On the traces of the impressionist painters at Asnières-sur-Seine

With a little imagination you can envisage this town on the banks of the Seine north-west of Paris as it was at the end of the 19th century, a meeting place for swimmers, bathers and boaters.

Between the bridges Pont d’Asnières and Pont de Clichy, this very original tour takes you on a journey of discovery of the scenes that inspired such illustrious painters as Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and Vincent Van Gogh. Along the way you can stop and listen at your leisure to descriptions of the landscapes at one of six bilingual terminals (in French and English), or opt for a guided tour that starts from the tourist office.

The birth of Neo-Impressionism

Seurat’s painting of “Bathers at Asnières,” 1884, is seen as the birth of the neo-impressionist movement, which took the impressionist’s explorations of light even further to experiment with the separation of colour. The recordings at each terminal describe the different techniques used by the artists.

It was in masterpieces such as “The Bridge at Asnières” by friend of Seurat, Paul Signac that we see the first examples of Pointillism. Vincent Van Gogh also joined Signac on his travels, and his fascination with the blend of industrial architecture with a seaside atmosphere inspired a huge number of paintings, including *“*Factory at Asnières” and *“*The Restaurant de la Sirene at Asnières,” both of which are part of the Musée d'Orsay collection.

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