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Description: GEORGES SEURAT (1859-1891)
Property from a Private French Collection
femmes assises (etude pour 'un dimanche apres-midi a l'ile de la grande jatte')
oil on panel
15.6 by 25 cm., 6 1/8 by 9 7/8 in.
Painted circa 1884-1885.
Provenance
Estate of the artist (inventory
no. panneau 94)
Alexandre Seon, Paris (a childhood friend of Seurat and pupil of Puvis de Chavannes)
The nephew of the above, Lyons
Jacques Rodrigues-Henriques, Paris (acquired from the above on 17th November 1929)
Literature
D.-C. Rich, Seurat and the evolution of La Grande Jatte, Chicago, 1935, pl. 27, no. 28, illustrated
Henri Dorra & John Rewald, Seurat, l'oeuvre peint, biographie et catalogue critique, Paris, 1959, p. 120, no. 113, illustrated
C. M. de Hauke, Seurat et son oeuvre, Paris, 1961, p. 93, no. 140, illustrated
Louis Hautecoeur, Georges Seurat, Paris, 1972, p. 85, no. 7, illustrated
Michael F. Zimmermann, Seurat and the Art Theory of his Time, Antwerp, 1991,
p. 175, no. 318, illustrated
Painted circa 1884-1885, the present work is one of the finest studies that Seurat executed for his masterpiece of 1884-1886, Un dimanche apres-midi a l'ile de la Grande Jatte (The Art Institute of Chicago, Fig. 1). The importance that the artist himself placed on this major oil is made evident by the number of studies that he completed in preparation for it, and the present panel is distinguished by its closeness in composition and detail to the final work, its peaceful atmosphere and delicacy of mood. The scene suggests a late summer's afternoon, with long shadows streaking the grass that recedes into the distance along the banks of the Seine. The seated woman in red in the foreground, her wide-brimmed straw hat shading her face, and the upright figures spread out at intervals under the rich foliage of the trees, add further perspectival depth to the composition as a whole.
Kenneth Clark wrote of the series of studies that Seurat made for La 'Grande Jatte' thus: 'The drawings and small studies [for La Grande Jatte] are chiefly of his dramatis personae and show how, unlike the Baignade, where each figure had been drawn in the studio from an isolated model, the figures in the Grande Jatte are all studied in relation to the whole. His aim was to discover interesting silhouettes, but he tried by very subtle operation of tone to keep an effect of modelling while preserving the general unity of the plane' (K. Clark, quoted in Dorra & Rewald, op. cit., p. 120).
In the present study, Seurat focuses on the seated woman in the right foreground, wearing a vivid crimson dress and a straw hat. In the final version of the celebrated painting, this figure has become a sedate, corsetted woman in a red jacket and a matching felt hat, holding a parasol to protect her from the sun. While this woman in red in the study seems to be a particular individual, the other characters walking along the bank of the Seine in the study are perhaps more anonymous 'types', as they are not reproduced closely in the final version of the scene (the black and white, undifferentiated figures in the study under the trees have become clearly identifiable male and female figures in browns and reds in the final version).
Seurat's pointilliste technique in Femmes assises (etude pour 'Un dimanche apres-midi a l'ile de la Grande Jatte') consists of broad dabs of colour and demonstrates a lively, more spontaneous rendition of the banks of the river, with its trees and pleasure-seekers, compared with the more scientific, controlled precision of the final version.
This study captures all of the serenity of the setting and the splendours of nature surrounding the figures, relaxing on a Sunday afternoon in high summer on the Grande Jatte, a favourite pleasure haunt for Parisians escaping from the hubbub of the city. The work allows us a priviliged insight into the genesis of one of Seurat's greatest masterpieces, while capturing the subject with intimate yet majestic vision.
After Seurat's death, a number of close friends, family and fellow artists, including Paul Signac and Maximilien Luce, were involved in making an inventory of the artist's estate. The present work bears an inscription on the reverse in Luce's hand, giving its inventory number (panneau 94) and bearing testament to the two artists' friendship.