Bathers (Study for "Bathers at Asnières")

1883/1884

Georges Seurat

Artist, French, 1859 - 1891

A grassy riverbank cuts across the lower left corner of this painting, in front of a river that fills most of this horizonal landscape. The scene is loosely painted with visible, sometimes thick, brushstrokes mostly in tones of ivory white, sky, denim, and cobalt blue, and spring green. Much of the detail, especially in the people’s faces, is indistinct. The people all appear to have light, peach-colored skin. Three people sit along the steep riverbank, which is indicated with a triangle of asparagus and sage greens. The person to our left wears a marine-blue shirt and a navy-blue cap. The person at the center of this trio sits with their back to us, wearing a dark, plum-purple garment and cap. The third person, closest to us, sits with knees bent, facing the river, wearing a white shirt, black pants, and a navy-blue cap. A small patch of asparagus green farther up the left edge of the composition suggests that the riverbank extends into the distance, and a swipe of dark blue paint could be another person sitting there. The river is painted with horizontal, visible strokes of blue, pea green, tan, and a few touches of petal pink. Three people stand in the water near the bank. Two of them are bare-chested, and one is in the water up to the chin. The head and neck of a white horse wearing a dark bridle enters the scene in the lower right corner, presumably wading in the water. An area stretching across the right half of the composition on the far side of the river reads as trees, but is painted with criss-crossing strokes of moss green, azure blue, and a few touches of burgundy red. One sailboat near the trees and another farther out, to our left, are each created with a vertical stroke of white over a dark smudge to represent the boat. To our left of the trees, there are horizontal bands of pale, butter yellow, blush pink, and baby blue where the river meets the sky, about three-quarters of the way up the composition. The sky is painted with diagonal, criss-crossing strokes of pale mint green, ice blue, and shell pink.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 88


Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Georges Renand [1879-1968], at least in 1965.[1] Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia; bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to his wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon [1910-2014].
[1] Renand, a director of the French department store La Samaritaine, lent the painting to a 1965 exhibition in Chartres. The painting did not appear in any of the four sales of Renand's collection (Hôtel Drouot, Paris: 20 November 1987, and 15 March, 31 May, and 13 December, all 1988).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1965

  • Caillebotte et ses amis Impressionnistes (Cezanne, Manet, Sisley, Renoir...), Musée de Chartres, 1965, no. 38, repro.

Bibliography

1991

  • Grenier, Catherine. Seurat: Catalogue complet des peintures. Paris, 1991: 57, no. 89, repro.

2014

  • Kelly, Franklin. "A Lasting Legacy: The Completion of an Unparalleled Gift." National Gallery of Art Bulletin no. 51 (Fall 2014): 13, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20189581


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