Clothes on the Grass

Clothes on the Grass (1883) is a preparatory study for Bathers at Asnières in which discarded clothing and towels spread on the riverbank provide a subject for tonal and chromatic study. Such studies demonstrate the systematic, almost scientific approach Seurat brought to his preparation for major canvases: every element in the final composition had to be studied independently in natural light. The informal subject — garments tumbled on grass — becomes, through Seurat's attention, a precise study in the optical behaviour of colour under full sunlight. Tate, London.

The varied colours and textures of fabrics against green grass gave Seurat a wide range of chromatic relationships to explore. The strokes are broad and direct in the plein-air manner, capturing the intense summer light on white and coloured cloth with tonal precision rather than fully developed divisionism.