COLOUR STUDY

Colour palette

#818472
#5E6D56
#909281
#434C44
#72735C
#A3A18E

Approximate colour proportions

#81847219.9%
#5E6D5618.9%
#90928118.8%
#434C4418.4%
#72735C12.9%
#A3A18E11.1%

Estimated from six colour groups in the museum image, including visible paper or borders. Reproduction and lighting affect the result; these are image-area proportions, not pigment measurements.

Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Image licence: CC0 · Museum record & image source ↗

France, 19th century · c. 1883–84

Study for "Bathers at Asnières"

Georges Seurat

Date: c. 1883–84
Medium: 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.)
Country / context: France
Movement / tradition: European and American art
Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Attribution / role: Museum attribution
Pathway: European and American art ↗

FROM THE MUSEUM

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.

Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0

Place in the artist’s career

The small oil study for Bathers tests masses and placement; the café-concert drawing creates luminous atmosphere with dark Conté and white chalk; The Circus develops colour contrasts and directional rhythms on a large canvas. Monochrome and divided colour were complementary investigations, not simple before-and-after stages.