May 15, 1886: "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" Debuts

May 15, 1886: An exhibition of Impressionist Art begins at 1 Rue Laffitte in Paris. Among the paintings displayed is Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte -- which translates to "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Big Bowl" -- by Georges Seurat.

Georges Pierre Seurat was born on December 2, 1859 in Paris. He devised the painting techniques known as chromolumaniarism and pointillism, and used Conté crayons for drawings on paper with a rough surface.

He completed la Grande Jatte in 1884, and it became a sensation with this exhibition, and another in August of that year. He died in Paris on March 29, 1891, only 31 years old. The cause has never been determined. To make matters worse, his son died just 2 weeks later. To make matters worse still, his wife Madeleine was pregnant, and that child died shortly after birth.

So Seurat has no known descendants. This fact was ignored for the 1984 musical Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. In Act I, it tells a fictionalized story of the painting's creation. Act II takes place in the present day, and is about Seurat's fictional great-grandson, also a painter named George. In the original Broadway production, both roles were played by Mandy Patinkin. Because of the musical, the painting is often erroneously called "Sunday in the Park."

The original painting is now in the Art Institute of Chicago. In the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ferris (played by Matthew Broderick), Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) and Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck) visit the Art Institute, and Cameron fixates on the painting, with the camera getting closer and closer on the face of the little girl in the middle, next to the woman with the red umbrella (presumably, her mother), until there's only Seurat's dots shown.

As with many other notable works of art, this painting has been parodied many times.

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May 15, 1886 was -- no, not a Sunday, a Saturday. The poet Emily Dickinson died on this day, at her home in Amherst, Massachusetts, from the kidney disorder Bright's disease, at the age of 55.

In North America at the time, the only professional sport was baseball. Two games were played in the National League:

* The Detroit Wolverines beat the Boston Beaneaters, 9-2 at Recreation Park in Detroit. The Wolverines won the Pennant in 1887, but folded after just 1 more season. The Beaneaters went through a few name changes, finally becoming the Braves in 1912, moving to Milwaukee in 1953, and then to Atlanta in 1966.

* And the Philadelphia Quakers beat the St. Louis Maroons, 13-5 at an early version of Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The Maroons folded after the 1889 season. The Quakers became the Phillies in 1890.

And there were 2 games in the American Association:

* The Louisville Colonels beat the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, 6-2 at Recreation Park in Pittsburgh. The Alleghenys joined the NL the next year, and changed their name to the Pirates in 1891. Because of the league switch, the present-day Pirates consider 1887, not 1882, their founding date. The Colonels joined the NL in 1892, but were bought by the Pirates after the 1899, and contracted out of the NL.

* And the Cincinnati Red Stockings beat the St. Louis Browns, 8-2 at American Park in Cincinnati. The Red Stockings became the Reds in 1890, and the Browns became the Cardinals in 1900. Both teams joined the NL in 1892.