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The French painter Georges Seurat did no have much time on this earth. He died at 31. But three decades was enough to produce a body of work that still dazzles its viewers. New York's Museum of Modern Art now presents an exhibit that traces the development of Seurat's sketches and drawing. The show runs through January 7, 2008. But regardless of whether you make it to Manhattan, the companion webpage calls out for a lingering visit. Richly designed, loaded with content, it's a visual treat in itself. Broken into three primary parts—sketchbooks, conservation, and subjects—each section includes images, history, background, and commentary on the Gallic artiste. We particularly liked paging through Seurat's worn notebooks. The images they contain, sketches of trees, men in straw hats, the arc of a church entryway, a young girl, are simple and luminous.

Looking at the sketches a famous artist made is a bit like peeking under a Victorian lady's skirt—you get a glimpse of the fabulous underpinnings and complicated constructions (but not more than that, excuse us!) Harvard's Fogg Art Museum owns a large collection of sketchbooks from artists of the 18th through 20th centuries, and 10 are showcased here. Frenchman Jacques-Louis David shows a precise, measured approach in his Sketchbook No. 14 from 1805-06. This book outlines the many people shown in the enormous painting of "The Coronation of Napoleon I." American artists Benjamin Champney and Sanford Gifford both sketched more pastoral scenes in New England. These artists spent their summers drawing nature and took their sketchbooks back to the city to paint over the winters. German-born George Grosz's sketchbook of 1950-51 brings us smack into the modern world with stark skyscrapers juxtaposed against mousetraps and an occasional nude. What was going on underneath these artists' work? Lift a page's corner and take a peek.

In the world of Swedish illustrator Stina Wirsén, diners peer skeptically at their food, models don elaborate fly-people getups, and crowds navigate the polyglot streets of New York's outer boroughs. Smudgy, stylized urban scenes are shot through with whimsy, melancholy, and, sometimes, a combination of both. For years, Wirsén ran the illustration department at Sweden's national paper Dagens Nyheter—and it shows. A good chunk of her work reflects a journalist's eye and suggests a story about to happen: hipsters crowd a late night 7-Eleven; a sushi chef turns, knife in hand; a body punctuated with an acupuncturist's needles waits on the table. Sometimes, she allows her satirical side to slip out, and Woody Allen finds himself speaking "tweed," while Dr. Phil's head tops the bodies of all those he empathizes with so fervently. Her fashion images capture the eccentricity and casual flair of Scandinavian style, on or off the catwalk. In all the illustrations, she isolates the few perfect details and leaves the rest to the imagination.