Georges Seurat

Georges-Eugène Faillet dit Fagus, Paris
Sale: Enchères MSA, Pontoise, 10th December 2005, lot 142
Purchased at the above sale by the late owner

Paris, La Revue Blanche, Seurat, 1900
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Georges Seurat. The Drawings, 2007-08, no. 75, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Thadée Nathanson, 'Un primitif d'aujourd'hui: Georges Seurat' in La Revue Blanche, Paris, 15th April 1900, p. 610
César M. de Hauke, Seurat et son œuvre, Paris, 1961, vol. II, no. 529, illustrated p. 123

Executed on cream laid paper, not laid down, attached to the mount at all four corners, and floating in the overmount. The left and lower edges are deckled and there is a very minor irregularity intrinsic to the paper at the upper right edge, where a small pinhole is also visible. There is a small area of light medium rubbing to the right of the carriage and the sheet is slightly undulating, probably due to the way it is currently mounted. The sheet is slightly time-stained and there are a few spots of foxing in places, mainly to the upper right corner and to the right part of the uncoloured horizontal line across the centre of the composition. Otherwise this work is in overall good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Executed circa 1883, Le tombereau au cheval broutant ranks amongst the most abstract, elemental and austere drawings in Seurat’s œuvre. When the artist died prematurely at 31, only 230 paintings and 500 drawings survived him. His remarkably atmospheric and velvety conté crayon drawings are such successful and powerful images that they are arguably equally or if not more interesting than his pre-eminent painted œuvre. Manipulating the rich tones and textures of conté crayon, much easier to handle than charcoal, and by varying the pressure of his handling, the tone of these drawings ‘modulates from the deepest, most velvety blacks right through to the natural white on the paper; no longer are we conscious of individual pencil strokes, but merely of the process of uninterrupted becoming’ (John Russell, Seurat, New York, 1965, pp. 80 & 83). Together with Les deux charrettes (lot 123) also executed circa 1883, the present work relates to a series of drawings which the artist executed between 1881 and 1883 that depicted the suburbs in the outskirts of Paris. Seurat’s graphic process perfectly evokes the mixture of landscape and industry that was so typical of this particular area of France. Richard Thomson notes that these works ‘give ordinary objects and environments an epic, even metaphorical quality  […] these seem to be the drawings of an artist who is testing motifs, cataloguing observations, experiencing locales to which he is unaccustomed’ (Richard Thomson, Seurat, Oxford, 1985, p. 64).

Seurat’s works on paper, of which the present work is an excellent example, are particularly striking for their very distinctive and moody ambience and Gustave Kahn picked up on this in his observation that, ‘one of the characteristics of Seurat’s drawings is that they are done not so much for the line as for the atmosphere […] at times the drawing is conceived for the sake of the atmosphere’ (Gustave Kahn, The Drawings of Georges Seurat, New York, 1971, p. ix). The present work is saturated in its own particular atmosphere, and there is a very precise but intangible sense of elegiac duration evoked by the slow progress of the horse and cart dragging across the sheet. Seurat here perfectly captures the general sense of repetition and exhaustion at the end of a long day working the fields. Dusk is approaching too, that magical and mysterious threshold that bridges day and night.

This drawing was previously part of Georges-Eugène Faillet's collection. Also known as Fagus, Mr Faillet was a well-known symbolist poet, who counted many artists as his friends, including Seurat, Rodin and Baudelaire.