Fishmen by Georges Seurat

This is one of the studies of river scenes that preceded Bathers at Asnières. It shows very clearly Seurat's development away from the line to silhouette. The fishermen holding their poles parallel to the water look like figures in a shadow play. The artist here sums up a quintessential experience with a minimum of brush strokes and hardly any descriptive apparatus.

The men are waiting, quiet and motionless, their dark silhouettes blending into the riverbank. With the infinite patience of their breed, they sit there, not even moving their heads. All this is conveyed plastically, suggested by spots of color, tones, and planes against the rippling stream. The boat is receding into the shadows of approaching night.

This is not chiaroscuro by Rembrandt, but something else entirely. The planes have been reduced to their tones, without further detail, and yet we can make out the individual expression of each figure.

In works such as this, Seurat reveals a sensitivity to the silhouette which will characterize much of his later work. The technique for rendering dark forms against light ground, if it has a source outside of Seurat, must derive from Daumier.