In 1927, the British Museum acquired this fine drawing from two anonymous donors via the Art Fund. This is one of three drawings of a market porter that Seurat made around 1882. Wearing a broad-brimmed hat and carrying a stick, the figure is executed in conté crayon on a coarsely textured rag paper. Enhancing the anonymity of the figure is the absence of any detail and his reduction to a silhouette (the artist's favourite device), which imbues the work with monolithic simplicity.

Provenance

Jacques Rodigues-Henriques, Jean Metthey, Emile Verhaeren.