The Channel at Gravelines, Grand Fort-Philippe 1888

Georges Seurat painted The Channel at Gravelines, Grand Fort-Philippe on canvas using oil paints. Painted in France, Seurat’s landscapes of this northern coastal region focus on its artificial waterways. The scene here is ordered into horizontal bands. The pointillist technique emphasizes the industrialisation of leisure through scientific rationalisation, the systematic application of pigment, and the impersonal repetition of motifs. The Paris Salons promoted an academic hierarchy of genres, with historical and allegorical scenes at the summit and landscapes at the bottom. Seurat exhibited at the Salon, but his work received the scorn of conservative critics. He joined the Société des Artistes Indépendants in response, which hosted alternative exhibitions. By displaying this area as a place of recreation, is Seurat critiquing its social impact? To understand this, one could explore the exhibition histories of the Paris Salon and the Société des Artistes Indépendants and read contemporary reviews of Seurat’s paintings to find the cultural meaning of his work.