Seurat and the Sea

Exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, London, 13 February – 17 May 2026

The French painter Georges Seurat (1859–1891) is best known as the founder of the Neo-Impressionist technique. Working in port towns along the English Channel – notably Honfleur, Port-en-Bessin and Gravelines – Seurat captured their seascapes, regattas and harbour activity in his luminous and evocative style. These coastal works provide an important counterpoint to his better-known Parisian scenes.

This catalogue of the first exhibition dedicated to Seurat’s seascapes brings together paintings, oil sketches and drawings produced during the five summers the artist spent on the north coast of France, between 1885 and 1890. By focusing on this key aspect of his practice, it sheds new light on the development of his unique approach to colour, light and form, and reveals the importance of seascapes in the dissemination of the artist’s work beyond the monumental canvases for which he is primarily known.