Georges Seurat

Seurat, Georges Pierre

French, 1859 - 1891

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French painter (1859-1891)

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This horizontal, rectangular painting is created entirely with dots and touches of sky and royal blue, butter and sunshine yellow, and spring green. From afar, we realize it shows a sandy dune stretching before us in front of the sea beyond. Bands of blue against a yellow field above the horizon read as blue clouds against a sunny sky. The artist also painted a darker border made of dots in navy blue, army green, and a little bit of rust orange around the edge to create a painted frame.
Georges Seurat, Seascape (Gravelines), 1890, oil on wood, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2012.89.8

Seascape (Gravelines)

Georges Seurat · 1890 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  2012.89.8

Green hills roll back to a turquoise-blue sea in this almost square painting. The scene is built with layers of small dots in lavender, lilac, cool blue, warm green, yellow, and peach. The hill angles from nearly the top left corner of the canvas to the lower right, filling the bottom left half of the canvas. It is mostly variegated shades of green but there are two cliff-like, purple surfaces to our left and a lighter patch of yellow to our right. A pole and a cross-shaped structure atop the hill to the left could be utility poles. An object on the water in the distance to our right may be a buoy or a boat. Peach lines the horizon, which comes just over halfway up the composition, and straw yellow and cornflower blue ripple across the sky above.
Georges Seurat, Seascape at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy, 1888, oil on canvas, Gift of the W. Averell Harriman Foundation in memory of Marie N. Harriman, 1972.9.21

Seascape at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy

Georges Seurat · 1888 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1972.9.21

Georges Seurat, Study after "The Models", 1888, pen and brown ink over graphite on wove paper, The Armand Hammer Collection, 1991.217.69

Study after "The Models"

Georges Seurat · 1888 · pen and brown ink over graphite on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1991.217.69

Painted entirely with small dots of pure color mostly in slate and azure blue, olive green, and cream white, this scene shows a sandy beach stretching to a lighthouse at the center and a four-story building to our right in this horizontal seascape. The tall, slender lighthouse standing on the water’s edge a short distance from us is painted with specks of azure and sky blue, ivory, and peach. In the distance to our left, a pier stretches into the sea along the horizon, which comes about two-thirds of the way up this composition. A sailboat floats just off the pier, near the left edge of the painting. To our right of the lighthouse and extending off the right edge of the canvas, the building has three levels of windows and a row of dormers along the tall, peaked roof. The building is painted with touches of dove gray, sapphire blue, and pale pink. In front of the building and to our right, a denim-blue shed has a tangerine-orange roof. A wooden rowboat outlined in cornflower blue with flecks of dandelion yellow rests on the sand next to the shed. In front of us, dots of moss green blend into the blond tones of the sand, creating an impression of grass on the beach. Sunlight shimmers on the sea to our left, which is painted with short dashes of mint and seafoam green, baby blue, cream, and shell pink, beneath a clear, ice-blue sky.
Georges Seurat, The Lighthouse at Honfleur, 1886, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983.1.33

The Lighthouse at Honfleur

Georges Seurat · 1886 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1983.1.33

This horizontal landscape is painted with dots and dashes in fresh green, shimmering blue, amethyst purple, shell pink, pale yellow, and cream white against the brown wood of the panel, which is visible throughout. Though loosely painted, a scene with a grassy area hemmed to our left and along the back with a body of water comes into focus. A person sits near the bank to our left. Daubs in violet could be more people walking in the near distance among trees. An arc of white suggests a sailboat near the shoreline off to our left. The artist signed the painting in red in the lower left, “Seurat.”
Georges Seurat, Study for "La Grande Jatte", 1884/1885, oil on wood, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.81

Study for "La Grande Jatte"

Georges Seurat · 1884/1885 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  1970.17.81

Georges Seurat, Study of Figures for "La Grande Jatte", 1884/1885, oil on wood, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.57

Study of Figures for "La Grande Jatte"

Georges Seurat · 1884/1885 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  2014.18.57

Georges Seurat, A Summer Landscape, 1883, oil on wood, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.52

A Summer Landscape

Georges Seurat · 1883 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  2014.18.52

Georges Seurat, Figures in a Landscape, c. 1883, oil on wood, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.53

Figures in a Landscape

Georges Seurat · c. 1883 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  2014.18.53

Georges Seurat, The Seine with Clothing on the Bank (Study for "Bathers at Asnières"), 1883/1884, oil on wood, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.56

The Seine with Clothing on the Bank (Study for "Bathers at Asnières")

Georges Seurat · 1883/1884 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  2014.18.56

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.
Georges Seurat, Bathers (Study for "Bathers at Asnières"), 1883/1884, oil on wood, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.54

Bathers (Study for "Bathers at Asnières")

Georges Seurat · 1883/1884 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  2014.18.54