Georges Seurat, 'The Rainbow: Study for 'Bathers at Asnières'', 1883

The Rainbow: Study for 'Bathers at Asnières'

Georges Seurat

Not on display

About the work

Overview

This is the only sketch for Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières that includes a rainbow, which was painted over the sky once the paint had dried. Although perhaps a rather contrived image, the mottled sky suggests Seurat may have seen a rainbow. It is evidence of his attention to particular effects of light and atmosphere throughout the sketches – and in the final painting, with its effect of hazy morning sunshine.

The picture looks as though it was at least partly painted on site, rather than in the studio. For example, the black barges on the right and building in the background, depicted with just a few swift strokes, may have been painted directly on location. However, this is more developed than a quick sketch as it shows signs of having been composed rather than simply observed. The three figures have been deliberately placed with equal space between them.

In-depth

This is one of the Studies for Bathers at Asnières in the National Gallery’s collection that relate to Seurat’s monumental picture Bathers at Asnières (1883–4). In the early 1880s Seurat often drew and painted along the river Seine at Asnières, which was to be the location for the large picture. We cannot be certain that this small oil sketch was a preparatory study for that painting or whether the conception of the Bathers emerged from the sketches Seurat made along the Seine. However, as both the location (the river bank facing the island of La Grand Jatte with the factories at Clichy on the horizon) and the sequence of male figures all facing the same direction also feature in the final picture, this may be one of the earlier studies for it.

The picture looks as though it was at least partly painted on site, rather than in the studio. The black barges on the right and building in the background, depicted with just a few swift strokes, may have been painted directly on location. However, this is more developed than a quick sketch as it shows signs of having been composed rather than simply observed. The three figures appear to have been deliberately placed within the landscape. The man on the far left, for example, may have been painted from life, but his head, upper torso and legs each relate to a different band of the landscape behind him. His torso is aligned with the sandy gully formed by dragging boats in and out of the river and which was also used for bathing horses and dogs – the source of the title Une Baignade (‘a bathing place’), by which painting has sometimes been known. An unbroken shallow diagonal, which echoes the line of the riverbank, also descends from his head through the heads of the other two figures. There is equal space between the three and their poses (sitting up with their arms resting on their legs stretched out before them) are the same.

This is the only sketch to include a rainbow, which was painted over the sky once the paint had dried. Although perhaps a rather contrived image, the mottled sky suggests that Seurat may have seen a rainbow and it is evidence of his attention to particular effects of light and atmosphere throughout the sketches – and in the final painting, with its effect of hazy morning sunshine. Seurat pays the same attention to the river, and the long horizontal strokes and the darker tones for the water closest to us also appear in the finished picture.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Rainbow: Study for 'Bathers at Asnières'
Artist: Georges Seurat
Artist dates: 1859 - 1891
Date made: 1883
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 15.5 × 24.5 cm
Inscription summary: Signed
Acquisition credit: Presented by Heinz Berggruen, 1995
Inventory number: NG6555
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection

Provenance

Inherited by the artist’s partner, Madeleine Knoblock (1868–1903), in 1891; sold to Jean-Baptiste de Greef (1852–1894), Auderghem, Belgium, in February 1892; with Félix Fénéon (1861–1944) by 1894; with Etienne Bignou (1891–1950), Galerie Bignou, Paris until 1932; from 1932 until c. 1939 with David William T. Cargill (1872–1939), Lanark; Bignou Gallery, New York; sold to M. Knoedler and Co., New York, in 1944; purchased by Mrs Dwight F. Davis, née Pauline Morton (1887–1955), Washington D.C., in February 1944; with Acquavella Galleries, New York, 1984; bought by Heinz Berggruen, Paris (1914–2007) in 1984; presented by Heinz Berggruen in 1995.

Additional information

Text extracted from the National Gallery’s Annual Report, ‘The National Gallery Report: April 1995 – March 1996’ and supplemented by Isobel Muir.

Exhibition history

2009

Georges Seurat: Figure in Space

Kunsthaus Zürich

2 October 2009 - 17 January 2010

Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt

4 February 2010 - 9 May 2010
2010

Bridget Riley: Paintings and Related Work

The National Gallery (London)

24 November 2010 - 22 May 2011
2013

Normandie Impressionniste

Musée des Beaux-Arts (Caen)

27 April 2013 - 29 September 2013
2019

Impressionism in the Age of Industry: Monet, Pissarro and more

Art Gallery of Ontario

16 February 2019 - 5 May 2019

Bibliography

1941

B. Nicolson, 'La Baignade', The Burlington Magazine, LXXIX/464, 1941
1946

D. Cooper, Une Baignade, Asnières in the Tate Gallery, London 1946
1959

H. Dorra and J. Rewald, Seurat: L'oeuvre peint; biographie et catalogue critique, Paris 1959
1961

C. de Hauke, Seurat et son oeuvre, Paris 1961
1990

A. Madeleine-Perdrillat, Seurat, New York 1990
1991

R.L. Herbert, Seurat (exh. cat. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 9 April - 12 August 1991; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 24 September 1991 - 12 January 1992), Paris 1991
1991

R. Kendall, Van Gogh to Picasso: The Berggruen Collection at the National Gallery (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 16 January - 21 April 1991), London 1991
1996

National Gallery, The National Gallery Report: April 1995- March 1996, London 1996
1997

P. Smith, Seurat and the Avant-Garde, New Haven 1997
1997

J. Leighton and R. Thomson, Seurat and the Bathers, (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 2 July - 28 September 1997), London 1997
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

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.

Images

More works by Georges Seurat

(Showing 6 of 10 works)

A River Bank (The Seine at Asnières)

Georges Seurat

This small panel may be linked to Seurat’s earliest sketches and ideas for Bathers at Asnières (1883–4), although it is not normally included in the 13 sketches which have been tied to that painting.The carefully organised geometry of the scene, which divides the picture into distinct sections, c...

Not on display

Bathers at Asnières

Georges Seurat

This large picture was Seurat’s first major composition, painted when he had not yet turned 25. He intended it to be a grand statement with which he would make his mark at the official Salon in the spring of 1884, but it was rejected.Several men and boys relax on the banks of the Seine at Asnière...

Room 44

Clothes on the Grass: Study for 'Bathers at Asnières'

Georges Seurat

Not on display

Le Bec du Hoc, Grandcamp

Georges Seurat

Not on display

Study for 'Bathers at Asnières'

Georges Seurat

Of the small panels 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 alm...

Not on display

Study for 'La Grande Jatte'

Georges Seurat

This is one of the earliest studies for A Sunday on La Grande Jatte of 1884–6 (Art Institute of Chicago), and was very likely painted on location. As this sketch was painted in the morning, the sunlight and shadows are the reverse of other studies and of the final painting itself, which shows the...

Not on display

Study for 'La Grande Jatte'

Georges Seurat

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.He...

Not on display

The Channel of Gravelines, Grand Fort-Philippe

Georges Seurat

This is one of four paintings Seurat produced in 1890 near the town of Gravelines, a small port on the northern French coast between Calais and Dunkirk. Positioned on the sand dunes of Petit-Fort-Philippe, we see the shore in the morning light after the receding tide has left a broad expanse of o...

Not on display

The Morning Walk

Georges Seurat

This panel was most likely painted in 1885 and relates to a medium-size canvas, The Seine at Courbevoie (now in a private collection in Paris). Seurat may have painted it before he decided to produce a finished picture of this particular view of the river, or it may be a preparatory study.The ver...

Not on display

The Seine seen from La Grande Jatte

Georges Seurat

The island of La Grande Jatte and the views from it across the river Seine were a rich source of pictorial subjects for Seurat during the 1880s. He was especially attracted to this location, in part because of the pictorial forms and structures it offered, such as the horizontal of the river and...

Not on display

You've viewed 6 of 10 works

Georges Seurat, 'The Rainbow: Study for 'Bathers at Asnières'', 1883

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Georges Seurat