The Forest at Pontaubert by Georges Seurat

Here, the shimmering light of the later works is presaged. The atmosphere is rendered by dots that form a golden mist. This technique of a facile, almost Pre-Raphaelite symbolism was later employed by his friend Ernest Laurent with disastrous results and eventually degenerated into Gaston Latouche's gilded banality. Seurat, however, makes but sparing use of it in this sentimental mood. The tree trunk at right imparts solidity to the melting landscape, and the other lines have been thoughtfully distributed.

Behind the elegiac appearance of this canvas, we can discern certain qualities which Seurat will develop later. The stiffly vertical tree in the foreground will turn up again and again - in La Grande Jatte, and in other works.