The Courtauld (Institute of Art & Gallery)

Behind the Scenes of Seurat's Process 🎨 | The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Seurat and the Sea

The Griffin Catalyst exhibition’s video pulls back the curtain on Georges Seurat’s on‑site painting practice, spotlighting an oil sketch he completed in the summer of 1890 on the sandy shores of Gravelines. The work, a compact panel rendered with Seurat’s portable travel paint box, captures an abstracted beach where sea and overcast sky meld into a single tonal field. Curators and conservators, led by Karen, applied scientific tools—X‑ray radiography, infrared imaging, and pigment analysis—to dissect the sketch’s material composition. These methods confirmed the absence of an underlying drawing, identified the specific pigments Seurat employed, and mapped the precise placement of his characteristic dots. Microscopic examination revealed minute grains of sand literally trapped in the paint, corroborating the claim that the panel was painted outdoors. The analysis also noted subtle fading of red pigments and variations in dot application, offering concrete evidence of Seurat’s technique and the work’s aging process. The findings enrich understanding of Seurat’s plein‑air methodology, bolster provenance verification, and inform future conservation strategies. By marrying art history with scientific inquiry, the project underscores how technical research can deepen appreciation of iconic modernist practices.