Georges Seurat, 'Study for 'Bathers at Asnières'', 1883-4

Of the Studies for Bathers at Asnières in the National Gallery’s collection related to Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières, this oil sketch on wood is perhaps the one most closely connected with the final painting. Unlike other sketches, which concentrate on atmospheric effects or the landscape, Seurat’s focus here is almost exclusively on the men and boys themselves. Only two – the clothed man lying down in the lower left corner and the young man with the bare torso at the river’s edge on the right of the picture – are retained in the final painting. The nude standing boy in the middle of the sketch eventually became the boy standing waist-high in the river.

The five figures are shown in a variety of poses and fill the picture space with only a minimal indication of the surrounding landscape. As the two larger figures on the right are drawn to a different scale to those on the left, this panel is like a page from a sketchbook, where Seurat is less concerned with the overall composition than in trying out ideas for the poses and positions of the figures, both individually and as a group.