Georges Seurat’s 1884 painting Seated Figures or Figures Assises in French was one of about 60 studies that the artist completed for his masterpiece A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
The positioning and the appearance of the five lounging figures in this study change significantly between the study and the final, but the play of light through the trees and the shadows cast around the figures clearly informed the artist’s approach in the larger composition. His unique brushwork technique, known as pointillism, was strongly influenced by Impressionism and was soon dubbed Neo-Impressionism.
Georges Seurat’s Seated Figures can be found in the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.