Georges Seurat, Study for 'La Grande Jatte'

This is one of nearly sixty studies Seurat made for his largest and most ambitious painting, 'La Grande Jatte', painted over two years between 1884 and 1886. In this drawing he considers how best to construct the landscape that he would later people with more than fifty painstakingly composed figures. Here their almost total elimination leaves a desolate scene, but shows how Seurat focused his attention, in this case on the proportions of the landscape and the way its elements direct the spectator’s eye around the space. While the dog would later interact with other figures, perhaps an indication of the specific social class of the visitors to the island on the Seine, here it acts as an accent of darkness in the foreground.