Seurat uses the forms in the landscape – houses, walls and trees – to provide a composition made up of strong horizontals and verticals, right angles and diagonals. Like Seurat's 'The Riverbanks', this small oil sketch was probably painted outside, directly in front of the motif, using a hand-held painting box (une boîte à pouce). Seurat uses criss-crossing brushstrokes to create a texture which helps unify the whole picture surface. Although the brushstrokes are less pronounced in the sky and on the white walls, they can be seen in the grass, the bushes and in the trees. Seurat experiments too with small, separate touches of colour, even using complementary colours. Here he uses violet in the shadows and sets oranges against the blues.