Cathy's Art Diary

Calming exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery looking at late works by Seurat of towns on the North Coast of France. The show brings together 26 paintings, oil sketches and drawings made by the artist during the five summers he spent on the northern coast of France, between 1885 and 1890. They are arranged chronologically with an excellent commentary and in some cases reproductions of postcards of the same scene. It is amazing how he builds such clear and accurate scenes out of dabs of colour. Despite the fact the show was very busy, the paintings had a calming effect, slowing people down with the pastel colours. I'd gone expecting to like the pure seascapes best, but I loved the scenes of coastal towns with signs of modern life. I think my favourite was this one of a busy harbour. Closes 15 May 2026 Reviews Times Guardian

Complex online lecture from the National Gallery speculating on the influence of Darwin’s ideas on the artist Georges Seurat. Emmelyn Buttterfield, Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, talked us through this complex argument focusing on Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grand Jette” of 1886. Noting that the ideas of Darwin were being widely discussed and that the anatomist at the Ecole de Beaux Artes was an advocate of them she outlined visual links in the picture. This argument mainly revolved around the figure of the monkey as Darwin was often depicted as a monkey in cartoons and in some examples had a similar serpentine tail to the one in the painting. She also discussed how the woman holding the monkey’s lead can be seen as a sexualised figure mirroring ideas of reproduction in Darwin. As you may have guessed from my tone I didn’t fully understand the argument and felt it may have been conflation of ideas around at the time which may not have been c...

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the life and work of the 19th century artist Georges Seurat. Amy Mechowski, a freelance art historian, started by leading us though Seurat’s life and techniques. She outlined ideas of colour contrast, Pointillism and Neo-Impressionism clearly, then talked us through the main paintings which used these ideas. I n the second half she focused on Seurat’s works which would appear in the “Radical Harmony” exhibition at the Gallery. Since I listened to the talk I have visited the show and this was a useful introduction to what I saw there.

This years Take One Picture exhibition at the National Gallery which choses a picture, this year Seurat’s “The Bathers” and asked schools to respond to it. Each school looked at a different aspects   of the picture landscape, leisure, work, clothes etc. One school had used what they had seen on the way to the gallery and did a picture map of the Thames with bridges across the river and people walking and sitting at either side. Some children from Barnsley had made a miner banner incorporating their town and images from the picture. One school had made sheep fleece felt hats like the boy in the water is wearing. However best of all was the wicket version of the dog made the Ysgol Griffith Jones School in Carmarthen. This show is always really interesting because as well as seeing how children have viewed a work it makes you look at it differently and see new things in it.

Workshop at the National Gallery in their “A Look Inside” series looking at Seurat’s “The Bathers”. This morning was led by Ben Street, a lecturer at the gallery, and examined whether the picture was of or against it’s time. It put it in the context of the impressionists but also looked at his more academic influences. We also discussed the social context of the picture and the fact it was painted the same year as “Sunday Afternoon at the Island of Grand Jatte” and whether the pictures could be viewed as a pair. We ended by spending about ¾ hour in front of the picture looking at the techniques in detail and sharing ideas from the session. A great way to spend a Saturday morning.