Painted 1887 SEATED MODEL (Study for The Models)
oil on panel, 9 1/2 x57/8". Unsigned The Louvre, Paris
Each of the three figures in the large painting The Models was the subject of a preliminary study by Seurat. In these three panels now in The Louvre, where they are brought together within one frame (they were formerly owned by Madeleine Knoblock, Seurat's mistress, and then by Félix Fénéon), the painter's technique is perhaps most apparent. They are a good illustration of his Chromo-Luminarism, his way of setting his dots like a swarm of tiny bees around the form they generate and define.