The Anglers, Study for la Grande Jatte

Before he began the six-foot canvas that made his name, Seurat spent 1883 covering small wooden panels like this one with quick oil sketches along the Seine. This is a study of anglers on the island of the Grande Jatte, a strip of parkland where working Parisians spent their Sundays. He made around fifty such panels and drawings, testing figures, light and colour outdoors before composing the final scene in the studio. The little panel is barely the size of a hand, painted in short separate strokes. In the great picture the anglers were pushed to the far left edge, and the woman fishing here almost disappears among the crowd.