The Seine with Clothing on the Bank

In 1883 Seurat spent his days along the Seine at Asnieres, an industrial suburb just north-west of Paris where factory chimneys stood close to the riverbank. He worked on small wooden panels he could hold in one hand, painting quickly outdoors to fix the light and the lie of the land. This is one of them, a study of clothes left on the bank while their owners swam. He was gathering pieces for a very large canvas, Bathers at Asnieres, where working men rest by that same grey-green water. The Paris Salon turned the big picture down in 1884. These little panels are where you can watch him building it, one patch of colour at a time.