GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The studies leading up to Seurat's great masterpiece Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte (1884-86) constitute a review of this artist's crucial stylistic evolution during the first half of the 1880s. Early preparatory works exhibit the lush, loosely woven brushwork and bright but earthy colors he derived from Impressionism, while later, more finished studies show the methodically stippled brushmarks, highly organized forms, and more scientific application of color characteristic of Neo-Impressionism. Grassy Riverbank from the Reves Collection was created in 1882, two years before work began on the Grande Jatte, but it nevertheless may have played a role in the development of that later picture, as originally recognized by Daniel Catton Rich in his book Seurat and the Evolution of "La Grande Jatte" (Chicago, 1935). The topographical composition matches closely that of certain early studies for the Grande Jatte, with a diagonal riverbank that comprises more than a third of the picture overlapping a triangular slice of water, beyond which is seen a thin band of green landscape. Across the top, leaves from overarching trees frame the distant river perspective. In the Grande Jatte, of course, Seurat populated the foreground with an array of Parisians enjoying a Sunday outing. It is interesting, however, that already in this early sketch one finds a progression of trees somewhat similar to the pattern in the final picture, where there is also an echo of the thin trunk found here to the left of center. Of further note is the stylized S-shape trunk of one of the trees at the right, which is reincarnated in several later studies.
Whatever its role in other compositional schemes, this picture stands on its own as a fresh and vividly worked outdoor sketch. Fully typical of Seurat's style at the time are the combed and cross-hatched brushmarks that pull several tones together for luminosity and visual excitement. Here, the broad treatment of greens in the foreground contrasts with the smoother horizontal stroking in the glistening water and the delicately tinted blue and pink sky. An element that cannot be adequately revealed by any reproduction is the use of purple and blue highlights in the tree trunks and foliage to give shadows greater liveliness. In the severed trunk along the left edge we see a device that Seurat was fond of using, either with a figure or tree, as a kind of spatial anchor or proscenium. Croppings and simplifications of this sort typify his efforts to render the structural order underlying natural appearance.
Adapted from
Robert V. Rozelle, ed. The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1985), 119.
NOTES
Created 1881-1882
The first owner of this mysterious small landscape by Georges Seurat was the famed critic, theorist, and dealer Félix Fénéon, who must have admired its equipoise between the landscape aesthetics of the impressionists, with their love of atmosphere, and the more rigorous pictorial construction of the post-impressionists, of whom Cézanne was the most accomplished. Most scholars have dated the painting to 1881-1882, that is, early in the progressive and developmental career of Seurat. Before conceiving of the large-scale canvases that secured his permanent place in the canon of French painting, Seurat made this painting as an independent study of light, reflection, and vegetation in the Parisian suburbs. Daniel Catton Rich, who included this canvas in his landmark Seurat exhibition, held at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1935, considered it to be the first landscape study painting by Seurat on the island of the Grande Jatte (Rich 1935, 60), where he worked obsessively in the summers of 1884 and 1885. However, no real evidence supports this theory, and the picture is generic enough in its subject that it could have been painted in many parts of the western suburbs of Paris frequented by Seurat.
Unlike the vast majority of landscape studies by the artist, the Reves example was painted on canvas, which Seurat prepared with a white ground and worked with relatively large brushes to give structure to the composition. After attaining a certain order in the composition and achieving the effects of light and color he sought, Seurat worked "into" the surface with smaller brushes, in the manner of Corot, giving life to the foliage with dancing strokes. There is no evidence in this canvas of his interest in the scientific theories of color that were to dominate his art several years later. Instead, every chromatic element in the picture can easily be found in impressionist painting. But when we compare it to earlier landscapes by Monet, Renoir, Sisley, or Pissarro, the eerie loneliness and social isolation of Seurat's aesthetic come into sharp relief. In Seurat's pictorial universe of 1881-1882, there are no strollers, no boaters, no delightful children running along the river. Instead, the viewer is encouraged by the composition of the painting to "become" the painter, hidden in a quiet field of long grass, far from the prying eyes of Parisians, working methodically to set down his sensations on a small canvas. It is almost as if we made these brushstrokes ourselves and could alter them with the slightest effort. Yet, for all the immediacy of its touch and directness of its methods, the painting remains mysterious, and even after lengthy analysis, we know a good deal more about the art of painting and very little about the painter. This air of mystery has always been an essential element of Seurat's aesthetic.
Richard Brettell, Impressionist Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection (Dallas Museum of Art, 1995), 79.
Geography listed as France because unsure of whether it's western Paris or the Île of La Grande Jatte.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Seurat, Georges (French, 1859-1891)
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location and place of origin: France (nation): TGN: 1000070
Depicted location: Seine River (France): TGN: 7009707
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
French Landscape Painting from Realism to Post-Impressionism, Nicole Myers 267025377: UMO
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- Guggenheim, New York~Learn more about the life and work of Georges Seurat.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York~Learn more about Georges Seurat and Neo-Impressionism from the Met.
- Khan Academy~Watch this video about Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884-86.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1985.R.68
Category
rules_operator
AND
General Description
The studies leading up to Seurat's great masterpiece Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte (1884-86) constitute a review of this artist's crucial stylistic evolution during the first half of the 1880s. Early preparatory works exhibit the lush, loosely woven brushwork and bright but earthy colors he derived from Impressionism, while later, more finished studies show the methodically stippled brushmarks, highly organized forms, and more scientific application of color characteristic of Neo-Impressionism. Grassy Riverbank from the Reves Collection was created in 1882, two years before work began on the Grande Jatte, but it nevertheless may have played a role in the development of that later picture, as originally recognized by Daniel Catton Rich in his book Seurat and the Evolution of "La Grande Jatte" (Chicago, 1935). The topographical composition matches closely that of certain early studies for the Grande Jatte, with a diagonal riverbank that comprises more than a third of the picture overlapping a triangular slice of water, beyond which is seen a thin band of green landscape. Across the top, leaves from overarching trees frame the distant river perspective. In the Grande Jatte, of course, Seurat populated the foreground with an array of Parisians enjoying a Sunday outing. It is interesting, however, that already in this early sketch one finds a progression of trees somewhat similar to the pattern in the final picture, where there is also an echo of the thin trunk found here to the left of center. Of further note is the stylized S-shape trunk of one of the trees at the right, which is reincarnated in several later studies.
Whatever its role in other compositional schemes, this picture stands on its own as a fresh and vividly worked outdoor sketch. Fully typical of Seurat's style at the time are the combed and cross-hatched brushmarks that pull several tones together for luminosity and visual excitement. Here, the broad treatment of greens in the foreground contrasts with the smoother horizontal stroking in the glistening water and the delicately tinted blue and pink sky. An element that cannot be adequately revealed by any reproduction is the use of purple and blue highlights in the tree trunks and foliage to give shadows greater liveliness. In the severed trunk along the left edge we see a device that Seurat was fond of using, either with a figure or tree, as a kind of spatial anchor or proscenium. Croppings and simplifications of this sort typify his efforts to render the structural order underlying natural appearance.
Adapted from
Robert V. Rozelle, ed. The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1985), 119.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- Guggenheim, New York~Learn more about the life and work of Georges Seurat.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York~Learn more about Georges Seurat and Neo-Impressionism from the Met.
- Khan Academy~Watch this video about Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884-86.
Notes
Created 1881-1882
The first owner of this mysterious small landscape by Georges Seurat was the famed critic, theorist, and dealer Félix Fénéon, who must have admired its equipoise between the landscape aesthetics of the impressionists, with their love of atmosphere, and the more rigorous pictorial construction of the post-impressionists, of whom Cézanne was the most accomplished. Most scholars have dated the painting to 1881-1882, that is, early in the progressive and developmental career of Seurat. Before conceiving of the large-scale canvases that secured his permanent place in the canon of French painting, Seurat made this painting as an independent study of light, reflection, and vegetation in the Parisian suburbs. Daniel Catton Rich, who included this canvas in his landmark Seurat exhibition, held at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1935, considered it to be the first landscape study painting by Seurat on the island of the Grande Jatte (Rich 1935, 60), where he worked obsessively in the summers of 1884 and 1885. However, no real evidence supports this theory, and the picture is generic enough in its subject that it could have been painted in many parts of the western suburbs of Paris frequented by Seurat.
Unlike the vast majority of landscape studies by the artist, the Reves example was painted on canvas, which Seurat prepared with a white ground and worked with relatively large brushes to give structure to the composition. After attaining a certain order in the composition and achieving the effects of light and color he sought, Seurat worked "into" the surface with smaller brushes, in the manner of Corot, giving life to the foliage with dancing strokes. There is no evidence in this canvas of his interest in the scientific theories of color that were to dominate his art several years later. Instead, every chromatic element in the picture can easily be found in impressionist painting. But when we compare it to earlier landscapes by Monet, Renoir, Sisley, or Pissarro, the eerie loneliness and social isolation of Seurat's aesthetic come into sharp relief. In Seurat's pictorial universe of 1881-1882, there are no strollers, no boaters, no delightful children running along the river. Instead, the viewer is encouraged by the composition of the painting to "become" the painter, hidden in a quiet field of long grass, far from the prying eyes of Parisians, working methodically to set down his sensations on a small canvas. It is almost as if we made these brushstrokes ourselves and could alter them with the slightest effort. Yet, for all the immediacy of its touch and directness of its methods, the painting remains mysterious, and even after lengthy analysis, we know a good deal more about the art of painting and very little about the painter. This air of mystery has always been an essential element of Seurat's aesthetic.
Richard Brettell, Impressionist Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection (Dallas Museum of Art, 1995), 79.
Geography listed as France because unsure of whether it's western Paris or the Île of La Grande Jatte.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Seurat, Georges (French, 1859-1891)
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location and place of origin: France (nation): TGN: 1000070
Depicted location: Seine River (France): TGN: 7009707
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
French Landscape Painting from Realism to Post-Impressionism, Nicole Myers 267025377: UMO
VIDEO ASSETS
rules
Apply To
Objects
number
Equals
1985.R.68
source file
object_notes_2_a-0131.xml.nores