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Georges Seurat, 'Study for 'La Grande Jatte'', 1884-5

About the work

Overview

Seurat produced many oil sketches and drawings as studies for his monumental painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte of 1884–6 (Art Institute of Chicago). Many of these concentrate on the landscape but others, including this one, focus on the scale and position of figures within the final picture.

Here we see a man standing rigidly, reduced to his essential outline with no incidental detail. Seurat had already included him in an earlier oil sketch, and he appears in the final painting where he is accompanied by an elegantly dressed woman. Like most of the people in the Grande Jatte, he is shown in profile as he looks straight ahead at the river. He wears a black top hat, a long grey jacket or coat and dark trousers, which identify him as a member of the middle or upper classes and, perhaps, as a dandy. He also holds what might be a walking cane or a furled umbrella and what may be a folded blanket or groundsheet.

Key facts

Details

Full title
Study for 'La Grande Jatte'
Artist dates
1859 - 1891
Date made
1884-5
Medium and support
oil on wood
Dimensions
17.5 × 26 cm
Acquisition credit
Presented by Heinz Berggruen, 1995
Inventory number
NG6560
Location
Not on display
Collection
Main Collection

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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