{"id":214698,"date":"2026-08-30T15:16:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T13:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/?post_type=product&p=214698"},"modified":"2026-09-18T14:10:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T12:10:27","slug":"the-morning-walk-la-promenade-du-matin","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/en\/georges-seurat\/the-morning-walk-la-promenade-du-matin\/","title":{"rendered":"Georges Seurat \u2013 The Morning Walk"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Morning Walk is Seurat\u2019s small wooden panel of 1885: a view across the Seine towards Courbevoie, with a woman by the tree on the left. The original measures 15.7 x 24.9 centimetres, is painted in oil on wood, and is held in London by The National Gallery under inventory number NG6557. From us it is made as a hand-painted work, oil on canvas, in eight sizes or to your own measurements, and before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n<\/table>\n

The Morning Walk \u2013 Georges Seurat<\/h2>\n

What is in the painting?<\/h3>\n

A view across the river, set upright. The museum describes the composition as a series of stacked horizontal bands \u2013 foreground, river, far riverbank, and the houses and trees of Courbevoie in the distance. The vertical format is unusual for Seurat, but it is what allowed the stacking. The sky sits near the very top, which together with the bands reduces the effect of depth.<\/p>\n

Two verticals stand against the bands: the continuous tree trunk on the right and the shorter figure of a standing woman on the left, her brown dress echoing the darker brown of the tree. The museum adds that several components are reiterated from Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte<\/a> \u2013 the river and its grassy bank, a standing female figure, the emphatic vertical of the tree and the high skyline.<\/p>\n

Why a wooden panel and not canvas?<\/h3>\n

Because it is a sketch made on the spot. The museum says that between 1882 and 1886 Seurat made more than a hundred identically sized landscape studies on panels, in the long-established tradition of the plein-air oil sketch; many were preparatory for his first two monumental works. This one is from the summer when, after the Grande Jatte exhibition, he went on working in the neighbouring suburbs of Courbevoie and Asni\u00e8res.<\/p>\n

And the wood shows. The painter worked rapidly and left the bare panel visible between the brushstrokes \u2013 not a shortcoming but part of the effect: the pale wooden ground warms the colour from beneath. Our version is in oil colours on canvas and not on wood, and we do not blur that; what we carry across is the stroke and the colour, not the support.<\/p>\n

How is it made?<\/h3>\n

With broad, fluid strokes \u2013 and that is the most interesting thing here. The museum says plainly that Seurat had developed his pointillist technique by 1885, but that this panel shows his debt to Impressionism: the strokes are relatively large and fluid, not the tighter, more uniform brushwork of dots. A work from that moment stands between two methods, and we do not declare it to be something it is not.<\/p>\n

The strokes are sorted by what they describe. For the shimmering water the painter used horizontal lozenge-like strokes, for grass and foliage shorter and choppier ones, for the trunk longer and more sinuous ones. Pale yellows and whites across much of the panel create an effect of warm sunlight and set off the dark border formed by the tree and the touches of dark green at the very bottom.<\/p>\n

What has it to do with The Seine at Courbevoie?<\/h3>\n

Everything. The museum says this panel relates to a medium-size canvas, The Seine at Courbevoie<\/a>, now in a private collection in Paris, and that Seurat may have painted it before he decided to produce a finished painting of this view at all \u2013 or that it may be a preparatory study for it. The order is not certain even to the museum.<\/p>\n

Here that means something practical: the canvas stands with no institution and therefore with no year, no size and no accession number, while the panel has all three. Anyone who wants exactly this view of the river, with details that can be checked, finds them here.<\/p>\n

What happened to the original?<\/h3>\n

The museum publishes the whole route. The panel stayed in the artist\u2019s studio as number 89 until 1891, then was with L\u00e9o Gausson in Paris, 1860\u20131944, and by descent with Georges Tardif and his wife Marie Pr\u00e9vot in Paris until 1956. Wildenstein and Co. in New York followed, then Henry Ittleson Jnr between 1957 and 1973, then his wife Nancy Strauss until 1982; that year Heinz Berggruen bought it in Paris via Acquavella Galleries and presented it to the museum in 1995. That ownership history is the museum\u2019s; we add nothing to it.<\/p>\n

Berggruen presented a second Seurat panel to the museum the same year, and the two hang in the same room.<\/p>\n

Where does this work stand among Seurat\u2019s paintings?<\/h3>\n

Among more than a hundred small panels that were his notebook out of doors. In our gallery it stands beside The Channel of Gravelines, Grand Fort-Philippe<\/a>, held by the same museum in the same room and painted in the last year of his work, and Seascape at Port-en-Bessin<\/a> from Washington. He died in March 1891, aged just thirty-one.<\/p>\n

The method is called pointillism and the wider movement neo-impressionism. That is why a fine art reproduction of a famous painting from this circle looks different under different light \u2013 the colours mix in the eye, not on the canvas. On this panel the effect is still soft, because the strokes are broad.<\/p>\n

How is our hand-painted version made?<\/h3>\n

By hand and with a brush, never with a printer. Our painter works in oil colours on canvas, and with this subject the apparent speed is the hardest part: the strokes have to look as though they were laid down in one go, though they are considered. Smooth them and the scene goes flat; agitate them and it loses the calm banded structure. Every hand-painted copy is therefore one of a kind and no two are quite alike. Before dispatch we photograph the work and send you the photograph for approval.<\/p>\n

For this subject we currently have no studio photographs of our own of the finished work. When we next paint it, we will photograph it, and the photographs will appear on this page.<\/p>\n

Which size for which wall?<\/h3>\n

If you do not know which: 50 x 80 cm. This subject is unusual in our range because the original is very small \u2013 15.7 x 24.9 cm \u2013 and our smallest size, 16 x 25 cm, is only a few millimetres away from it. If you want the work at the size it was made, this is the only subject in our gallery where that is possible.<\/p>\n

The format is upright and narrow. 16 x 25 cm for a shelf, a table or a narrow wall beside a door; 40 x 60 and 50 x 80 cm for a living room; 60 x 95 and 70 x 110 cm stand on their own; 80 x 125, 90 x 140 and 100 x 160 cm turn a small sketch into a large work \u2013 a deliberate choice, not a mistake, since a stroke this broad enlarges easily. Every copy is made to order.<\/p>\n

Custom size, stretcher and frame<\/h3>\n

If none of the eight sizes fits your wall, we paint it to your measurements and keep the ratio of the original, so the bands are never stretched; that is our custom size painting<\/a>. Every copy arrives stretched on a wooden stretcher, ready to hang, and you choose the frame in our 3D frame viewer. At small sizes the frame makes the greatest difference, because the work is slight in itself. To see it on your own wall, use our separate room-placement service.<\/p>\n

Delivery and guarantee<\/h3>\n

Every copy is made to order in our studio in Slovenia, so allow 15 to 45 days depending on size. We ship it stretched and protected, framed if you chose one, across the EU, customs-free. You approve a photograph first, and our returns policy applies. The full range by this painter is in the Georges Seurat<\/a> gallery, and his open-air sketches are in our article on Georges Seurat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Frequently asked questions<\/h3>\n

Where is the original?<\/h4>\n

In London, at The National Gallery, inventory number NG6557, in Room 44.<\/p>\n

What year is it from?<\/h4>\n

The museum dates it to 1885 in its own record. In its text it says \u201cmost likely\u201d painted that year, and we pass that caution on, because it is the museum\u2019s.<\/p>\n

How big is the original?<\/h4>\n

The museum gives 24.9 x 15.7 centimetres, which in our width-by-height notation is 15.7 x 24.9 cm. It is a very small panel.<\/p>\n

Why wood and not canvas?<\/h4>\n

Because it is a sketch made out of doors. The museum says Seurat made more than a hundred such identically sized panels, and that the bare wood stays visible between the strokes.<\/p>\n

Is our version on wood too?<\/h4>\n

No. We paint in oil colours on canvas. We carry across the stroke and the colour, not the support, and we do not blur that.<\/p>\n

Is this really painting in dots?<\/h4>\n

The museum is careful about it: Seurat had developed the method by 1885, but the strokes on this panel are broad and fluid, not tight dots. So we do not simplify it either.<\/p>\n

Which work is it connected to?<\/h4>\n

The Seine at Courbevoie, a medium-size canvas now in a private collection in Paris. Whether the panel came first or was a study for it, the museum leaves open.<\/p>\n

Which size should I choose?<\/h4>\n

For a living room, 50 x 80 cm. If you want the size of the original, choose 16 x 25 cm \u2013 the original is a few millimetres from it.<\/p>\n

Can I have a size that is not on the list?<\/h4>\n

Yes. We paint to measure and keep the ratio of the sides of the original.<\/p>\n

Is this a print?<\/h4>\n

No. It is an oil painting reproduction made by hand; the strokes can be seen and felt, which a print cannot imitate.<\/p>\n

Is it suitable as a gift?<\/h4>\n

Very, at the small size especially. A slight work on a shelf or beside a table reads as personal in a way a large one cannot. To leave the choice to the recipient, there is a gift voucher<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Title:<\/td>\nThe Morning Walk<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Other titles:<\/td>\nThe Morning Walk \u00b7 La promenade du matin<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Painter:<\/td>\nGeorges Seurat (1859\u20131891)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Year painted:<\/td>\n1885<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Original size:<\/td>\n15.7 cm x 24.9 cm<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Original technique:<\/td>\nOil on wood (panel)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Painting style:<\/td>\nPointillism in the making \u2013 the museum notes the strokes here are broad and fluid, not dots<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Located at:<\/td>\nThe National Gallery<\/a>, London (inv. no. NG6557, Room 44)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Our reproduction:<\/td>\nhand-painted oil on canvas, 8 sizes from 16 x 25 cm to 100 x 160 cm, custom size on request<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n