La Grande Jatte

The Ile de la Jatte or Île de la Grande Jatte is an island in the river Seine, located in the department of Hauts-de-Seine, and shared between the two communes of Neuilly-sur-Seine and Levallois. It is situated at the very gates of Paris, being 7 km distant (in a straight line) from the towers of Notre Dame and 3 km from the Place de l'Étoile. The island is nearly 2 km long and almost 200 m wide at its widest point, and has about 4,000 inhabitants. Its name translates as "Island of the Bowl" or "Island of the Big Bowl".

It is best known as the setting for Georges Seurat's pointillist oil painting, Un Dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte) (1884-6 and 1889), and also for the Stephen Sondheim musical, Sunday in the Park with George.

In 1818, the Duke of Orléans, Louis-Philippe, acquired the Château de Neuilly to house his family of ten children. He bought the land and created a park which included the island, reachable only by boat. He also moved the Temple de Mars (Temple of Mars), which his father had commissioned, from Parc Monceau, and put it on the northern point of the island, converting it into the Temple de l’amour (Temple of Love). It was moved to the southern end of the island in 1930.

Between 1850 and 1870, Napoléon III and Baron Haussmann further modified the island, and artists began painting there. At the end of the 19th century the island became known for its painters, especially the impressionists. In addition to Georges Seurat, artist such as Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Alfred Sisley, Charles Angrand, and Albert Gleizes painted scenes of the island.

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