Man Painting a Boat

Georges Seurat

1883

Oil paint on wood

24.4 x 15.9 cm

This swiftly painted scene shows the young Georges Seurat engaging with the mid-19th tradition of painting outdoors. Its cool colours, applied with criss-cross brushstrokes, also reveal Manet’s influence. However, it is at that period that Seurat began to move away from the innovations of older artists in search of a more methodical way of capturing colour and light.

Samuel Courtauld bequest, 1948

Photo Ⓒ The Courtauld