End of the pier, Honfleur

End of the Pier, Honfleur (1886) was painted during Seurat's summer at Honfleur, which also produced several of his finest coastal marines. The pier's geometric projection into the sea provided an architectural element that satisfied Seurat's taste for compositional structure, while the sea air and reflections challenged his divisionist technique. Honfleur, famous as the birthplace of plein-air painting in France, was an appropriate site for testing his systematic replacement of Impressionist spontaneity with scientific method. Kröller-Müller Museum.

The pier creates a strong diagonal receding into the picture space — unusual in Seurat's typically horizontal marine compositions — against a divided sea and sky. The stone structure is rendered in warm ochre dots contrasting with the cooler blues and greens of the surrounding water and sky.