Study for "Bathers at Asnières" (c. 1883–84): Art, History and Details

Study for "Bathers at Asnières" (c. 1883–84) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Georges Seurat (French, 1859–1891).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This oil sketch is one of many preparatory studies Seurat made for his monumental painting Bathers at Asnières (1883-84), depicting men leisurely bathing in the Seine near an industrial suburb of Paris. Seurat borrowed the brilliant colors of Impressionism to suggest outdoor light, but added structure by emphasizing basic geometric shapes and firm outlines. As a leader of the movement to reform Impressionism, his style became known as Neo-Impressionism.

Object facts

• Title: Study for "Bathers at Asnières"
• Date: c. 1883–84
• Creator attribution: Georges Seurat (French, 1859–1891)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on wood panel
• Dimensions: Framed: 32 x 41 x 5 cm (12 5/8 x 16 1/8 x 1 15/16 in.); Unframed: 15.7 x 24.9 cm (6 3/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1958.51

A detail from the museum

Seurat’s approach to painting differed greatly from the Impressionist painters who worked outdoors in plein-air. In contrast, he worked in the studio preparing his compositions from drawings and preparatory studies.

Collection credit

Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• d'Argencourt, Louise, Roger Diederen, and Alisa Luxenberg. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999.
• de Hauke, César M. Seurat et son œuvre. Paris: Gründ, 1962.
• Anson Conger Goodyear, letter to de Hauke & Co., Oct. 29, 1929. Jacques Seligmann & Co. records, 1904-1978, bulk 1913-1974, 9.1.2: Domestic Correspondence, 1926-1931, undated, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. [Box 385, folder 23, page 39 – digitzed: http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/container/viewer/Goodyear-A-Conger--293530\].

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.