Georges Seurat painting "The Morning Walk" - a fascinating example of his early experiments with colour and light, combining the principles of pointillism and impressionism.
The painting depicts a river landscape, probably the Seine, with the town of Courbevoie in the distance. The composition is notable for its vertical format, which is indeed unusual for Seurat. This format allows him to build the scene out of stacked horizontal bands: the foreground, the river itself, the far bank, and then the houses and trees of Courbevoie.
What is particularly interesting about this work is the way Seurat adapts his brushstrokes to the objects or surfaces they describe. Although Seurat's signature pointillist technique - in which he used tiny dots of colour - had already been developed by 1885, this painting shows clear influences from Impressionism. This is particularly evident in the large, flowing brushstrokes of unmixed colour, especially in the rendering of water. It is a superb example of Seurat's evolving style and technique.
Painting "The Morning Walk" by Georges Seurat.
