Georges Seurat's 'Bathers at Asnières'

This is a description of 'Bathers at Asnières' by Georges Seurat, painted in 1884. It is an enormous landscape, 2 metres high by 3 metres wide, oil on canvas in an ornately patterned gold frame.

The painting features seven seemingly male figures, some dressed, some in swim wear. Five are lounging on the bank of the river Seine on a warm, sunny day, the other two in the water.

The top third of the canvas is light blue sky with trees to the left and right. It is flecked with dabs of white, either to suggest clouds or to give the sky an unfocused appearance. The lower two thirds of the painting are divided diagonally from top left to bottom right. On the left, the grassy riverbank, and on the right, the river. The whole scene has been painted with a variety of visible brushstrokes. The array of dabs, flicks, and sweeps of paint give the scene a shimmering, slightly hazy quality.

In the far distance, on the right of the horizon, is a cluster of large, white and pink-orange buildings. Their tall, thin chimneys, one of which emits a large cloud of grey smoke, identify them as factories. To the left of the horizon runs a bridge – a low white plume of steam suggesting a train travelling across it.

One figure dominates the scene in the centre, sitting on the riverbank trailing his legs in the water. He is in profile, facing right, shoulders slumped. He wears just a pair of light red shorts. His skin is a pale whitish-pink. He has ear-length reddish-brown hair, his face in shadow, only his mouth visible by the profile of his lips. His large Roman nose gives him the appearance of an old emperor depicted on a coin. But the clothes that lie on the grass around him give the impression of a work uniform: a white coat, brown shoes and trousers, and a cream straw hat. Could he be a factory worker on his break?

Another more neatly folded pile of the same kind of clothing lies the grass on the far left edge of the painting, perhaps belonging to one of the two figures standing in the water. One has his back to us, almost submerged to his shoulders. The other, nearest to us, stands waist high, giving a glimpse of his red shorts. He wears a reddish-orange hat, the low brim almost completely covering his black hair. Seurat has picked out the shadow on the back of the hat with blue dots, a brief appearance of the technique that would come to be called pointillism. The figure, more boy than man, cups his hands to his mouth as if calling to someone.

Moving back onto the grassy bank on the left, three figures in the distance sit hugging their knees or sprawl out.

In the bottom left foreground, a fourth figure, much closer, lies on his side, his back to us. His head is to the left, propped up on his hand. He wears a white coat, dark trousers and boots, and a black bowler hat. A small reddish-brown dog, lies at his back, looking at the water.

The river is populated by five boats. Three have white sails while two are rowed. One of these is a long, slim racing boat, traveling to the right, rowed by a figure bent double with effort. The other moves left at a seemingly more leisurely pace, a man in a straw hat punting. The French flag hangs limp at the front of the boat - its passengers a man in a black coat and top hat, and a woman partly hidden behind a white sun parasol. Their clothes mark them out as bourgeois, middle-class, but they are so much smaller, and seem insignificant compared to the central figure sitting on the riverbank. He is the focus of Seurat’s painting - an anonymous working-class man, at rest, depicted on a monumental scale.

In the bottom left-hand corner of the painting, the artist has signed his last name, “Seurat”.