In this small composition, carefully placed brushstrokes create a seascape in the distance and a rocky cliffside at right. Georges Seurat painted this work in the summer of 1886 during one of his visits to Honfleur, a town on the Normandy coast of France. Earlier that same year, he had established himself as an emerging artist at the eighth and final Impressionist exhibition in Paris. The marine scenes Seurat painted during these visits are central to his body of work. Preparatory studies like this example reveal his explorations of color theory and innovative pointillist techniques, or the practice of applying small, distinct dots of color to the canvas that blend together at a distance. He returned regularly to the French coast to capture the atmosphere and light of various locations until his death in 1891.