This drawing is one of forty from a sketchbook which marks the transition of Seurat's drawing technique from its linear beginnings to the mature, characteristic style of the 1880s.

That Seurat began to evoke form almost without the
aid of contour gave his technique a new immediacy
in terms of both handling and structuring of the
picture plane. From then on, his procedure
functioned on two levels, which, though intimately
related, required the spectator to focus his eyes,
so to speak, at two different depths: first, on
the surface of the drawing itself, the actual
graphic rendering consisting of a highly
differentiated superimposition, interpenetration,
and nuancing of flat passages "woven through" with
strokes; and second, on the deeper level of the
subject, which was only suggested instead of
clearly defined, and thus existed in a separate
realm from the marks and traces, in the realm of
the Other. The subject was therefore an illusion
simultaneously offered to and withdrawn from the
spectator, appealing to his imagination while
receding from its final grasp. (E. Franz and
B. Grave, Georges Seurat Drawings, New York,
1984, p. 46)