The Riverbanks 1883

Georges Seurat made this oil on canvas painting, "The Riverbanks," in France. The late 19th century saw Paris as the capital of modernity, but what can a landscape painting such as this tell us about the changing relationship between city and country? Seurat was interested in science and perception, and his paintings mark a break from Impressionism. Yet we see this artistic and technological interest turned towards the motif of a modernizing Paris, with the factory chimneys in the distance, changing both the air and water. We also get a strong sense of the light and atmosphere that he so carefully observed. Seurat was part of a generation that saw art as a vehicle for social change, but which also recognized the growing power of institutions like museums and galleries to shape artistic taste and cultural values. By visiting archives and reading social and institutional history, we can understand how "The Riverbanks" speaks to the artist’s position in the socio-economic changes around him.