The Gardener

Although Seurat is best known for his scenes of urban life, many of his paintings of 1881–84 depict rural laborers and landscapes. He initially favored an earth-toned palette reminiscent of the work of earlier painters of the countryside, such as Jean-François Millet. However, the bright hues of this picture reflect Seurat’s growing interest in Impressionist techniques and his reading of treatises on color, especially the American Ogden Rood’s Modern Chromatics (published in English in 1879, and in French in 1881).