Details

Object type

painting

Title

The Riverbanks

Artist/Maker

Georges Pierre Seurat artist

Culture/School

French

Date

circa 1882-1883

Materials

oil on panel

Dimensions

unframed: 160 x 250 mm; framed: 295 x 375 mm

Description

Asnières is a suburb of Paris on the river Seine. To the left we see the Courbevoie Bridge. In the centre are the factories of Clichy and on the right we see the trees of the Ile de la Grande Jatte, the island which would feature in Seurat’s later painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte, 1886 (Art Institute, Chicago).

This small oil sketch was probably painted outside, quickly, directly in front of the motif. It is one of fourteen oil studies which Seurat painted for his first large-scale composition, The Bathers, Asnières, 1884 (National Gallery, London). Seurat probably hung these sketches on the wall of his studio, so that he could refer back to them while he was working on the large painting. A small detail seen here - the cloud of steam, from a train passing over the bridge in the background – reappears in the finished painting.

Although Seurat shared Monet and Renoir’s enthusiasm for colour he was not interested in capturing ephemeral effects of nature. He sought something more permanent. Just like Degas, Seurat’s paintings were carefully worked up in his studio from numerous drawings and oil sketches like this one.

Credit Line/Donor

Bequeathed by William McInnes, 1944

ID Number

2422

Location

Kelvingrove French Art Gallery