Port-en-Bessin

Georges Seurat

1888

Oil on canvas

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A pointillist painting depicts a harbor scene with buildings, a bridge, a pier with a covered structure, and figures on a sandy area. The sky is blue with white clouds. A pointillist painting depicts a harbor scene with buildings, a bridge, a pier with a covered structure, and figures on a sandy area. The sky is blue with white clouds. In the summer of 1888, Georges Seurat worked in Port-en-Bessin, a small fishing village in Normandy. He painted six views of the seaport and its surrounding countryside. His intention was to translate as exactly as possible the luminosity of the open air, with all its nuances. Although Seurat shared the Impressionists' goal of translating nature's light and color, he also wished to make Impressionism more precise. He wanted to replace its spontaneous, improvisational