Port en Bessin by Georges Seurat

This landscape is one of Seurat's more austere works, one that again reveals him to have been an ancestor of so-called abstract art.

A scene with as many things in it as this ( bridge, houses, breakwater, pavilion, people ) demands as much of an academic layout as a "picture that tells a story." No doubt that was what induced Seurat to paint this "composed landscape" under a relentless summer sun, clouds rolling in the heat.

Art critics Felix Feneon pointed out how stiff and affected the painting is, but he ascribed this defect to the presence of human figures. "We should like the figures shown walking on the quay at Port-en-Bessin to be less stiff". He recognized, however, that the child was charming. The little girl facing the viewer is the only poetic note in a painting otherwise positively "steely".

The red tones of the market, heightened by the afternoon sun shining on the end facing the village, have an antiphonal relationship with the strong greens of the rising land beyond. Interceding between them are the lavenders, wine reds, and blues of shaded areas, enlivened with oranges. This picture's painted border was clearly an afterthought. At the bottom it consists merely of horizontal streaks of blue. Next to the sky it is a balance of dark blue and orange, whereas on the left, to contrast with the purples and reds of the buildings, the border acquires some green touches.