Bathers at Asnières by Georges Seurat at the National Gallery, London
Welcome to “Art, Culture & Books” with me Anthony King. Today I’ll be taking you on a video and photographic tour of Bathers at Asnières by Georges Seurat painted in 1884 which is at the National Gallery in London, England. Seurat’s initial major work, painted before he turned 25, was meant as a grand statement for the official Paris Salon in 1884 but it was unfortunately rejected. This large oil painting on canvas was one of his first monumental pieces of two. The painting captures men and boys at leisure by the Seine in Asnières, an industrial suburb north-west of central Paris. They remain still, lost in their thoughts and unengaged with one another. The scene, bathed in bright yet hazy sunlight, creates an unusual