Seascape at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy

Seurat made six paintings during six weeks at Port-en-Bessin in 1888. Here he omitted a medieval tower and tourists on the cliff paths. Even brush marks follow the landscape's contours and extend into the painted border. The coastal visit became a controlled study of line and color.

A green hill slopes toward the sea. Small, regular brush marks follow its direction.

A pale cliff interrupts the slope. The color change preserves its geological form without emphatic modeling.

A tiny red mark appears on the water. The small color accent remains distinct within the cool sea.

Colored strokes form layered clouds. The same painting principle joins sky, water, and land.

A dark upright pole rises from the hill. It crosses the landscape's prevailing sloping and horizontal directions.

Seurat combined academic training with contemporary theories of color perception. After his death the painting passed through his family and the critic Félix Fénéon, an active supporter and collector of Neo-Impressionism.