Asnières is an industrial suburb west of Paris on the River Seine. Bathers at Asnières shows a group of young workmen taking their leisure by the river. Bathers at Asnières was the first of Seurat's large-scale compositions. He drew conté crayon studies for individual figures using live models, & made small oil sketches on site which he used to help design the composition & record effects of light & atmosphere. Some 14 oil sketches & 10 drawings survive. The final composition, painted in the studio, combines information from both. While the painting was not executed using Seurat's pointillist technique, which he had not yet invented, the artist later reworked areas of this picture using dots of contrasting colour to create a vibrant, luminous effect. For example, dots of orange & blue were added to the boy's hat. The simplicity of the forms & the use of regular shapes clearly defined by light recalls paintings by the Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca. In his use of figures seen in profile, Seurat may also have been influenced by ancient Egyptian art. ...

Traditionally called 'A Squall from the West', this painting probably shows the beach at Trouville. This sketch was presumably painted on the spot on 7 April, perhaps in the 1890s. The bleak mood of this empty beach is in contrast to the crowded beach sce ...

In 1873, following his imprisonment for his political activities during the Paris Commune, Courbet went into exile at La Tour-de-Peilz beside Lac Léman (Lake Geneva). This picture probably belongs to a group of views of Lac Léman painted in 1874. In technique & composition it recalls Courbet's earlier views of the Channel coast, which were influenced by Eugène Boudin & James Abbott Mc Neill Whistler. On loan to the exhibition ' Courbet & the Modern Landscape' at the J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles from February to May 2006; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from June to September 2006; & the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore from October 2006 to July 2007. ...

Create your own bespoke print of Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas’ Beach Scene from our collection. About this painting Beach Scene, about 1869-70 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 1917 With our custom print service, you can order your own fully customised reproduction from the National Gallery Collection & exhibitions. Choose your own size, print material & frames & have your masterpiece delivered straight to your door. ...

The painting shows groups of holiday makers taking the air at the beach. The artist worked a great deal on the Normandy coast, especially at the fashionable resorts of Trouville & Deauville. Two other beach scenes with the same title are also in the Col ...

This painting is one of the two panels in the Collection that may have belonged to Monet (see also, ' Beach scene, Trouville', 1870-4). Characteristic of Boudin's approach is the delicate fragmentation of the handling, which invests the scene with a sense of atmospheric freshness. This work records a bright but cloudy day with a group of fashionably dressed visitors gathered around a flagpole on the sandy beach. Between the misty blue of the sky & the brown tones of the s&, an emphatic white dress is visible in the centre, with touches of bright red & blue among the figures to each side. The seated figures to the left suggest comparison with Monet's painting of 1870, ' The Beach at Trouville', which probably shows Boudin's wife to the right, seated beside Mme Monet. ...

The altarpiece was divided into several pieces, probably in the 18th century, & has now been reassembled. The fragments entered the Collection at different dates. The main panel shows the Trinity (NG 727); with an angel on the right (NG 3162); & an an ...

Huber's picture is clearly a fragment of a larger composition. On the far right the hand of the blessing Christ is visible, as is part of his robe & his foot, but the rest of his figure has been lost. The subject of Christ taking leave of his Mother bef ...

Create your own bespoke print of Rembrandt’s Belshazzar's Feast from our collection. About this painting Belshazzar's Feast, about 1636-8 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 1964 With our custom print service, you can order your own fully customised reproduction from the National Gallery Collection & exhibitions. Choose your own size, print material & frames & have your masterpiece delivered straight to your door. ...

Create your own bespoke print of Melchior d' Hondecoeter’s Birds, Butterflies & a Frog among Plants & Fungi from our collection. About this painting Birds, Butterflies & a Frog among Plants & Fungi, 1668 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 1886 With our custom print service, you can order your own fully customised reproduction from the National Gallery Collection & exhibitions. Choose your own size, print material & frames & have your masterpiece delivered straight to your door. ...