Étude pour "Le Chahut" (Study for "Le Chahut")

“Study for Le Chahut” is the larger and later of two studies Georges Seurat executed for a final painting carrying the same title. From the point of view of the audience, we can see the interior of a dance hall where a chorus line of performers executes cancan-style choreography. This image is exemplary of a period in which Seurat almost exclusively depicted elements of the circus and Parisian cabaret acts. In contrast to “Study for La Grande Jatte,” 1884–85, made several years earlier, Seurat’s rhythmic application of color is used here to create movement—not stifle it. Infrared photographs of this painting reveal that Seurat initially drew a grid-like network of lines on the canvas. This allowed him to develop a carefully organized treatment of the composition. Seurat even continued his brushwork onto the dark border of the painting’s frame, using it as an integral aspect of the work.