For his six harbour views, Seurat first makes a few chalk drawings and oil sketches en plein air. In the sketches he uses coarse dots and smudges for the colours he has in mind. He then details the works in his studio with wide and long brush strokes in various directions. Finally, he applies the distinct dots, the pointillé, on the dried under layer. He does not finish ‘Harbour entrance at Honfleur’. You can tell, for instance, by the beige foreground, the hull of the ship and the building on the left-hand side. There are dots here, but the coarse brush strokes from the preceding stage prevail. Seurat does not have time for the last – crucial – stage, applying the pointillé.
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