Man with a Hoe

Man with a Hoe is among Seurat's early figural paintings from 1882, made when he was just twenty-two and deeply engaged with Millet's peasant subjects. Seurat had been studying Millet's drawings in the Cabinet des Estampes and the monumental solemnity of Millet's field workers — bent, anonymous, enduring — became a touchstone for his first independent works. This canvas predates pointillism entirely: in 1882 Seurat was still working through the tonal approach that characterised his remarkable drawing practice, and his paintings of farm workers carry a similar weight and gravity. The National Gallery of Art in Washington holds the work.

The early Seurat palette is sober, built on earthy tones and controlled tonal gradation rather than the systematic colour division of his later work. Brushwork is cross-hatched and deliberate, creating surface texture that translates his drawing practice into paint.