There’s an undeniable bliss that comes from being next to a large body of water, and this cold London winter has left me craving a day trip to the seaside. However, my desire for escape was sated by visiting Seurat and the Sea at the Courtauld Gallery, where I wandered through quiet coastal towns and had the shore all to myself.
French painter Georges Seurat was dead by 31, but in fewer than 50 canvases he left an indelible mark on art history. By applying thousands of dots and dashes of pure colour right next to each other, he pioneered the technique of Pointillism, which in turn birthed Neo-Impressionism. The aim of this psychedelic morse-code was that the eye, rather than the brush, would blend colours together to create the image.
Though renowned for his scenes of leisuring Parisians such as Bathers at Asnières and A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, more than half of Seurat’s output (and the subject of this show) is stoic visions of the sea from towns along the northern French coast. Seeing as I’ve always found Seurat’s rendering of people somewhat flat and uninspiring, thankfully, these paintings are devoid of people – the only human presence being the boats punctuating the horizon. This heightens the sense of serenity as you trace the geometric silhouettes of ports and harbours mingling with the carefree contours of the surrounding coast. Pointillism really lends itself to seascapes, the unblended paint shimmering under the gallery spotlights like sunlight over the waves. And considering the conservators found in some pieces actual sand embedded right into the paint, you get the feel of Seurat roaming around with his travelling paint box, recording the beauty around him.
Pointillism lends itself to seascapes, the unblended paint shimmering under the gallery spotlights like sunlight over the waves.
Featuring works painted over five summers between 1885-90, the linear curation of the show tracks you through each stop Seurat made along the coast. As his style becomes more refined with each sojourn, dashes turn into dots, which condense tighter and closer, deepening the dreamy shading of these scenes. Period postcards displayed next to works like The Hospice and Lighthouse of Honfleur show the degree of accuracy with which he painted these locations. Two pieces – Petit-Fort Philippe and The Outer Harbour of Port-en-Bessin – are housed in painted frames where Seurat’s dots spill out of the piece and onto the border. This detail would be charming if it didn’t feel so out of place compared to the other mounts.
Staring at these paintings from the other side of the gallery, they become windows through which you can feel the sea breeze. At a distance, the pointillist dots and dashes turn photorealistic. ‘Let’s go get drunk on light,’ Seurat once wrote, which is apt because this group of works is precisely that; light studies. This is him returning to the fundamental aspect of not just painting but sight itself.
With 23 paintings and three sketches across two rooms, this is a very digestible exhibition that won’t leave you feeling gallery fatigue. And the £18 ticket which also lets you into the permanent collection costs about the same as a train out of London. So if you fancy a day trip without the journey, then keep this show in mind.
