Figures in a Landscape, c. 1883

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 88

Medium

oil on wood

Dimensions

overall: 15.24 × 24.77 cm (6 × 9 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

2014.18.53

Artists / Makers

Georges Seurat (artist) French, 1859 - 1891

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower right, artist's cachet: SEURAT

Provenance

The artist [1857-1891], until his death.[1] (Bernheim-Jeune, Paris), in 1908.[2] (Heim, Paris). (Wildenstein, New York). Duncan MacDonald [d. 1949], London. (Alex Reid & Lefevre, London), in 1949.[3] William A. Cargill [d. 1962], Carruth, Bridge of Weir, Scotland; (his estate sale, Sotheby's, London, 11 June 1963, no. 43); purchased by (Acciarri) for (Hector Brame, Paris) for Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia; bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to his wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon [1910-2014].

[1] Atelier Seurat, posthumous inventory, no. 52.

[2] Retrospective Georges Seurat, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1908-1909, no. 33.

[3] The 1963 Cargill sale catalogue lists Duncan MacDonald and Lefevre Gallery as the last two owners of the painting prior to Cargill. MacDonald was a director of Reid & Lefevre, first in Glasgow and then in London, from about 1926 until his death. It is not yet known whether MacDonald owned the painting privately, or whether he acquired it as stock for the gallery. It was shown in the exhibition Nineteeth Century French Masters at Lefevre Gallery, London, in 1949, where it was no. 37, titled La Promenade.

Associated Names

Bernheim-Jeune
Brame, Hector
Cargill, William A.
MacDonald, Duncan
Mellon, Paul
Reid & Lefèvre, Ltd, Alex
Seurat, Georges
Sotheby's
Wildenstein & Co., Inc.

Exhibition History

1908: Rétrospective Georges Seurat, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1908-1909, no. 33.

1935: Twenty-Four Paintings and Drawings by Georges Seurat, The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, 1935, no. 1.

1937: Seurat and His Contemporaries, Wildenstein & Co., London, 1937, no. 44.

1938: Artists Who Died Young, Leicester Galleries, London, 1938, no. 33.

1944: Possibly Constable to Cezanne, Wildenstein & Co., London, 1944, no. 8, as Four Figures in a Landscape.

1949: Nineteeth Century French Masters, Lefevre Gallery, London, 1949, no. 37, as La Promenade.

Bibliography

1959: Dorra, Henri, and John Rewald. Seurat, l'oeuvre peint, biographie et catalogue critique. Paris, 1959: no. 74, repro.