Trees (study for La Grande Jatte)1884
Seurat drew these trees in black Conté crayon, a waxy chalk that catches on the raised grain of textured paper and leaves the hollows white, so that forms seem to emerge from a soft, glowing darkness rather than from outlines. More about this work
About this work
Seurat drew these trees in black Conté crayon, a waxy chalk that catches on the raised grain of textured paper and leaves the hollows white, so that forms seem to emerge from a soft, glowing darkness rather than from outlines. The sheet is a study for his monumental painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884, in the same collection, for which he made many drawings of individual figures, animals and trees. Here he concentrates on masses of light and shadow, the tonal structure that underpins the finished picture.
Written by Ochre Editions.
What you’re looking at
A work made of black conté crayon, on white laid paper, laid down on cream board.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Laid paper
- Handmade on a mould of close-set wires, which leave fine parallel lines you can see when the sheet is held to the light.
Georges Seurat
French, 1859–1891 · Born and died in Paris.
Seurat trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and studied the colour theories of Chevreul and others before developing pointillism, building pictures from small, separate touches of pure colour meant to combine in the eye. His large compositions, planned through many drawings and oil sketches, include Bathers at Asnières and A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884, shown at the last Impressionist exhibition in 1886. His black conté crayon drawings are equally distinctive. He died suddenly at thirty-one.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Post-Impressionism
Artists who kept Impressionism's colour but pushed towards structure, symbol and feeling.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1966.184
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Drawing and Watercolor
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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More by Georges Seurat
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