During his stay in Honfleur, in the summer of 1886, Seurat worked on six harbour views at a time. ‘Harbour entrance at Honfleur’ is the first painting he starts with, but it remains unfinished. After eight days of work the black ship leaves the harbour. Yet Seurat immediately exhibits the canvas on the Salon des Indépendants when he returns to Paris. Two years earlier, he displayed his first major pointillist work at this exhibition of like-minded artists. The harbour view is also received well. The art critic Félix Fénéon calls it his ‘most excellent painting’.
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