Georges Seurat (1859-1891) - Port-En-Bessin - A Sunday, 1888-1889
Seurat seems to be having quite a moment in the capital of late. We were treated to his huge canvas La Chahut and several land/seascapes in the National Gallery's Radical Harmony (here), exhibition which closed earlier this year. Several of those paintings then made their way along the Strand to feature in this small but very engaging exhibition at the Courtauld. Seurat and the Sea is the first exhibition devoted to the artists seascapes, and features 26 of these paintings and drawings with loans coming from a diverse range of public and private collections from around the world. Seurat is known for developing the Pointillist or Neo-Impressionist technique which involved painting in dots or dashes of pure colour applied to the canvas instead of mixing colours on the palette. The technique evoked particular luminous optical effects on the eye as the dots of pure colour merge when observed from a distance. The technique does have its shortcomings and limitations when applied to certain subjects as was plainly evidenced in the Radical Harmony exhibition, however the paintings of the seascape subjects here do appear to shimmer with a particular luminosity with this technique. Seurat is renowned for his massive canvases of modern Parisian suburban life such as A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884), and Bathers at Asnières, 1884. These seascapes are executed on a much more intimate scale. Seurat would paint them on the back of small wooden panels slotted into the lid of his little travel paint box and then work them up in scale when he got back to his studio. The seascapes depict ports and open seas which Seurat would paint on breaks to the coast at places in Normandy and Picardy to escape the bustle of city life between 1895 and 1890. The paintings are largely devoid of the human figure and are all about using his pointillist technique to capture the effects of the light on the landscape. "In summer cleansing one's eyes of the days spent in the studio and translating as accurately as possible the bright light in all its nuances", is how Seurat would describe these jaunts to the coast. This exhibition brings together six paintings made at Port-en-Bessin for the first since they were first exhibited in 1889. Seurat employed the device of giving the paintings a frame within a frame, a narrow painted strip of darker colour around the edge of the canvas. He would then extend this out to the frame of the canvas itself, painting it in a chosen colour to harmonise the picture. Sadly most buyers of the paintings decided these painted frames didn't fit their aesthetic or décor and discarded Seurat's painted frames for traditional gilded fames. This series of seascapes are luminous and serene especially when viewed from a certain distance to allow Seurat's pointillist technique to coalesce in the eyes. The seascapes were greatly admired in Seurat's lifetime especially in the avant-garde circles that the artist moved in, as they opened up a new way of seeing and painting. This was another great little exhibition put together by the Courtauld's curators.
Seurat and the Sea
until 17th May
Courtauld Institute of Art
Somerset House
Strand
London
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