Past Exhibition

The New Painting

Painted entirely with small dots of pure color mostly in slate and azure blue, olive green, and cream white, this scene shows a sandy beach stretching to a lighthouse at the center and a four-story building to our right in this horizontal seascape. The tall, slender lighthouse standing on the water’s edge a short distance from us is painted with specks of azure and sky blue, ivory, and peach. In the distance to our left, a pier stretches into the sea along the horizon, which comes about two-thirds of the way up this composition. A sailboat floats just off the pier, near the left edge of the painting. To our right of the lighthouse and extending off the right edge of the canvas, the building has three levels of windows and a row of dormers along the tall, peaked roof. The building is painted with touches of dove gray, sapphire blue, and pale pink. In front of the building and to our right, a denim-blue shed has a tangerine-orange roof. A wooden rowboat outlined in cornflower blue with flecks of dandelion yellow rests on the sand next to the shed. In front of us, dots of moss green blend into the blond tones of the sand, creating an impression of grass on the beach. Sunlight shimmers on the sea to our left, which is painted with short dashes of mint and seafoam green, baby blue, cream, and shell pink, beneath a clear, ice-blue sky.
Georges Seurat, The Lighthouse at Honfleur, 1886, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983.1.33

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    West Building, Main Floor, Galleries 72 through 83 (9,000 sq. ft.)
Painted entirely with small dots of pure color mostly in slate and azure blue, olive green, and cream white, this scene shows a sandy beach stretching to a lighthouse at the center and a four-story building to our right in this horizontal seascape. The tall, slender lighthouse standing on the water’s edge a short distance from us is painted with specks of azure and sky blue, ivory, and peach. In the distance to our left, a pier stretches into the sea along the horizon, which comes about two-thirds of the way up this composition. A sailboat floats just off the pier, near the left edge of the painting. To our right of the lighthouse and extending off the right edge of the canvas, the building has three levels of windows and a row of dormers along the tall, peaked roof. The building is painted with touches of dove gray, sapphire blue, and pale pink. In front of the building and to our right, a denim-blue shed has a tangerine-orange roof. A wooden rowboat outlined in cornflower blue with flecks of dandelion yellow rests on the sand next to the shed. In front of us, dots of moss green blend into the blond tones of the sand, creating an impression of grass on the beach. Sunlight shimmers on the sea to our left, which is painted with short dashes of mint and seafoam green, baby blue, cream, and shell pink, beneath a clear, ice-blue sky.
Georges Seurat, The Lighthouse at Honfleur, 1886, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983.1.33

Overview: About 160 works were a representative cross section of the works believed to have been shown at the original impressionist exhibitions, held from 1874 through 1886. The show commemorated the 100th anniversary of the last of these exhibitions. The paintings and drawings, selected by Charles S. Moffett of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, were hung in chronological sections to evoke each of the original 8 Paris shows.

Organization: The exhibition was coordinated by Charles Stuckey and Florence E. Coman. Gaillard Ravenel, Mark Leithauser, and Moffett designed the exhibition, and Gordon Anson designed the lighting for the National Gallery.

Sponsor: The exhibition was supported by AT&T and by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Petit journal: The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, by James D. Herbert. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1986.

Attendance: 407,055

Catalog: The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, by Charles S. Moffett. San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1986.

Brochure: The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1986.

Other Venues:

  • Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (revised version), 04/19/1986–07/06/1986

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