Empire laws:
movement in Paris declared the But the Third Republic was cafes and bars could be opened
emperor deposed, established a established, and after some fits (previously they’d been subject
republic (the Third) and carried and starts as monarchists and to the whim of local officials),
on fighting. The Prussians began republicans continued to grapple and these businesses became
a siege of Paris and the city finally for control, a new constitution hangouts for political discussions
surrendered in January 1871. was adopted in 1875, creating a and meetings, such as those
The peace terms included plans two-house legislature, council of Seurat attended for the Society
to elect a new French National ministers and a president. With of Independent Artists. Public
Assembly in Versailles (so there this new government in place, the assembly and freedom of the press
would be a government to National Assembly was dissolved. were also enacted in law. In 1884,
negotiate the treaty, among other Industrialization flourished divorce and trade unions were
things; this also moved the capital (captured in some of Seurat’s also legalized. But laborers still
from Paris to Versailles), but the paintings) and a professional civil had to carry the “worker passport”

16 \ GUTHRIE THEATER
enacted in 1803, which had to be republican system, in place since
presented like a travel document 1870, which had kept both royalists
and effectively could control the and Bonapartists at bay. Gustave
movement and schedule of the Eiffel won a contest to design a
working class. monument to mark the occasion,
and between 1887 and 1889, his
In 1883, the final Bourbon claimant 300-meter tower of iron was
to the throne died, and in 1886 constructed.
members of the remaining former
ruling families – Bonaparte and — Carla Steen, production dramaturg
Orleans – were banished from
France. In 1889, Paris hosted its
fourth International Exposition,
which was to celebrate the
100th anniversary of the French
Revolution and to celebrate the

The cast of the Guthrie Theater’s production of Sunday in the Park with George

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 17
 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For Further Understanding

BY STEPHEN SONDHEIM ABOUT IMPRESSIONISM /
AND JAMES LAPINE NEO-IMPRESSIONISM

Look, I Made a Hat by Stephen Impressionism, Fashion &

Sondheim Modernity edited by Gloria Groom
Twelve Dreams by James Lapine Neo-Impressionism by Robert L.
Table Settings by James Lapine Herbert
Into the Woods by James Lapine
and Stephen Sondheim FRANCE
Passion by James Lapine and
Stephen Sondheim France Since 1870 by Charles
Sowerwine
Eiffel’s Tower by Jill Jonnes
ABOUT STEPHEN SONDHEIM Third Republic in France 1870-1940
by William Fortescue
Art Isn’t Easy: The Theater of Paris, Capital of Modernity by
Stephen Sondheim by Joanne David Harvey
Gordon
Sondheim & Co. by Craig Zadan ABOUT MODERN ART
Sondheim by Meryle Secrest
Sondheim on Music: Minor Details What Are You Looking At?
and Major Decisions by Mark Eden The Surprising, Shocking and
Horowitz Sometimes Strange Story of
150 Years of Modern Art by Will
Gompertz
ABOUT GEORGES SEURAT “The Most Iconic Artists of
the 1980s,” by George Philip
Seurat by Richard Thomson Lebourdais, Artsy, August 17, 2015
Georges Seurat: 1859-1891 by
Robert L. Herbert
Seurat catalog from Kröller-Müller
Museum
Georges Seurat by John Rewald
Seurat: A Biography by John
Rewald
Seurat in Perspective edited by
Norma Broude

ABOUT “SUNDAY
AFTERNOON ON THE ISLAND
OF LA GRANDE JATTE”

Seurat and the Making of La

Grande Jatte by Robert L. Herbert

18 \ GUTHRIE THEATER