Free Printable
A Closer Look: Seurat’s ‘Sunday on La Grande Jatte’
Free printable mini-lesson about Georges Seurat. Who was he? How did he work? How long did it take to finish his most famous painting?
Prints to US Letter. Choose Save as PDF in the print dialog to keep a copy.
The Printable
A Rigamaroo Printable
Who Was Georges Seurat?
He made one of the most famous paintings in the world, and only lived to be 31.
The Short Version
- Georges was born in Paris in 1859 and lived there nearly all his life.
- He trained as an artist, and spent his time reading science books about color theory and how the human eye interprets color.
- When you look closely at his paintings, you’ll notice thousands of separate little marks of paint.
- He liked to plan. A big painting began as a pile of small ones.
- He died in 1891, when he was thirty-one.
Art Institute of Chicago. Public Domain.
About This Painting
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884
- La Grande Jatte is a real island in the River Seine, on the edge of Paris. On Sundays, people often went there to get away from the bustling city.
- The painting is enormous — nearly 7 feet tall and just over 10 feet wide. Find a tape measure and mark that out on the floor.
- He began the painting in 1884 and finished it in 1886, adding more and more figures along the way. Can you spy the monkey on a leash?
- Years later, Georges painted a border of dots onto the edge of the canvas, giving the piece its own painted frame.
- A Sunday on La Grande Jatte has been displayed in the Art Institute of Chicago since 1924, where you can still go visit it today!
Before You Turn The Page
Look hard at the oil painting above, then look at the finished painting on the next page. Some people are in both. Some are only in the final edition. See if you can spot the differences!
© 2026 Rigamaroo · text and design. Artwork public domain. Free to print for home or classroom use — please share the link, not the file.
A Rigamaroo Printable
Seek And Find
Seurat spent two whole years on this painting. Circle each item on the list below as you find it.
Can You Find Them All
Fifteen things
- A monkey on a leash
- A big black dog
- A little orange dog
- A white sailboat
- A steamboat puffing smoke
- A man blowing a horn
- Two soldiers in uniform
- A lady fishing with a long rod
- A girl in white looking right at you
- A man lying down with a pipe
- A tiny orange butterfly
- A bunch of picked flowers
- A rowing boat with people in it
- A gentleman’s walking stick
- The biggest orange parasol
How many dogs did you find?
How many parasols can you count?
© 2026 Rigamaroo · text and design. Artwork public domain. Free to print for home or classroom use — please share the link, not the file.
What’s Coming
The Paris Unit Study
Spend two (real or imaginary) weeks in Paris, and let Rigamaroo be your guide. This Seek & Find is just one page of a complete unit study learning history and art through the lens of the City of Light and Love.
Get Rigamaroo’s list of what to read, what to watch, and what to make. Your students will learn all about Paris through five threads:
- Monet and the Water Lilies
- The Louvre and the Mona Lisa
- The Seine and the curious snail spiral of Paris
- How Paris was built
- A look at some of the biggest moments in French history
- Plus, download a printable kids’ travel journal for students to fill in as they learn — a reading log, watch log, copywork, French vocabulary of the day, and a cut-and-glue flip book of five famous places in Paris.
- Learn a bit of currency conversion, color a map of all twenty arrondissements, and get a printable Rigamaroo passport to document your travels.
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