This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:A Woman Fishing
Artist:Georges Seurat (French, Paris 1859–1891 Paris)
Date:1884
Medium:Conté crayon
Dimensions:12 1/8 x 9 3/8 in. (30.8 x 23.8 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1951; acquired from The Museum of Modern Art, Lillie P. Bliss Collection
Object Number:55.21.4
Lady Fishing
La Pêcheuse à la Ligne
Femme qui Pèche
Etude pour la Grande Jatte
Inscription: On verso, in blue pencil: "G. Seurat - / L"
On verso, in red pencil, upside down: "354" [posthumous inventory dessin number]
Inherited from artist by his brother Emile Seurat (French)from 1891 until no later than 1906; Félix Fénéon (French)by 1926, until January 1928; De Hauke & Co., New York (American), for Jacques Seligmann & Co., Jan - March 1928[stock no. 1141]; William Macbeth Inc., New York, from March 1928 until 1929; Lizzie Plummer Bliss (American), by 1929 until her death in 1931; Bliss Bequest in 1934 to Museum of Modern Art, New York 1934 until purchase by MMA, 1951
Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, Paris. "Exposition Georges Seurat (1859-1891), 1908-09," December 14, 1908–January 9, 1909.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Memorial Exhibition: The Collection of the Late Miss Lillie P. Bliss," May 17, 1931–September 27, 1931.
Andover, Mass. Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy. "Memorial Exhibition: The Collection of the Late Miss Lillie P. Bliss," October 17, 1931–December 15, 1931.
Indianapolis Museum of Art. "Memorial Exhibition: The Collection of the Late Miss Lillie P. Bliss," January 1932.
Alger House Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts. "Masterpieces of 19th and 20th Century French Drawings," May 1, 1941–June 1, 1941.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Modern Drawings," February 16, 1944–May 10, 1944.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Drawings in the Collection of the Museum," 1947.
Buchholz Gallery, New York. "Seurat : His Drawings," March 4, 1947–March 29, 1947.
Wildenstein & Co., Inc. "Six Masters of Post-Impressionism : Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat, Lautrec, Rousseau, van Gogh," April 8, 1948–May 8, 1948.
Palazzo Centrale, Venice. "XXV Biennale Internationale d'Arte di Venezia," June 8, 1950–October 15, 1950.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Seurat: Drawings and Oil Sketches from New York Collections," September 29–November 27, 1977.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Nineteenth Century French Drawings and Prints," June 23–August 23, 1981.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Georges Seurat, 1859–1891," September 24, 1991–January 12, 1992.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," February 26–May 5, 1996.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Georges Seurat: The Drawings," October 9, 2007–January 7, 2008.
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Georges Seurat: Figure in Space," October 2, 2009–January 17, 2010.
Vienna. Albertina. "Seurat, Signac, Van Gogh. Ways of Pointillism," September 16, 2016–January 8, 2017.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Lillie P. Bliss and the Birth of the Modern," November 17, 2024–March 29, 2025.
de Hauke 635; Paris-New York 1991, no. 125, Dorra and Rewald 1959, no. 131a
Exposition Georges Seurat (1859-1891) Exh. cat., Paris, Galeries Bernheim-Jeune, 14 December 1908 - 9 January 1909. Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, Paris, Paris, 1908, cat. no. 43.
Lucie Cousturier Les Dessins de Georges Seurat Exh. cat., Paris, Galeries Bernheim-Jeune, 29 November - 24 December 1926. Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, Paris, Paris, 1926, cat. no. 107.
Exhibition of Water-Colors and Drawings Exh. cat., March 5 - 24. De Hauke & Co., New York, New York, 1928, cat. no. 16.
Gustave Kahn Les Dessins de Georges Seurat (1859-1891) [2 portfolios of reproductions]. Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, Paris, vol. 2, Paris, 1928, fig. no. pl. 91, ill.
Forbes Watson "Other Exhibitions." The Arts. vol. 13, no. 3, New York, March 1928, p. 189, ill.
Christian Zervos "Une Dimanche à la Grande Jatte et la technique de Seurat." Cahiers d'Art. vol. 3, Paris, 1928, p. 369, ill.
Fourth Loan Exhibition: The Collection of Miss Lillie P. Bliss. Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., 1931, cat. no. 114.
Memorial Exhibition: The Collection of the Late Miss Lizzie P. Bliss. Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1931, cat. no. 140, ill.
Guy Pène du Bois "The Lizzie P. Bliss Collection" The Arts. 17, no. 9, New York, 1931, p. 604, ill.
Alfred H. Barr Jr. Modern Masters from the Collection of Miss Lizzie P. Bliss Exh. cat., Indianapolis, John Herron Art Institute, 1-31 January 1932. John Herron Art Institute, 1932, cat. no. 109.
French Drawings and Prints of the Nineteenth Century. Exh. cat., March 21 - April 28. Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1934, cat. no. 68, p. 14.
The Lillie P. Bliss Collection. Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, 1934, cat. no. 64, ill.
Master Drawings, Selected from the Museums and Private Collections of America Exh. cat., The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, January 1935. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, 1935, cat. no. 129, ill.
Twenty-Four Paintings and Drawings by Georges-Pierre Seurat Exh. cat., Chicago, Renaissance Society, 5 - 25 February 1935. Edited by Daniel Catton Rich, Chicago, 1935, cat. no. 17, ill.
Daniel Catton Rich Seurat and the Evolution of "La Grande Jatte". Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago Press, Studies in the Meaning of Art, Chicago, 1935, fig. no. pl. II, xiii, pp. 20, 53, ill.
Jerome Klein Modern Masters. Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, 1938, p. 19, ill.
Masterpieces of 19th and 20th Century French Drawing from the Fogg Museum of Art at Harvard University and the Museum of Modern Art of New York City. Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, 1941, cat. no. 58, p. 14.
Master Drawings. Bryan Holme, American Studio Books, 1st ed. (2nd: April 1944; reprint Sept. 1945). New York and London, 1943, fig. no. pl. 112, p. 15, ill.
From Paris to the Sea down the River Seine. Exh. cat., 28 January - 27 February. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 1943, cat. no. 23.
"Catalogue List of Modern Drawings Exhibition." Bulletin of the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts. Washington County Museum of Fine Arts , Hagerstown, MD, vol. 10, no. 1, October 1,. 1944, cat. no. 108, p. 3.
Modern Drawings. Monroe Wheeler, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1944, p. 97.
Modern Drawings: An Exhibition Circulated by the Museum of Modern Art. Exh. cat., 14 February - 14 March. Milwaukee Art Institute, 1945.
"Modern Drawings." Worcester Art Museum News Bulletin and Calendar. Worcester Art Museum, 1945, pp. 1, 3, ill.
Umbro Apollonio Disegni di Seurat. Edizioni del Cavallino, Venice, 1947, fig. no. pl. VIII.
Curt Valentin Gallery Seurat: His Drawings Exh. cat., New York, Buchholz Gallery, 4-29 March 1947, coinciding with the publication of Germain Seligman, 'The Drawings of Georges Seurat'. New York, 1947, cat. no. 3.
Germain Seligman The Drawings of Georges Seurat. Curt Valentin Gallery, New York, 1947, cat. no. 6, p. 48.
Alfred H. Barr Jr. Drawings in the Museum of Modern Art. Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, 1948, cat. no. 204, p. 11, ill.
Louis Lozowick A Treasury of Drawings from Pre-History to the Present. Lear Publishers, New York, 1948, fig. no. pl. 61, p. 13, ill.
Six Masters of Post-Impressionism: Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat, Lautrec, Rousseau, van Gogh. Exh. cat., 8 April - 8 May. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 1948, cat. no. 61, p. 58.
M. Berthe "Les Dessins de Georges Seurat." Arts Plastique. July - August,. Brussels, 1950, fig. no. 124, p. 211, ill.
Regina Shoolman, Charles E. Slatkin Six Centuries of French Master Drawings in America. Oxford University Press, New York, 1950, fig. no. pl. 126, p. 224, ill.
Robert L. Herbert Seurat: Paintings and Drawings Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago, 16 January - 7 March 1958, and New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 24 March - 11 May 1958. Edited by Daniel Catton Rich, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1958, cat. no. 73, p. 29.
Henri Dorra, John Rewald Seurat: L'oeuvre peint; biographie et catalogue critique. Les Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1959, cat. no. 131a, p. 140.
"MMA Bulletin" French Drawings. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 17, no. 6, New York, February 1959, p. 170, ill.
Joseph-Emile Muller Seurat : Dessins. Fernand Hazan, Paris, 1960, Third page (unnumbered text), fig. no. pl. 18, ill.
César de Hauke Seurat et son oeuvre. vol. 2, Paris, 1961, cat. no. 635, pp. 214-215, 287, ill.
John Russell Seurat. Oxford University Press, New York and Toronto, 1965, fig. no. 146, p. 159, ill.
Pierre Courthion, Norbert Guterman Georges Seurat. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., The Library of Great Painters, New York, 1968, pp. 21, 24, ill.
Daniel Catton Rich Seurat and the Evolution of La Grande Jatte. Greenwood Press, reprint of 1935 edition. New York, 1969, fig. no. pl. II, xiii, pp. 20, 53.
Hideji Takashima Ed. Manet, Claude Monet, Seurat. Holp Shuppan, Holp 'World Famous Paintings' series, Tokyo, 1970, Section 2.
Gustave Kahn, Stanley Appelbaum The Drawings of Georges Seurat [Translation and reprint of 'Les Dessins de Georges Seurat', Paris, 1928]. Dover Books, New York, 1971, fig. no. 111, xi, ill.
Louis Hautecoeur Georges Seurat. Fratelli Fabbri Editori, Milan, 1972, fig. no. 28, p. 88, ill.
Fiorella Minervino, André Chastel L'opera completa di Seurat. Rizzoli, See also French edition, 'Tout l'oeuvre peint de Seurat', Italian. Milan, 1972, cat. no. D23, pp. 101, 102, ill.
Fiorella Minervino, André Chastel Tout l'oeuvre peint de Seurat. Ernest Flammarion, See also Italian edition, 'L'opera complete di Seurat', French. Paris, 1972, cat. no. D23, pp. 101, 102, ill.
Iku Takenaka, Atsushi Miyakawa, Shuji Takashina Seurat et le Néo-Impressionnisme. Chuokoron-sha, Les Grands Maîtres de la Peinture Moderne - 9, Tokyo, 1972, fig. no. V, p. 113, ill.
Mitsuhiko Kuroe Pissarro–Sisley–Seurat. Shueisha, Japan, 1973, fig. no. 8, p. 100, ill.
Hideji Takashima P. Cézanne, Seurat. Holp Shuppan, Tokyo, 1973, Section 2.
Hilton Kramer "Seurat, A Master of Elusive Perceptions" New York Times. 30 September,. New York, 1977, p. 62, ill.
Jacob Bean Seurat, Drawings and Oil Sketches from New York Collections. Exh. cat.: September 29 - November 27, 1977. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1977, cat. no. 31.
Norma Broude Seurat in Perspective. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1978, p. 74.
Richard Thomson Seurat. Phaidon Press, Oxford, 1985, fig. no. pl. 108, pp. 102, 103, ill.
Michael F. Zimmermann "Seurat, Charles Blanc, and Naturalist Art Criticism." The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies - Special Issue: The 'Grande Jatte' at 100. Art Institute of Chicago, vol. 14, no. 2, Chicago, 1989, fig. no. 11, p. 208, ill.
Alain Madeleine-Perdrillat, Jean-Marie Clarke Seurat. Editions Albert Skira (Geneva), Rizzoli (New York), French & English eds. published simultaneously by Skira &Rizzoli. Geneva and New York, 1990, p. 70, ill.
John Rewald Seurat: A Biography. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Thames and Hudson, Revised from 1943 text with additional material and bibliography. New York and London, 1990, p. 79, ill.
Nicolas Bourriaud "Seurat en Pointille." in Beaux-Arts Magazine. no. 89, Paris, April 1991, p. 62, ill.
Françoise Cachin Seurat et le rêve de l'art-science. Librairie Gallimard, Réunion des Musées Nationaux , Peinture, Paris, 1991, p. 138 (table of illustrations), fig. no. 6, p. 6, ill.
Anne Distel Seurat. Chêne, Switzerland?, 1991, fig. no. 11, p. 153, ill.
Robert L. Herbert, Françoise Cachin, Anne Distel, Susan Alyson Stein, Gary Tinterow Georges Seurat, 1859-1891. Exh. cat., Paris, Grand Palais, 9 April 1991 - 12 August 1991, and MMA, 24 September 1991 - 12 January 1992. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, English version; French version also published. New York, 1991-1992, cat. no. 125, pp. 188-189, ill.
Richard Tilston Seurat. Bison Group, London, 1991, pp. 17, 19, ill.
Michael F. Zimmermann, Jérôme Ferry, Solange Schnall, Karin Fanny Williams Les Mondes de Seurat, son oeuvre et le débat artistique de son temps. Fonds Mercator (Anvers), Albin Michel (Paris), French edition (also see German ed.). Antwerp and Paris, 1991, fig. no. 335, p. 180, ill.
Philippe de Montebello Masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Barbara Burn et al., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1993, p. 239.
Rose-Marie Hagen, Rainer Hagen "Im Paradies der Kleinbürger sind alle Menschen Fremde." Art : Das Kunstmagazin. no. 9, Hamburg, September 1996, p. 88, ill.
Richard Shiff "L'experience digitale : Une problématique de la peinture moderne." Cahiers du musée nationale d'art moderne. Centre Georges Pompidou, no. 66, Hiver,. Paris, 1998, p. 50, ill.
Colta Ives, Elizabeth E. Barker Romanticism and the School of Nature : Nineteenth-Century Drawings and Paintings from the Karen B. Cohen Collection. Exh. cat.: October 17 - January 21, 2001. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University Press, New York, 2000, fig. no. 74, p. 232, ill.
Robert L. Herbert, Neil Harris Seurat and the Making of 'La Grande Jatte.' Exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago, 16 June - 19 September. Art Institute of Chicago, University of California Press, Chicago, 2004, cat. no. 28, pp. 85, 88, 264,, ill.
Sam Hunter, John Jacobus, Daniel Wheeler Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography. Prentice Hall, 2005, fig. no. 24, p. 25, ill.
Jodi Hauptman, Richard Thomson, Richard Shiff, Karl Buchberg, Hubert Damisch, Bridget Riley George Seurat: The Drawings. Exh. cat. Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, 2007, cat. no. 104, p. 251, ill.
Christoph Becker, Julia Burckhardt Bild Georges Seurat: Figure in Space. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich, October 2, 2009-January 17, 2010, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, January 4-May 9, 2010. Ostfildern, 2009, ill. p. 54., cat. no. 30.
Ways of Pointillism. Heinz Widauer, Hirmer Verlag, Vienna, 2016, cat. no. 5, p. 35, 38, and 285, ill.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's collection of drawings and prints—one of the most comprehensive and distinguished of its kind in the world—began with a gift of 670 works from Cornelius Vanderbilt, a Museum trustee, in 1880.
