Peasant with a Hoe

c. 1882

Georges Seurat

Associated Names
Georges Seurat

Artist, French, 1859 - 1891

This painting shows a person bent over, working the land outdoors. The person is in the center of the painting, surrounded by green grass and dark trees. The sky is not visible. In the bottom left corner, there is a section of brown earth. The person leans over the edge of this patch, putting a tool with a long handle to the ground. The person is dressed in gray clothes and wears a dark hat. The brushstrokes in the painting are broad, short, and visible. Small strokes of different colors are layered over one another, giving the scene an indistinct and hazy look. The color palette includes greens, dark blues, yellows, browns, and ochres, all overlapping with one another, almost like a kaleidoscope.

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist [1857-1891], until his death.[1] Jacques and Pierre Puybonnieux, Paris, until 1956.[2] (Wildenstein, Paris). Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia, by 1958;[3] bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to his wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon [1910-2014].
[1] Atelier Seurat, posthumous inventory, no. 58.
[2] Jacques and Pierre Puybonnieux were the sons of Marie Puybonnieux, Seurat’s cousin, who probably inherited the painting from Seurat’s mother. They were probably the lenders to the 1933 Paris exhibition Seurat et Ses Amis, as they did lend a small panel formerly in the Adele and Arthur Lehman collection.
[3] Lent to Seurat Paintings and Drawings, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1958, no. 30, as Peasant at Work.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1933

  • Seurat et ses amis, Exposition de la Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1933, no. 163.

1958

  • Seurat, Paintings and Drawings, The Art Institute of Chicago; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1958, no. 30, as Peasant at Work.

1966

  • French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington,1966, no. 136, repro.

Bibliography

1959

  • Dorra, Henri, and John Rewald. Seurat, l'oeuvre peint, biographie et catalogue critique. Paris, 1959: no. 45, repro.

1991

  • Grenier, Catherine. Seurat: Catalogue complet des peintures. Paris, 1991: no. 35, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20189540

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