Seurat: Bathers at Asnières (One Painting, One Story)

Special Gallery price £10.00 - RRP: £12.99

Although beloved today, Georges Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières was rejected from the Paris exhibition to which it was first submitted. Painted in 1884 when the artist was only 24 years old, the monumental work was intended to make a statement. Meticulously planned, its detailed composition starkly contrasts with the spontaneity sought by Seurat’s Impressionist peers. 

The leisurely scene of men relaxing on the bank of the Seine is suffused with hazy sunlight but evokes an eerie stillness. Each of the figures appears to exist in isolation. Alastair Sooke unpicks this intriguing artwork, which presents a picture of a society clearly divided by class, and explores how the painting preceded Seurat’s masterpiece A Sunday on La Grande Jatte – 1884 and his ascent to becoming a giant of modern art.

Author

Alastair Sooke is an author and broadcaster, and chief art critic at The Telegraph. He has written and presented more than 60 hours of television and radio for the BBC, and authored several books including a study of Henri Matisse and a history of Pop Art. He was educated at the University of Oxford and the Courtauld Institute of Art.