Bathers at Asnieres

Working-class men and boys lounge, wade, and bathe on the grassy bank of the Seine at Asnieres, the factory chimneys of industrial Paris smoking across the river. Seurat composes this large canvas with monumental calm, the figures still and weighty, the surface built from careful, even strokes. Now in London's National Gallery, Bathers at Asnieres is his first great work - ordinary leisure given the gravity of a classical frieze. Its companion across the water, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, is also in this collection.