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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

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 88

Medium

oil on wood

Dimensions

overall (inner panel): 16 x 25 cm (6 5/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
overall (including painted frame): 21.5 × 30.5 cm (8 7/16 × 12 in.)
depth (thickness of cradled panel): 1 cm (3/8 in.)

framed: 34.29 × 43.18 × 5.87 cm (13 1/2 × 17 × 2 5/16 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

2012.89.8

Artists / Makers

Georges Seurat (artist) French, 1859 - 1891

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia, by 1966; bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to Mrs. Mellon; life interest released 2012.

Associated Names

Mellon, Rachel Lambert, Estate of

Exhibition History

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1966, no. 146, repro.

2013: Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art, Museo dell'Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome (exhibition title in this venue: Impressionist Gems); California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, Seattle Art Museum, 2013-2016.

Bibliography

1991: Grenier, Catherine. Seurat: Catalogue complet des peintures. Paris, 1991: possibly no. 210, repro.

2014: Kelly, Franklin. "A Lasting Legacy: The Completion of an Unparalleled Gift." National Gallery of Art Bulletin no. 51 (Fall 2014): 10-11, repro.