id: 135512 accession number: 1958.51 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.51 updated: 2024-03-26 01:58:45.569000 Study for "Bathers at Asnières", c. 1883–84. Georges Seurat (French, 1859–1891). 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. 1958.51 title: Study for "Bathers at Asnières" title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1883–84 creation date earliest: 1883 creation date latest: 1884 current location: 222 Impressionism & Post-Impressionism creditline: Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: oil on wood panel department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Georges Seurat (French, 1859–1891) - artist Georges Seurat entered the École Municipale de Sculpture et de Dessin in Paris at the age of fifteen, where he studied with the sculptor Justin Lequien (1826-1882) and met Aman-Jean (q.v.). At the École des Beaux-Arts three years later he was taught by Henri Lehmann (1814-1882), a former pupil of Ingres (q.v.). He developed an interest in the color theory of Michel-Eugène Chevreul, who had postulated how the isolation and juxtaposition of colors can affect their perception. In the Louvre he studied the works of two master colorists, Rubens (1577-1640) and Delacroix (q.v.). Seurat attended the Fourth Impressionist Exhibit in 1879, and he later confessed to be particularly shocked by the works of Monet (q.v.) and Pissarro (q.v.). After spending a year in military service on the Breton coast, Seurat started experimenting with drawing, using conté crayon and heavily textured "Ingres" paper to build up his figures through a wide range of tones, avoiding contour outlines. He also probably read Ogden Rood's Théorie Scientifique des Couleurs, which further investigated the perception of color and advocated the use of pure color in painting. Seurat additionally undertook to analyze the optical and emotional effects of various color combinations in his paintings, initiating studies for the Bathers at Asnières (1883, National Gallery, London). This painting appeared at the 1884 Salon des Indépendants, where he met Paul Signac (1863-1935), who became an important spokesman for neo-impressionism. Seurat's next major painting, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-86, Art Institute of Chicago), established him as the leader of the neo-impressionists. He began spending his summers on the Normandy coast, where he often started his large canvases that he would finish in his Paris studio during the winter. He was protective of his position as leader of the neo-impressionists, causing arguments with Pissarro and Signac in the late 1880s. His interest in using pure color influenced the symbolists as well as later "hard edge" painters of the modern era. --- measurements: 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.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Seurat and "The Bathers" opening date: 1997-07-02T00:00:00 Seurat and "The Bathers". National Gallery, London (organizer) (July 2-September 28, 1997). title: Seurat and the Making of "La Grande Jatte" opening date: 2004-06-16T00:00:00 Seurat and the Making of "La Grande Jatte". The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (June 16-September 19, 2004). title: Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2006-05-27T00:00:00 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). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': '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).', 'opening_date': '1955-05-01T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE Estate of the artist, distributed to Théo van Rysselberghe1 date: c. 1883/1884-1891 footnotes: *
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.
citations: Théo van Rysselberghe [1862-1926], Saint-Clair, Var, France date: 1891-? footnotes: *
Belgian Neo-Impressionist and friend of Seurat, Théo van Rysselberghe received a number of works from Seurat’s estate, among them, this painting.  
citations: Felix Fénéon [1861-1944], Paris, sold to Anson Conger Goodyear through de Hauke & Co date: Until 1929 footnotes: *
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. 
citations: Anson Conger Goodyear [1877-1964], Old Westbury, NY date: 1929- footnotes: citations: (Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York) date: ? footnotes: citations: Walter Bareiss [1919-2007], Greenwich, CT date: ? footnotes: citations: (Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York, sold to Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.) date: footnotes: citations: (Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. [1889-1957], Cleveland, OH, bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: 1952-1958 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1958- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS d'Argencourt, Louise, Roger Diederen, and Alisa Luxenberg. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. page number: url: de Hauke, César M. Seurat et son œuvre. Paris: Gründ, 1962. page number: url: 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]. page number: url: 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]. page number: url: 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]. page number: url: de Hauke, César M. Seurat et son œuvre. Paris: Gründ, 1962. page number: url: 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]. page number: url: 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]. page number: url: d'Argencourt, Louise,Roger Diederen, and Alisa Luxenberg. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. page number: url: de Hauke, César M. Seurat et son œuvre. Paris: Gründ, 1962. page number: url: d'Argencourt, Louise, Roger Diederen, and Alisa Luxenberg. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. page number: url: d'Argencourt, Louise, Roger Diederen, and Alisa Luxenberg. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. page number: url: Cleveland Museum of Art. In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. page number: Reproduced: no. 35 url: The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LXVI, no. 6 (June, 1959): 122. page number: Mentioned: p. 122 url: Dorra, Henri, Georges Wildenstein, John Rewald, and Félix Fénéon. Seurat. Paris, France: Les Beaux-arts, 1959. page number: url: Hauke, César M. de. Seurat et son œuvre. Paris, France: Grund, 1961. page number: url: Hauke, César M. de. Seurat et son œuvre. Paris, France: Grund, 1961. page number: Reproduced: p. 198 url: Russell, John. Seurat. London, United Kingdom: Thames and Hudson, 1965. page number: Reproduced: fig. 123 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 180 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n204 Courthion, Pierre, and Norbert Guterman. Georges Seurat. New York, NY: H.N. Abrams, 1968. page number: Reproduced: p. 23 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 180 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n204 Minervino, Fiorella . L'opera completa di Seurat. Milano, Italy: Rizzoli, 1972. page number: Reproduced: p. 90 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 223 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n243 Monneret, Sophie. L'impressionnisme et son époque: dictionnaire international illustré. Paris, France: Denoël, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 242, vol. 2 url: Alexandrian, Sarane. Seurat. Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1983. page number: Reproduced: p. 22 url: Clark, T. J. The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers. New York, NY: Knopf, 1984. page number: Reproduced: p. 157-158. fig. 58 url: Rewald, John. Seurat: A Biography. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, 1990. page number: Reproduced: p. 65 url: Herbert, Robert L., and Georges Seurat. Georges Seurat, 1859-1891. New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991. page number: url: Zimmermann, Michael F. Seurat and the Art Theory of His Time. Antwerp, Belgium: Fonds Mercator, 1991. page number: Reproduced: p. 158, fig. 296 url: Fohr, Robert. "Une Baignade, Asnieres." Dossier de l'Art (April/May 1991): 10-15. page number: Reproduced: p. 14 url: Robinson, Fred Miller. The Man in the Bowler Hat: His History and Iconography. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1993. page number: Reproduced: p. 35, fig. 7 url: Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. page number: Reproduced: p. 221 url: Leighton, John, and Richard Thomson. Seurat and the Bathers. London, United Kingdom: National Gallery Publications, 1997. page number: Reproduced: p. 155; Mentioned: p. 58-60 url: Clark, T. J. The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999. page number: Reproduced: p. 157, no. 58 url: Prette, Maria Carla, and Alfonso De Giorgis. Leggere l'arte: storia, linguaggi, epoche, stili. Firenze, Italy: Giunti, 1999. page number: Reproduced: p. 126, no. 3 url: D' Argencourt, Louise, and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: vol. 2, p. 589-592, no. 207 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.51/1958.51_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.51/1958.51_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.51/1958.51_full.tif