The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 17, 2024

Study for "Bathers at Asnières"

c. 1883–84

Georges Seurat

(French, 1859–1891)

France, 19th century

oil on wood panel

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.)

Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. 1958.51

Location: 222 Impressionism & Post-Impressionism

Did You Know?

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.

Description

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.

c. 1883/1884-1891
Estate of the artist, distributed to Théo van Rysselberghe1
1891-?
Théo van Rysselberghe [1862-1926], Saint-Clair, Var, France
Until 1929
Felix Fénéon [1861-1944], Paris, sold to Anson Conger Goodyear through de Hauke & Co
1929-
Anson Conger Goodyear [1877-1964], Old Westbury, NY
?
(Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York)
?
Walter Bareiss [1919-2007], Greenwich, CT
(Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York, sold to Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.)
1952-1958
(Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. [1889-1957], Cleveland, OH, bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1958-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Provenance Footnotes
1 Upon Seurat’s death in 1891, the artist's family appointed Paul Signac, Félix Fénéon, and Maximilien Luce to inventory the contents of the his studio and to distribute works to his friends and colleagues. This painting was No. 80 in the posthumous inventory, dated May 3, 1891.
2 Belgian Neo-Impressionist and friend of Seurat, Théo van Rysselberghe received a number of works from Seurat’s estate, among them, this painting.
3 On August 4, 1929, Fénéon wrote to de Hauke, offering three works by Seurat, including the Cleveland picture, ultimately selling it, as indicated by the correspondence among Fénéon, de Hauke, and Goodyear in the Seligmann/de Hauke & Co. records, to Goodyear in a sale brokered by de Hauke & Co. De Hauke invoiced Goodyear for the Seurat study on October 22, 1929.
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].
Félix Fénéon, letter to de Hauke & Co., Aug. 4, 1929. Jacques Seligmann & Co. records, 1904-1978, bulk 1913-1974, 9.1.3: Foreign Correspondence, 1925-1940, undated, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. [Box 393, folder 24, page 16 – digitzed: http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/container/viewer/F%C3%A9n%C3%A9on-Felix--293794].
De Hauke & Co., invoice to Anson Conger Goodyear, Oct. 22, 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 42 – digitzed: http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/container/viewer/Goodyear-A-Conger--293530].
de Hauke, César M. Seurat et son œuvre. Paris: Gründ, 1962.
De Hauke & Co., invoice to Anson Conger Goodyear, Oct. 22, 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 42 – digitzed: http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/container/viewer/Goodyear-A-Conger--293530].
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].
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.
d'Argencourt, Louise, Roger Diederen, and Alisa Luxenberg. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999.
d'Argencourt, Louise, Roger Diederen, and Alisa Luxenberg. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999.
Cleveland Museum of Art. In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Reproduced: no. 35
The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LXVI, no. 6 (June, 1959): 122. Mentioned: p. 122
Dorra, Henri, Georges Wildenstein, John Rewald, and Félix Fénéon. Seurat. Paris, France: Les Beaux-arts, 1959.
Hauke, César M. de. Seurat et son œuvre. Paris, France: Grund, 1961.
Hauke, César M. de. Seurat et son œuvre. Paris, France: Grund, 1961. Reproduced: p. 198
Russell, John. Seurat. London, United Kingdom: Thames and Hudson, 1965. Reproduced: fig. 123
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 180 archive.org
Courthion, Pierre, and Norbert Guterman. Georges Seurat. New York, NY: H.N. Abrams, 1968. Reproduced: p. 23
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 180 archive.org
Minervino, Fiorella . L'opera completa di Seurat. Milano, Italy: Rizzoli, 1972. Reproduced: p. 90
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 223 archive.org
Monneret, Sophie. L'impressionnisme et son époque: dictionnaire international illustré. Paris, France: Denoël, 1978. Reproduced: p. 242, vol. 2
Alexandrian, Sarane. Seurat. Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1983. Reproduced: p. 22
Clark, T. J. The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers. New York, NY: Knopf, 1984. Reproduced: p. 157-158. fig. 58
Rewald, John. Seurat: A Biography. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, 1990. Reproduced: p. 65
Herbert, Robert L., and Georges Seurat. Georges Seurat, 1859-1891. New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991.
Zimmermann, Michael F. Seurat and the Art Theory of His Time. Antwerp, Belgium: Fonds Mercator, 1991. Reproduced: p. 158, fig. 296
Fohr, Robert. "Une Baignade, Asnieres." Dossier de l'Art (April/May 1991): 10-15. Reproduced: p. 14
Robinson, Fred Miller. The Man in the Bowler Hat: His History and Iconography. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1993. Reproduced: p. 35, fig. 7
Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p. 221
Leighton, John, and Richard Thomson. Seurat and the Bathers. London, United Kingdom: National Gallery Publications, 1997. Reproduced: p. 155; Mentioned: p. 58-60
Clark, T. J. The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999. Reproduced: p. 157, no. 58
Prette, Maria Carla, and Alfonso De Giorgis. Leggere l'arte: storia, linguaggi, epoche, stili. Firenze, Italy: Giunti, 1999. Reproduced: p. 126, no. 3
D' Argencourt, Louise, and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned and reproduced: vol. 2, p. 589-592, no. 207
Provenance Footnotes
1 Upon Seurat’s death in 1891, the artist's family appointed Paul Signac, Félix Fénéon, and Maximilien Luce to inventory the contents of the his studio and to distribute works to his friends and colleagues. This painting was No. 80 in the posthumous inventory, dated May 3, 1891.
2 Belgian Neo-Impressionist and friend of Seurat, Théo van Rysselberghe received a number of works from Seurat’s estate, among them, this painting.
3 On August 4, 1929, Fénéon wrote to de Hauke, offering three works by Seurat, including the Cleveland picture, ultimately selling it, as indicated by the correspondence among Fénéon, de Hauke, and Goodyear in the Seligmann/de Hauke & Co. records, to Goodyear in a sale brokered by de Hauke & Co. De Hauke invoiced Goodyear for the Seurat study on October 22, 1929.
Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009).
Seurat and the Making of "La Grande Jatte". The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (June 16-September 19, 2004).
Seurat and "The Bathers". National Gallery, London (organizer) (July 2-September 28, 1997).
This cannot be confirmed by the museum but it is very possible, as Leonard C. Hanna Jr. lent his paintings regularly to this institution, his alma mater).Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (May 1955).
Provenance Footnotes
1 Upon Seurat’s death in 1891, the artist's family appointed Paul Signac, Félix Fénéon, and Maximilien Luce to inventory the contents of the his studio and to distribute works to his friends and colleagues. This painting was No. 80 in the posthumous inventory, dated May 3, 1891.
2 Belgian Neo-Impressionist and friend of Seurat, Théo van Rysselberghe received a number of works from Seurat’s estate, among them, this painting.
3 On August 4, 1929, Fénéon wrote to de Hauke, offering three works by Seurat, including the Cleveland picture, ultimately selling it, as indicated by the correspondence among Fénéon, de Hauke, and Goodyear in the Seligmann/de Hauke & Co. records, to Goodyear in a sale brokered by de Hauke & Co. De Hauke invoiced Goodyear for the Seurat study on October 22, 1929.
{{cite web|title=Study for "Bathers at Asnières"|url=false|author=Georges Seurat|year=c. 1883–84|access-date=17 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Provenance Footnotes
1 Upon Seurat’s death in 1891, the artist's family appointed Paul Signac, Félix Fénéon, and Maximilien Luce to inventory the contents of the his studio and to distribute works to his friends and colleagues. This painting was No. 80 in the posthumous inventory, dated May 3, 1891.
2 Belgian Neo-Impressionist and friend of Seurat, Théo van Rysselberghe received a number of works from Seurat’s estate, among them, this painting.
3 On August 4, 1929, Fénéon wrote to de Hauke, offering three works by Seurat, including the Cleveland picture, ultimately selling it, as indicated by the correspondence among Fénéon, de Hauke, and Goodyear in the Seligmann/de Hauke & Co. records, to Goodyear in a sale brokered by de Hauke & Co. De Hauke invoiced Goodyear for the Seurat study on October 22, 1929.

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1958.51