Georges Seurat
Preparatory Sketch for the Painting “La Grève du Bas-Butin, Honfleur”
1885
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Georges Seurat
Preparatory Sketch for the Painting “La Grève du Bas-Butin, Honfleur”
1885
Physical Qualities
Oil on wood panel, 6 3/4 x 10 1/4 in. (17.1 x 26 cm.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Saidie A. May
Object Number
1951.357
In this small composition, carefully placed brushstrokes create a
seascape in the distance and a rocky cliffside at right. Georges Seurat
painted this work in the summer of 1886 during one of his visits to
Honfleur, a town on the Normandy coast of France. Earlier that same
year, he had established himself as an emerging artist at the eighth
and final Impressionist exhibition in Paris.
The marine scenes Seurat painted during these visits are central to
his body of work. Preparatory studies like this example reveal his
explorations of color theory and innovative pointillist techniques, or
the practice of applying small, distinct dots of color to the canvas that
blend together at a distance. He returned regularly to the French coast
to capture the atmosphere and light of various locations until his
death in 1891.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, by bequest, 1951; Saidie A. May, by purchase, 1925; from Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris; E. Bignou, Paris
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "The Saidie A. May Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture", March 17-April 16, 1950, cat. 99.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "From Ingres to Gauguin: French Nineteenth Century Paintings Owned in Maryland", November–December 1951, no. 162.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "The Triumph of French Painting, Masterpieces from Ingres to Matisse", March 12-July 16, 2000, no. 42 pp. 122-123 ill.; circulated to The Philbrook Museum of Art, The Norton Museum of Art, Dayton Art Institute, The Royal Academy of Arts, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, through January 6, 2002.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, "Impressionism to Surrealism From the Baltimore Museum of Art. Selections from the Collection of Claribel and Etta Cone, Saidie Adler May and Blanche Adler", February 8-April 21, 2002, no. 48 pp. 22.
The Art Institute of Chicago, "Seurat and the Making of 'La Grande Jatte'", June 16, 2004- September 19, 2004.
Museum of Modern Art, "Georges Seurat: The Drawings", September 23-February 7, 2008.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "From Ingres to Gauguin: French Nineteenth Century Paintings Owned in Maryland", November–December 1951, no. 162.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "The Triumph of French Painting, Masterpieces from Ingres to Matisse", March 12-July 16, 2000, no. 42 pp. 122-123 ill.; circulated to The Philbrook Museum of Art, The Norton Museum of Art, Dayton Art Institute, The Royal Academy of Arts, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, through January 6, 2002.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, "Impressionism to Surrealism From the Baltimore Museum of Art. Selections from the Collection of Claribel and Etta Cone, Saidie Adler May and Blanche Adler", February 8-April 21, 2002, no. 48 pp. 22.
The Art Institute of Chicago, "Seurat and the Making of 'La Grande Jatte'", June 16, 2004- September 19, 2004.
Museum of Modern Art, "Georges Seurat: The Drawings", September 23-February 7, 2008.
The Baltimore Museum of Art News, "Catalogue of the Saidie A. May Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture," March, 1950, cat. 99, p. 23.
"From Ingres to Gauguin: French Nineteenth Century Paintings Owned in Maryland," The Baltimore Museum of Art, November– December 1951, no. 162, p.43.
Herbert, Robert L. Georges Seurat, 1859-1891. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991, page 246.
Robert L. Herbert, "Seurat and the Making of La Grande Jatte." Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2004. p.135, ill.
Susan Helen Adler, "Saidie May Pioneer of Early 20th Century Collecting" Baltimore: Stonehouse Design, 2008, p. 241.
