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Lot Essay
Suffused with the subtle morning light, Antibes, Matin is a delicate and absorbing seascape executed in 1903, when Signac was gaining recognition and assurance as a great artist having already pioneered Neo-Impressionism. Its importance in this period is clear from the number of references to it in contemporary literature, following the 1904 Salon des Indépendants in which it was exhibited. Since then, this picture has not been exhibited.
Signac loved the sea, and water, and almost all of his greatest paintings feature water prominently. In Antibes, Matin, the sea around Antibes is rendered with a discreet Pointillism that allows the artist to explore both the gentle, rhythmic undulations of the lapping waves and the light effects of the growing day. Signac would also capture the effects of dusk on the same view in another painting from the same period, revealing his constant interest in the nuances of the shifting light effects of the Mediterranean day. This shows not only Signac's love of the sea and of shipping, but also of painting itself. Since the death of Seurat, Signac had increasingly eschewed the scientific basis of Pointillism in favour of a sheer love of colour which made itself more and more apparent in his lush, painterly depictions of seascapes and light effects. This is clear in the dappled surface of Antibes, Matin, and in the subtlety with which he has rendered the scene.
It is a tribute to the quality of Antibes, Matin as a great Signac, and indeed a great Neo-Impressionist painting, that it was formerly in the collection of Freiherr Eberhard von Bodenhausen, a prominent industrialist and dedicated collector of Neo-Impressionist painting. Indeed, von Bodenhausen was so interested in modern painting at the turn of the Twentieth Century that he even encouraged experts in Germany to tutor him, resulting in his becoming a highly respected collector during the period, as well as an accomplished art historian. Von Bodenhausen owned a dozen paintings by Signac, whom he knew, and on hearing of his death, the artist wrote to his friend Féneon recalling his patron's kindness. Thereafter it passed into the celebrated collection of the Swiss industrialist E.G. Bührle whose Foundation in Zurich boasts some of the most important Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings in Europe. These include Paul Cézanne's Le garçon au gilet rouge (V.681) and Vincent van Gogh's Autoportrait of 1887 (F.405).
Signac loved the sea, and water, and almost all of his greatest paintings feature water prominently. In Antibes, Matin, the sea around Antibes is rendered with a discreet Pointillism that allows the artist to explore both the gentle, rhythmic undulations of the lapping waves and the light effects of the growing day. Signac would also capture the effects of dusk on the same view in another painting from the same period, revealing his constant interest in the nuances of the shifting light effects of the Mediterranean day. This shows not only Signac's love of the sea and of shipping, but also of painting itself. Since the death of Seurat, Signac had increasingly eschewed the scientific basis of Pointillism in favour of a sheer love of colour which made itself more and more apparent in his lush, painterly depictions of seascapes and light effects. This is clear in the dappled surface of Antibes, Matin, and in the subtlety with which he has rendered the scene.
It is a tribute to the quality of Antibes, Matin as a great Signac, and indeed a great Neo-Impressionist painting, that it was formerly in the collection of Freiherr Eberhard von Bodenhausen, a prominent industrialist and dedicated collector of Neo-Impressionist painting. Indeed, von Bodenhausen was so interested in modern painting at the turn of the Twentieth Century that he even encouraged experts in Germany to tutor him, resulting in his becoming a highly respected collector during the period, as well as an accomplished art historian. Von Bodenhausen owned a dozen paintings by Signac, whom he knew, and on hearing of his death, the artist wrote to his friend Féneon recalling his patron's kindness. Thereafter it passed into the celebrated collection of the Swiss industrialist E.G. Bührle whose Foundation in Zurich boasts some of the most important Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings in Europe. These include Paul Cézanne's Le garçon au gilet rouge (V.681) and Vincent van Gogh's Autoportrait of 1887 (F.405).