- Museum number
- 1968,0210.16
- Description
-
The Couple: study for 'La Grande Jatte', 1884
Conté crayon, touched with pen and dark grey ink
- Production date
- 1884
- Dimensions
-
Height: 314 millimetres
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Width: 236 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Label text (added 2003): See the remarks on 1968.2.10.17. Another figure study in conté crayon for 'La Grande Jatte' is in the Kröller-Müller Museum (Otterlo). Seurat painted an oil study of the same figures, 'Couple walking: Study for La Grande Jatte' (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum), in which he transposed the trees and figures that are seen in the distance in the BM drawing.
De Hauke, who bequeathed these two drawings to the BM, was the leading authority on Seurat's work, and the author of the standard catalogue in two volumes published in 1961.
The use of pen and dark grey ink was first noted by Tricia Paik (of MoMA New York) on a visit to the Department (10 May 2006).
Lit.: R. A. Parker, 'The drawings of Georges Seurat', 'International Studio', vol.91, 1928, no.376, p.17 (repr.); D. C. Rich, 'Seurat and the evolution of 'The Grande Jatte'', Chicago, 1935, p.30, pl.xii; J. Rewald, 'Georges Seurat', New York, 1946, p.96, fig.68; J. Rewald, 'Georges Seurat', Paris, 1948, p. 58, fig.43; XXVth Biennale catalogue, Venice, 1950, p.178; C. M. de Hauke, 'Seurat et son oeuvre', Paris, 1961, p.222, no.644 (repr.); J. Leighton et al., exhib.cat., National Gallery, London, `Seurat and `The Bathers``, 1997, no.82, and p.135, fig.156 (as c.1884-5); P. Stein, in exhib.cat., New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and London, BM, `French Drawings from Clouet to Seurat`, 2005, no.92 (with further literature); I. Seligman, 'Lines of Thought', London, 2016, no. 40, p. 79.
Like no. 91, this study of an elegant couple in the park formed part of Georges Seurat's elaborate preparations for his `Sunday on La Grande Jatte` in the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent technical investigations have furthered our knowledge of the sequence and function of the nearly sixty studies he made for the picture,(n.1) although whether the BM couple pre- or post-dates a compositional study in oil in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, remains a matter of debate.(n.2) As with the majority of the drawings in conté crayon, its purpose was to resolve the final form of figures that may have made their first appearance in the small oil panels; this involved simplifying and perfecting the forms into a pure geometry that was both recognizably modern and at the same time redolent of the power of primitive art or ancient reliefs.
Clues to the method by which Seurat enlarged and transferred his figures can be found in the residue of grids on some of his canvases.(n.3) The small, evenly spaced marks along the edge of the London drawing relate to this system of transfer.(n.4) The conté drawings also sought to establish the relative tonal values, which would then be replicated in colour on the final canvas. To this end, Seurat's handling of the crayon, worked lightly over the rough surface in a variety of directions, created luminous areas of tone with amorphous edges. In areas where a clearer definition of forms was needed, he reworked contours with a sharper-tipped point. These reinforced areas can be seen in the woman's bustle, her right forearm and her parasol. X-radiographs of the Chicago painting reveal that Seurat was still occupied with the precise silhouette of the woman's bustle when the execution of the painting was well advanced.(n.5)
`La Grande Jatte` has been a magnet for socio-historical interpretation, suggesting readings ranging from an allegory of social harmony to a dystopia of isolation within capitalist society.(n.6) The promenading couple in particular has proved enigmatic. Are they a proper and fashionable bourgeois couple enjoying a weekend stroll or, in their stiffness and flatness, are they being mocked for their pretension? Certainly Seurat's presentation of his fellow Parisians in `La Grande Jatte` is not without whimsy, but the drawings and panels reflect his tireless labour in crafting a monumental composition where the disparate figures of contemporary Paris were arranged, like so many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, into a harmonious whole.
Text by P. Stein, 2005 as cited above.
Notes
1 R. L. Herbert et al., exhib.cat., Art Institute of Chicago, `Seurat and the Making of 'La Grande Jatte', 2004, pp.178-95.
2 `Study for `A Sunday on `La Grande Jatte`, 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm (51.112.6). R. L. Herbert argues in favour of the traditional ordering with the London drawing preceding the New York sketch - see Herbert, 2004, op.cit., pp.79, 82 - while Frank Zuccari and Allison Langley in the same catalogue propose the reverse, pp.184-7.
3 Herbet, 2004, op.cit., pp.179-80.
4 For a composite photograph illustrating the placement of grid lines on the BM drawing, see Herbert, 2004, op.cit., p.181, fig.6.
5 Ibid., 2004, p.185, figs 9-11.
6 Art-historical interpretations of the painting are surveyed by Herbert in Herbert, 2004, op.cit., pp.162-9.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited
1932 Jan-Mar, London, Royal Academy, 'French Art 1200-1900', no.1003
1935 Feb, Chicago, Renaissance Society of the Univ of Chicago, Seurat, no.8
1949 Apr-May, New York, Knoedler, 'Seurat 1859-1891', no.37
1950 Venice, Biennale, 'Disegni di Georges Seurat', no.11
1950 Rome, Galleria dell'Obelisco, 'Georges Seurat', no.7
1954 Paris, Musée de l'Art Moderne, 'Toulouse-Lautrec aux Cubistes', no.197
1958 Jan-Mar, Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 'Seurat', no.102
1958 Mar-May, NY, MoMA, 'Seurat: Paintings and Drawings', no.102
1968 Jun, BM, 'The César Mange de Hauke Bequest', no.3
1981 Jan-Apr, London, V&A, 'Drawing: Technique & Purpose', no.32
1986 Mar-Apr, Oxford, Ashmolean, 'Impressionist Drawings', no.75
1986 Apr-Jun, Manchester Art Gallery, 'Impressionist Drawings', no.75
1986 Jun-Jul, Burrell Collection, Glasgow, 'Impressionist Drawings', no.75
1991/2 Sep-Jan, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'Seurat', no.136
1996 Apr-Aug, BM, French Drawings, (no cat)
1997 Jul-Sep, London, National Gallery, 'Seurat and 'The Bathers'', no.82.
2004 Jun-Sep, Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 'Seurat', no.63
2005/6 Nov-Jan, New York, Met Mus of Art, Clouet to Seurat/BM
2006 June-Oct, BM, Clouet to Seurat/BM
2017 May - Sep, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, 'Lines of thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now', no. 40
2017-2018 Oct - Jan, RISD Museum, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, 'Lines of thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now', no. 40
- Acquisition date
- 1968
- Acquisition notes
- Two exhibition labels on back of mount.
The drawing was in the collection of César Mange de Hauke when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1932.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1968,0210.16