Description
Trees is one of 40 studies Georges Seurat did for his masterpiece, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884. With these studies, the artist refined the individual elements of his composition so that together they would form a harmonious whole. Here he focused on the trees near the riverbank, using the rich tones of the conté crayon and the grainy paper surface to approximate the appearance of his paintings. In the final painting, Seurat combined the tree in the foreground and the one leaning out over the river in order to orient the composition toward the water.
Provenance
Seurat family [invoice]; by descent to Mme Léopold Appert (1881-1969), Paris [according to New York 1991]; Private Collection, Paris, by 1958-1966 [Chicago 1958; according to New York 1991]; sold to Wildenstein and Company New York, March 1966 [according to New York 1991]; sold to the Art Institute, 1966.
Accession Number
154022
Medium
Black Conté crayon, on white laid paper, laid down on cream board
Dimensions
62 × 47.5 cm (24 7/16 × 18 3/4 in.)
Classification
conté crayon
Credit Line
Helen Regenstein Collection
