Tickets now on sale for The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Seurat and the Sea
Tickets are now on sale for the first month of The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Seurat and the Sea, which opens at The Courtauld Gallery from 13 February – 17 May 2026.
The Courtauld will present the first ever exhibition dedicated to the seascapes of the French artist Georges Seurat (1859–1891). This major exhibition will be the first devoted to Seurat in the UK in almost 30 years, and will chart the evolution of his radical and distinctive style through the recurring motif of the sea
It follows major Impressionist exhibitions at The Courtauld Gallery, such as Van Gogh. Self-Portraits and, most recently, the acclaimed The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Monet and London. Views of the Thames.
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 25 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’.
These works are an important counterpoint to his Parisian works, which are better known and more widely studied. This exhibition will therefore provide a unique opportunity to reassess an important but often overlooked aspect of Seurat’s career. It will include loans from major private collections and public institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia; the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Indianapolis Museum of Art; the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; the Musée des beaux-arts, Tournai; the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; the National Gallery, Prague; Tate and the National Gallery, London.
The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Seurat and the Sea will be accompanied by a beautifully illustrated catalogue, which will showcase the results of research on Seurat’s seascapes, their technical development and their importance in disseminating the artist’s work beyond the monumental canvases for which he is best known.
The exhibition’s title supporter is Griffin Catalyst, the civic engagement initiative of Citadel
Founder and CEO Kenneth C. Griffin.
Tickets for 13 Feb –13 Mar 2026 are now available to book.
The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Seurat and the Sea
13 February – 17 May 2026
