Horse and Boats (Study for "Bathers at Asnières")

Georges Seurat

National Gallery of Art

This painting depicts a riverbank scene. Nearest to us, three people sit on the grassy slope that leads down to the light blue water, facing the right. They wear dark blue clothes, and one has a yellow wide-brimmed hat, but their faces are indistinct. In the water behind them, a person in a white shirt with light skin appears to swim in the water, and behind them small boats glide across it. One boat appears to have a flag with thick stripes of red, white, and blue. A brown horse stands in the river on the left. In the distance, there are green shapes behind the water on the right, while on the left a line of pale cream lies under a light blue sky. The brushstrokes in the piece are short and thick, giving the painting a hazy appearance.