Seurat's study of a pair of legs for the painting Bathers at Asnières, 1884

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Art Bulletin of

Nationalmuseum

Stockholm Volume 21

Seurat’s Study of a Pair of Legs for the Painting Bathers at Asnières, 1884

Ulf Cederlöf

Senior Curator, Prints and Drawings

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4 Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 21, 2014

Photo Credits

Nationalmuseum Image Archives, from Domenico Fetti 1588/89–1623, Eduard Safarik (ed.), Milan, 1996, p. 280, fig. 82 (Figs. 2 and 9A, pp. 13 and 19)

Elke Estel/Hans-Peter Klut (Figs. 4, 5B, 6B and 7B, pp. 14–17)

The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo (p. 28)

Rohan.pdf, 2015-09-21, (p. 40)

© Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau (pp. 138–139)

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Cover Illustrations

Domenico Fetti (1588/89–1623), David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1617/20. Oil on canvas, 161 x 99.5 cm. Purchase: The Wiros Fund.

Nationalmuseum, NM 7280.

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Nationalmuseum Photographic Studio/

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Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum is published annually and contains articles on the history and theory of art relating to the collections of the Nationalmuseum.

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41 Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 21, 2014 acquisitions/seurat’s study of a pair of legs

Seurat’s Study of a Pair of Legs for the Painting Bathers at Asnières, 1884

Ulf Cederlöf Senior Curator, Prints and Drawings

Fig. 1 Georges Seurat (1859–1891), Study for the painting “Bathers at Asnières” 1884, 1883–84. Conté crayon, 240 x 305 mm. Bequest of Elisabeth Bonnier.

Nationalmuseum, NMH 50/2014.

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42 Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 21, 2014

acquisitions/seurat’s study of a pair of legs

(Fig. 2). The painting, set in the industri- al suburb of Asnières on the north bank of the Seine, 6.5 kilometres from the centre of Paris, shows a group of workmen cooling themselves by the river on an oppressive- ly hot summer Sunday. Absorbed in their own thoughts, they are depicted in severe, statuesque poses as they gaze out over the surrounding landscape. To the right, parts of the wooded island of La Grande Jatte can be seen; in the background, we can make out Asnière’s new railway bridge.

The drawing now acquired by the Mu- seum is a study for the figure in a straw hat sitting to the left in the painting (Fig. 3).

The technique is typical of Seurat’s method of working with highly textured paper and conté crayon, which consisted of a compres- sed mixture of graphite and charcoal with additions of wax or clay. All the lines are subordinated to entire planes and surfaces in varying values of black, produced by app- lying differing amounts of pressure to the crayon. Although a study for a larger work, the drawing is also a closed composition in its own right, with the leg forming a light, diagonal band across the picture plane.

Once the collections of Tessin and Sergel had come into public ownership, however, there was for many years insufficient fun- ding, knowledge and interest to fill the gaps in the holding by means of an on- going programme of acquisitions. Not until the 1960s was this problem recognised and an attempt made to remedy it by means of a more targeted and active acquisitions po- licy. The main emphasis in that context was on works originating in the late 18th and the 19th century.

For a long time, a really black, represen- tative drawing by the French Neo-Impressi- onist master Georges Seurat (1859–1891) was high on the Nationalmuseum’s list of priorities. In 2014, this wish was fulfilled by a magnificent bequest by Mrs Elisabeth

“Peggy” Bonnier of a drawing she had re- ceived as a 50th birthday present from her husband, the publisher Gerhard Bonnier.

Previous owners of the drawing includ the well-known New York-based art gallery Jac- ques Seligmann & Co.

The Nationalmuseum’s new acquisi- tion, a drawing of a pair of legs bent at the knees (Fig. 1), is a detailed study for one of the figures in Seurat’s famous colossal painting Bathers at Asnières from 1884, now in the National Gallery in London Alongside the Louvre, the National-

museum owns one of the most significant collections of pre-20th-century French drawings. In large part, this is thanks to one man – Count Carl Gustaf Tessin (1695–

1770). During his visits to France and his stay in Paris 1739–42, Tessin attempted to come by as many works on paper by contem- porary and earlier masters as he could. He was one of the bidders in the famous Paris sale of 1741, in which the drawings collection of the affluent banker and art collector Pierre Crozat went under the hammer, and was able to acquire at that one auction some 1,600 Old Master drawings. When Tessin finally sold his collection to the King Adolf Frederick in the early 1750s, it was as good as complete and would become part of the Royal Museum’s holding of art. In 1866 it was transferred to the newly opened Nationalmuseum.

A later collector of significance was the sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel (1740–1814).

As a student in Rome in the late 1760s and much of the 1770s, Sergel regularly exchanged drawings with his peers at the French Academy there. The sheets that came into his possession in this way would be acquired by purchase by the National- museum in 1875.

Fig. 2 Georges Seurat (1859–1891), Bathers at Asnières, 1884. Oil on canvas, 201 x 300 cm. National Gallery, London, NG3908.

Fig. 3 Georges Seurat (1859–1891), Bathers at Asnières, 1884. Oil on canvas, 201 x 300 cm. National Gallery, London, NG3908 (detail).