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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

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 88

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 65.1 x 80.9 cm (25 5/8 x 31 7/8 in.)

framed: 89.9 x 106 x 10.2 cm (35 3/8 x 41 3/4 x 4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of the W. Averell Harriman Foundation in memory of Marie N. Harriman

Accession Number

1972.9.21

Artists / Makers

Georges Seurat (artist) French, 1859 - 1891

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower right: Seurat

Provenance

Presumably gift or by inheritance from the artist to his mother, Mme. Seurat. the artist's brother-in-law, Léon Appert [d. 1925], Paris; probably by inheritance to Léopold Appert, Paris. Félix Fénéon, Paris, by 1936 until 1937. Acquired September 1937 by Marie N. Harriman [1903-1970], New York;[1] by inheritance to her husband, W. Averell Harriman [1891-1986], New York; W. Averell Harriman Foundation, New York; gift 1972 to NGA.

[1] Fénéon is the owner listed in the 13 June - 11 July 1936 exhibition Le Grand Siècle at the Paul Rosenberg gallery, Paris (no. 60). Fénéon then lent the painting in 1937 to Wildenstein, London, for its exhibition Seurat and his Contemporaries (no. 62), which ran from 20 January - 27 February. Harriman purchased it later that same year, exhibiting it in November in her New York gallery (no. 17). See curatorial file for copies of all three catalogue entries.

Associated Names

Appert, Léon
Appert, Léopold
Fénéon, Félix
Harriman Foundation, W. Averell
Harriman, Marie N.

Exhibition History

1936: Le Grand Siècle, Galerie Rosenberg, Paris, 1936, no. 60

1937: Constable and the Landscape, Marie Harriman Gallery, New York, 1937, no. 17

1941: The Art of the Third Republic. Painting 1870-1940, Worcester Art Museum, 1941, no. 18

1953: Seurat and his Friends, Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1953, no. 10, repro.

1959: Masterpieces of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1961: Exhibition of the Marie and Averell Harriman Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1961, unnumbered catalogue, repro. 21.

1968: De Cézanne a Miró, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de la Universidad de Chile, Santiago; Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, 1968, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1980: Post-Impressionism: Cross-Currents in European and American Painting 1880-1906, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980, not in cat.

1983: Loan for display with permanent collection, Munch Museum, Oslo, 1983-1984.

1984: A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Art Institute of Chicago; Grand Palais, Paris, 1984-1985, no. 124, repro.

1986: Capolavori Impressionisti dei Musei Americani, Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples; Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, 1986-1987, no. 45, repro.

1986: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad; State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, 1986, no. 38, repro.

1991: Georges Seurat 1859-1891, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991-1992, no. 205.

1992: From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metroplitan Museum of Art, New York, National Gallery of Greece, Athens, 1992-1993, no. 65, repro.

1999: Around Impressionism: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, no cat.

1999: Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 60, repro.

2001: Vincent van Gogh und die Maler des Petit Boulevard [Vincent van Gogh and the Painters of the Petit Boulevard], Saint Louis Art Museum; Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt, 2001, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2002: Neo-Impressionism: Artists on the Edge, Portland Museum of Art, Maine, 2002, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 3.

2007: Divisionism/Neo-Impressionism: Arcadia and Anarchy, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2007, no. 9, repro. (shown only in New York).

2011: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The National Art Center, Tokyo; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, 2011, no. 46, repro.

2014: Neo-impressionism and the Dream of Realities: Painting, Poetry, Music, The Phillips Collection, Washington, 2014-2015, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 57.

2014: Seurat - Master of Pointillism, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, 2014, no. 9, repro.

2019: Félix Fénéon, 1861-1944: les temps nouveaux, de Seurat a Matisse [Félix Fénéon, 1861-1944: the modern times, from Seurat to Matisse], Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris; Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2019-2020, no. 55, repro. (shown only at the Musée de l'Orangerie).

Bibliography

1959: Dorra, Henri, and John Rewald. Seurat, l'oeuvre peint, biographie et catalogue critique. Paris, 1959: no. 185, repro.

1972: "Recent Acquisitions of American and Canadian Museums." Art Quarterly 35 (Autumn 1972): 332, repro.

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

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 512, no. 769, 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. 29, repro.

1991: Grenier, Catherine. Seurat: Catalogue complet des peintures. Paris, 1991: no. 194, repro.

1997: Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism, 1997, no. 6, 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.