In works such as the delicate but mathematically precise A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat (1859–1891) showed his mastery of pointillism. For the first time, small dots of pure color rendered shape and light, ushering in the Neo-Impressionist era. Seurat loved to paint the sea, and returned to it “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.” This exhibition at the Courtauld brings together 27 paintings, oil sketches, and drawings, all made from 1885 to 1890 during five summers on France’s northern coast. Along the English Channel—in Honfleur, Port-en-Bessin, and Gravelines—Seurat took in the rocky coastline, the waves, the horizon. —Elena Clavarino