The Courtauld Gallery presents “Seurat and the Sea”
From 13 February to 17 May 2026, the Courtauld Gallery presents the exhibition “Seurat and the Sea”
Source: Courtauld Gallery. Image: Georges Seurat: Seascape at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy, 1888.
The Courtauld will present the first ever exhibition dedicated to the seascapes of the French artist Georges Seurat (1859–1891). Opening on 13 February 2026, this major exhibition will be the first devoted to Seurat in the UK in almost 30 years. It will chart the evolution of his radical and distinctive style through the recurring motif of the sea.
The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Seurat and the Sea follows major Impressionist exhibitions at The Courtauld, such as Cézanne’s Card Players, Van Gogh. Self-Portraits and, most recently, the acclaimed The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Monet and London. Views of the Thames, which was seen by a record 120,000 visitors and sold out its entire run, including extended opening hours to meet demand.
The Courtauld holds the largest collection of works by Seurat in the UK. The artist is best known as the creator of the Neo-Impressionist technique, in which shapes and light are rendered by juxtaposing small dots of pure colour. Due to his early death at the age of 31, Seurat has a very small pool of works and exhibitions devoted to him are rare.
The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Seurat and the Sea will bring together around 23 paintings, oil sketches and drawings made by Seurat during the five summers he spent on the northern coast of France, between 1885 and 1890. Working in port towns along the English Channel, including Honfleur, Port-en-Bessin and Gravelines, Seurat captured their seascapes, regattas and port activity in his distinctive Neo-Impressionist technique. He sought, in his words, ‘to wash his eyes of the days spent in the studio [in Paris] and to translate in the most faithful manner the bright clarity, in all its nuances’.
