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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

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 88

Medium

oil on wood

Dimensions

overall: 15.9 x 25 cm (6 1/4 x 9 13/16 in.)

framed: 33.3 x 41.9 x 5.7 cm (13 1/8 x 16 1/2 x 2 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

Accession Number

1970.17.81

Artists / Makers

Georges Seurat (artist) French, 1859 - 1891

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower left with stamp: Seurat

Provenance

(Bernheim-Jeune, Paris). (Alex Reid & Lefèvre, Glasgow and London).[1] Percy Moore Turner [died c. 1951], London, and Oxnead, Gerrards Cross, Buckingham, by 1933 until at least 1937.[2] (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., London, New York, and Paris); Capt. Edward H. Molyneux [1891-1974], London and Paris, probably by 1943;[3] sold 15 August 1955 to Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York; bequest 1970 to NGA.

[1] Reid & Lefèvre handled several sketches for La Grande Jatte of these same dimension, according to the Lefèvre archives, Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Tate Britain, London, TGA 2002/11.

[2] Lent by Turner to exhibitions in London in 1933 and 1937.

[3] According to Rewald and Dorra, Seurat, Paris, 1959: no. 109, Molyneux acquired from Wildenstein in 1943.

Associated Names

Bernheim-Jeune
Bruce, Ailsa Mellon, Mrs.
Molyneux, Edward H., Captain
Reid & Lefèvre, Ltd, Alex
Turner, Percy Moore
Wildenstein & Co., Inc.

Exhibition History

1933: Seurat et ses amis, Paris, 1933-1934, no. 67.

1937: Seurat and his Contemporaries, Wildenstein & Co., London, 1937, no. 39.

1952: French Paintings from the Molyneux Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1952, unnumbered checklist.

1961: French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century from the Collection of Mrs. Mellon Bruce, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1961, no. 57, repro.

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 145, repro.

1988: The Pastoral Landscape: The Modern Vision, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., 1988-1989, no. 119, fig. 223.

1989: Impressionisti della National Gallery of Art di Washington, Ala Napoleonica e Museo Correr, Venice; Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1989, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1991: Georges Seurat 1859-1891, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991-1992, no. 121, repro., as Une voile sur l'eau

2004: Seurat and the Making of the Grande Jatte, Art Institute of Chicago, 2004, no. 41

2007: Georges Seurat: The Drawings, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2007, no. 109, 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

1959: Dorra, Henri, and John Rewald. Seurat, l'oeuvre peint, biographie et catalogue critique. Paris, 1959: no. 109, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 324, repro.

1978: Small French Paintings from the Bequest of Ailsa Mellon Bruce. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978: 78, repro. (continuing exhibition beginning in 1978).

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 515, no. 776, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 371, repro.

1991: Coman, Florence E. Joie de Vivre: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1991: no. 28, repro.

1991: Grenier, Catherine. Seurat: Catalogue complet des peintures. Paris, 1991: no. 112, repro.

1991: Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 263.

2000: Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1. New Haven, 2000: 6-7, color fig. 1.

2014: Kelly, Franklin. "A Lasting Legacy: The Completion of an Unparalleled Gift." National Gallery of Art Bulletin nno. 51 (Fall 2014): 10-11, repro.