Georges Seurat

French, 1859-1891

Étude pour "Le Chahut" (Study for "Le Chahut")

Georges Seurat (French, 1859-1891). Étude pour "Le Chahut" (Study for "Le Chahut"), 1889. Oil on canvas in artist frame, 26 5/8 × 23 × 1 inches (67.6 × 58.4 × 2.54 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; General Purchase Funds, 1943 (1943:10).

Public Domain

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Public Domain

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

Public Domain

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

Étude pour "Le Chahut" (Study for "Le Chahut"), 1889

Artwork Details

Currently on View

Collection Highlight

Materials

oil on canvas

Measurements

support: 21 3/4 x 18 1/2 inches (55.24 x 46.99 cm); framed (artist frame): 26 5/8 x 23 x 1 inches (67.63 x 58.42 x 2.54 cm); frame: 30 13/16 x 27 5/16 x 2 7/8 inches (78.26 x 69.37 x 7.3 cm)

Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Credit

General Purchase Funds, 1943

Accession ID

1943:10

Study for Le Chahut is the larger and later of two studies Georges Seurat executed for the final painting. From the point of view of the audience, we can see the interior of a dance hall where a chorus line of performers executes cancan-style choreography. This image is exemplary of a period in which Seurat almost exclusively depicted elements of the circus and Parisian cabaret acts. In contrast to Study for La Grande Jatte, made several years earlier, Seurat’s rhythmic application of color is used here to create movement—not stifle it. Infrared photographs of this painting reveal that Seurat initially drew a grid-like network of lines on the canvas. This allowed him to develop a carefully organized treatment of the composition. Seurat even continued his brushwork onto the dark border of the painting’s frame, using it as an integral aspect of the work.