Georges Seurat, 'The Channel of Gravelines, Grand Fort-Philippe', 1890
About the work
Overview
This is one of four paintings Seurat produced in 1890 near the town of Gravelines, a small port on the northern French coast between Calais and Dunkirk. Positioned on the sand dunes of Petit-Fort-Philippe, we see the shore in the morning light after the receding tide has left a broad expanse of open beach in the foreground.
Using the horizontal blue stripe of the channel, Seurat divides the painting into two near-equal halves of sky and sand. The vertical lines of the masts and signal tower are echoed just below by two mooring posts, subtly connecting these two halves .
Seurat covers the canvas with a shimmering mosaic of dots and strokes of unblended paint to create subtle gradations of luminous tone. He has also added a painted border of coloured dots. Each section of the border complements the adjacent area of the picture to intensify the impact of the colour.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Channel of Gravelines, Grand Fort-Philippe
- Artist
- Georges Seurat
- Artist dates
- 1859 - 1891
- Date made
- 1890
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 65 × 81 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- Bought with the aid of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, 1995
- Inventory number
- NG6554
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the National Gallery’s Annual Report, ‘The National Gallery Report: April 1995 – March 1996’ and supplemented by Isobel Muir.
Exhibition history
-
2009Georges Seurat: Figure in SpaceKunsthaus Zürich2 October 2009 - 17 January 2010Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt4 February 2010 - 9 May 2010
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2014Seurat. Master of pointillismKröller-Müller Museum24 May 2014 - 7 September 2014
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2014Neo-impressionism: Paris, Brussels, c.1890The Phillips Collection27 September 2014 - 11 January 2015
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2018Courtauld Impressionists: From Manet to CézanneThe National Gallery (London)17 September 2018 - 20 January 2019
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2019The Courtauld Collection. A Vision for ImpressionismFondation Louis Vuitton20 February 2019 - 17 June 2019
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2023After Impressionism: Inventing Modern ArtThe National Gallery (London)25 March 2023 - 13 August 2023
Bibliography
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1891É. Verhaeren, 'Georges Seurat', La Société nouvelle, VII, 1891
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1891A. Retté, 'Septième exposition des artistes indépendants', L'Ermitage, 1891
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1925A. Ozenfant and C. Jeanneret, La peinture moderne, Paris 1925
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1929M. Dormoy, 'La collection Courtauld', L'Amour de l'Art, 1929, pp. 49-50
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1931R. Rey, La renaissance du sentiment classique, Paris 1931
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1931C. Roger-Marx, Seurat, Paris 1931
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1932P. Jamot and P.M. Turner, Collection de tableaux français faite à Londres 20 Portman Square par Samuel et Elisabeth Courtauld, 1914-1931, London 1932
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1943J. Rewald, Georges Seurat, New York 1943
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1954D. Cooper, The Courtauld Collection: A Catalogue and Introduction, London 1954
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1959H. Dorra and J. Rewald, Seurat: L'oeuvre peint; biographie et catalogue critique, Paris 1959
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1961C. de Hauke, Seurat et son oeuvre, Paris 1961
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1985R. Thomson, Seurat, Oxford 1985
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1990E. Lee, Seurat at Gravelines: The Last Landscapes (exh. cat. Indianapolis Museum of Art, 14 October - 25 November 1990), Indianapolis 1990
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1991M.F. Zimmermann, Seurat and the Art Theory of His Time, Antwerp 1991
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1991R.L. Herbert, Seurat (exh. cat. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 9 April - 12 August 1991; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 24 September 1991 - 12 January 1992), Paris 1991
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1991R. Kendall, Van Gogh to Picasso: The Berggruen Collection at the National Gallery (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 16 January - 21 April 1991), London 1991
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1994J. House, Impressionisim for England: Samuel Courtauld as Patron and Collector, London 1994
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1996National Gallery, The National Gallery Report: April 1995- March 1996, London 1996
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1997P. Smith, Seurat and the Avant-Garde, New Haven 1997
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.