Can art offer an alternative to meditation apps? This exhibition certainly tries
Calming seascapes by Seurat at the Courtauld will take you on a dotted journey to the French coast.
Georges Seurat (1859-1891), Seascape at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy , 1888, oil on canvas, 65.1 x 80.9cm. Gift of the W. Averell Harriman Foundation in memory of Marie N. Harriman, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Courtauld does it again. The gallery has found the formula for sell-out shows. Take a big artist, choose a narrow theme, put only the best works together. Voilà. And who can blame them for coming back to this formula? It works. After the success of their Van Gogh and Monet shows, now it is time for Seurat and the Sea.
Courtauld has the largest collection of Georges Seurat’s (1859-1891) works in the UK. But they are not one of those places to do a thematic rehang of the paintings from the existing collection and charge you money to see it. No. Courtauld goes all in, bringing in works from major art museums across the UK, Europe and the US.
Themed around the sea, this exhibition is both dazzling and calming. At the height of his pointillist (or Neo-Impressionist) era, Seurat was committed to the little dots that cover the canvas from top to bottom. The effect is as desired – glittering. But the subject matter – seascapes in the middle of summer – provide a contrasting feeling of serenity.
Georges Seurat (1859-1891), The Beach at Gravelines , 1890, oil on panel, 16 x 24.5cm. Courtauld Gallery, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust) ©Courtauld
As the show’s curator Dr Karen Serres points out, of only 44 canvases that Seurat painted, more than half were seascapes. And as this exhibition demonstrates, they played a major role in the development of his pointillist technique.
Seurat was a Parisian through and through. He also did not need to sell art to make a living – so, he could afford to experiment, and he could afford to travel. For several summers in a row, he left the French capital and headed to the northern coast.
Paris may be the ‘City of Light’, but Seurat needed to ‘cleanse’ his eyes now and again to reconnect with the natural light that was scarce in the metropolis. To translate the light that he found, he needed a method that would allow him to pay homage to the Impressionists, but be different from them. Pointillism, or chromoluminarism as he called it, gave him the answer: unblended dots of colour placed next to each other, creating a vibrant effect – enhancing each other.
Georges Seurat (1859-1891), The Channel at Gravelines, Evening, 1890, oil on canvas, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William A. M. Burden, 1963, Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York / Scala, Florence
While on paper this method sounds rigid, the works in this show prove that for Seurat it was just a starting point. Each painting is a masterclass of meditation, so popular nowadays. Viewers can share this meditative state with the artist, losing themselves in the multitude of dots that come together, transporting them to the French seaside. (I am not sure if the crowds expected at this show will allow for anything more than a couple of seconds, but those are worth it).
Seurat was eager to show his works in public. Even though he only sold a couple in his lifetime, he religiously finished works in time for the Salon des Indépendants – an artist-led group show that provided an alternative to the outdated views of the official Salon. Seurat’s grand Bathers at Asnières, now among the National Gallery’s major masterpieces, was one of the Salon’s rejects.
Unlike the Bathers, the works in this show are comparatively small in scale, arguably ideal for individual contemplation. On entering this show the eyes are spoiled for options. Bathed in comforting summer light, the landscapes seem to offer an escape – timely for a wet and grey London spring.
Installation view, The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition_ Seurat and the Sea, Courtauld Gallery. Photo © Fergus Carmichael
Seurat merged reality and fiction in his works. Comparative postcards from the time show us that he depicted the coasts truthfully. He then omitted almost all human presence, merely suggesting it with somewhat exaggerated white sails. The clouds in the sky also seem to float in peculiar fashion.
The exhibition is situated across two rooms and reunites some canvases that haven’t been seen together in well over a century. By colour-coding the wall labels, the curators give you a sense of groupings – paintings made in the same summer share the same colour. Two years are presented with the complete series of paintings from those summers. This allows the viewer to witness the artist’s train of thought – as each painting has a different viewpoint.
Just outside the exhibition, in one of the main rooms, more works by Seurat neighbour paintings by his famous contemporaries, Manet and Cézanne included, doing what Courtauld does best: placing the artist neatly within the context of his time.
The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Seurat and the Sea, Courtauld, London, 13 February – 17 May 2026.