Seurat's tranquil and luminous view extends from the island of the Grande Jatte, framed by trees, to the red-roofed houses of the Parisian suburb of Asnières or Courbevoie across the Seine. The work, along with two related paintings of 1886–88, may be seen as a glorious postscript to the artist's ambitious compositions celebrating this stretch of the Seine: the Bathers at Asnières of 1884 (National Gallery, London) and A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte of 1886 (Art Institute of Chicago).

Returning to the riverbanks to paint landscape motifs, Seurat sought "to transcribe most exactly the vivid outdoor clarity [of nature] in all its nuances" using a technique known as Divisionism (also called Pointillism). In Gray Weather, Grande Jatte, he evoked, through the discriminating juxtaposition of small, discrete touches of pigment—from the rich blues and greens of the foliage to the oranges and lavenders of the sandy shore—the distinctive cast of colors bathed in the moist, gray light of a cloudy day. The overall effect—aptly described by critic Jules Christophe as "calm and gentle, with a harmonious placement of grays [and] peaceful tonalities"—was enhanced by the painted border, added shortly before it was first exhibited in 1889.