White Houses, Ville d'Avray (Maisons Blanches, Ville D'Avray)

In this painting, Seurat focuses on a group of three houses behind a wall which are framed to either side with foliage. The foreground is divided into two rectangular bands, one yellow and the other green, coaxing a hidden geometry out of the entire scene. The façades of the buildings add further stark simplicity to the design as they have been flattened to make them more cubic. The blue band of the sky at the top of the picture echoes the rhythms of the foreground and wall, enhancing the harmony of the composition. His instinctual classicism is immediately apparent in this landscape, clearly done directly from nature.