In contrast to the earlier works analyzed in this narrative, the characters in La Chahut are lively, even cartoonish, in their facial expression and bodily gestures. We are reminded of the event posters that were popular amidst the streets of Paris at the time. The color palette is predominately a range from orange to golden-brown, with a complementary dark blue of the ever-present bass violinist. The line of dancers merge and become more a collective whole than individual figures. From below, the scene is completed by the band and its leader, the audience fading into the background.

The critic Gustav Kahn noted what some considered a veiled commentary on Parisian society -- the "beautiful dancer, this glory of a modest fairy" with the "ugly onlooker" in the lower right-hand corner as a "contemporary disgrace." (Duchting, page 67)

Seurat died of meningitis in 1891, just short of his thirty-second birthday. So guarded was his privacy, that only after he died was it known even to friends, that he left behind a common-law wife and a son.

If we look closely at a color television screen, we can see the interplay of a continuous flow of red, green, and blue dots, changing in light and shade with the larger movement on the screen. The technology cannot be attributed to the "quiet experimenter," but it surely identifies with him -- as if Seurat continues to "make a point" in the present day.

FINI