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Lot Essay
*This lot may be exempt from sales tax as set forth in the Sales Tax Notice in the back of the catalogue.
Port de Cette, les tartanes is an outstanding Neo-Impressionist composition by the Belgian painter Théo Van Rysselberghe. Robert Herbert has identified this painting as one of the artist's most important Neo-Impressionist works (op. cit., p. 179), while Marina Bocquillon declared, "It represents a striking testimony to the Belgian artist's abilities as a landscape painter" (op. cit., p. 14). Completed in 1892, during the period that is widely considered to be the high point of Van Rysselberghe's career, this canvas demonstrates the artist's mastery of the divisionist or pointillist technique that Georges Seurat had pioneered in the mid-1880s. Rejecting the spontaneous and irregular brushwork of the Impressionists, the practitioners of divisionism favored a precise, methodical application of pigment governed by the scientific principles of color theory. Van Rysselberghe first encountered this style of painting during a visit to Paris in 1886 with the Belgian poet Emile Verhaeren. At the exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, the pair was struck by Seurat's masterpiece, Dimanche après-midi à la Grande Jatte (Art Institute of Chicago). Shortly thereafter, they arranged to meet Seurat and invited him to exhibit the painting the following year in Brussels with the avant-garde group, Les XX. Van Rysselberghe himself began painting in a divisionist manner in 1888 and quickly forged a close and enduring friendship with Paul Signac, one of the movement's most vocal adherents. In 1892, the year that Port de Cette, les tartanes was painted, Van Rysselberghe wrote to Signac, "Like you I am more convinced of the excellence of our technique than ever, and I find a real delight in it because it's so logical and good" (quoted in ibid., p. 13).
The present painting was executed in April of 1892, during a trip that Van Rysselberghe and Signac took to the south of France aboard the latter's yacht Olympia. Seurat had died the previous year, and Van Rysselberghe and Signac jointly organized posthumous exhibitions of his work in Brussels and Paris during the spring of 1892. Shortly thereafter, the duo set out on the Olympia. "I am leaving tomorrow for the coast--with Pierre Olin," Van Rysselberghe wrote to his friend Gustave Maus. "He's leaving me at Bordeaux and Signac will join me. Then, the canal du Midi: Montauban, Carcassone, Toulouse, etc. and then Cette, Marseilles, Toulon and the sea! Oh, it's going to be really great" (quoted in ibid., p. 13). During the third week of April, Signac made an oil sketch of Van Rysselberghe on the Olympia, in the process of painting Port de Cette, les tartanes (fig. 1). The artist is seen poised with brush in hand, his sharp profile and bohemian elegance clearly evident. The sketch also contains a discreet allusion to the principles of color theory that the two friends espoused: blue and yellow are dominant, punctuated by the red-green checkerboard design inside of the artist's beret. Van Rysselberghe talked of making a portrait of Signac at this time as well--"aboard Olympia with a lot of cobalt"--but did not actually undertake the painting until a second sea voyage with Signac four years later (fig. 2; quoted in ibid., p. 14). Following the expedition in 1892, the two artists exchanged pictures to seal the memory of their trip. Van Rysselberghe gave Signac a portrait of his chief mariner, L'homme à la barre (Feltkamp, no. 1892-003; Musée d'Orsay, Paris) and received in return one of Signac's most important canvases of the period, Le pin Bonaventure (fig. 3).
The present picture depicts the harbor at Cette, one of the towns that Van Rysselberghe and Signac visited aboard the Olympia. Known since 1927 as Sète, Cette was an important commercial port on the Mediterranean coast of France, situated midway between Marseilles and Collioure. In Port de Cette, les tartanes, Van Rysselberghe depicts the view south across the outer basin, looking toward the lighthouse and the tower of Fort Saint-Pierre (both of which are also visible in the background of Signac's oil sketch). Instead of showing the brisk activity of the crowded harbor, however, Van Rysselberghe presents a tranquil, almost static scene. Only three boats are in motion, two that have just set out and a third that is being readied for embarkation by sailors who secure the unfurled sails. The sense of early morning calm is reinforced by the repeated use of stable horizontals and verticals in the composition, most notably the lighthouse, tower, and ships' masts that interrupt the low horizon. The chromatic structure of the painting further stabilizes the composition. The warm, blond tonality of the light is balanced by the cool blue of the sky and the sea, while the overall brightness of the scene is tempered by darker areas in the boats in the right foreground and by the painted border. Discussing Port de Cette, les tartanes, Bocquillon concludes, "It is in landscapes that Van Rysselberghe was at his boldest, producing pictures characterized by an almost abstract sense of color and a strict, geometric scheme. Going far beyond a mere diversion, these landscapes are genuinely successful and reveal a freedom with regard to nature that is not present in his portraits. A strict application of Neo-Impressionist technique meant that Van R. was required to use a beneficial rigor that forced him to discipline his natural verve and facility" (ibid., p. 14).
The present painting may be one of six canvases that Van Rysselberghe chose to include in the final exhibition in 1893 of Les XX, an association of avant-garde artists in Brussels similar to the Société des Indépendants in Paris. Van Rysselberghe, who had helped to found Les XX in 1883, played an important role in organizing the group's annual exhibitions and was the key figure in establishing its international reputation. He worked tirelessly to recruit high-profile exhibitors from Paris and other European capitals, transforming Les XX into the principal vehicle for the dissemination of new artistic ideas in Belgium. The group was voluntarily disbanded in 1893 on the occasion of its tenth exhibition and was re constituted as another annual exhibition society known as La Libre Esthétique.
Around the turn of the century, Van Rysselberghe began to abandon divisionism, turning instead toward more emphatic handling and a less divided touch. At the same time, his close friendship with Signac, founded on their shared artistic ideals, began to wane. In a letter to Signac dated 1902, Van Rysselberghe wrote, "While I share some of your ways of seeing, I don't share all of them" (quoted in ibid., p. 17). Five years later, the Belgian painter declared, "I am moving farther and farther away from that way of seeing--let's say understanding--painting, insofar as I ever felt it in this way" (quoted in ibid., p. 17). Their argument came to an end in March of 1909, with a final letter from Van Rysselberghe to Signac: "In writing these lines I do not wish to prolong a discussion which I would regret seeing come to an unhappy conclusion as much as you" (quoted in ibid., p. 18).
(fig. 1) Paul Signac, Théo Van Rysselberghe peignant à bord de l'Olympia (à 30 ans), 1892. Private Collection. BARCODE 23657410
(fig. 2) Théo Van Rysselberghe, Portrait de Paul Signac à la barre de l'Olympia, 1896-1897. Private Collection. BARCODE 23657427
(fig. 3) Paul Signac, Le pin Bonaventure, 1893. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. BARCODE 23657434
Port de Cette, les tartanes is an outstanding Neo-Impressionist composition by the Belgian painter Théo Van Rysselberghe. Robert Herbert has identified this painting as one of the artist's most important Neo-Impressionist works (op. cit., p. 179), while Marina Bocquillon declared, "It represents a striking testimony to the Belgian artist's abilities as a landscape painter" (op. cit., p. 14). Completed in 1892, during the period that is widely considered to be the high point of Van Rysselberghe's career, this canvas demonstrates the artist's mastery of the divisionist or pointillist technique that Georges Seurat had pioneered in the mid-1880s. Rejecting the spontaneous and irregular brushwork of the Impressionists, the practitioners of divisionism favored a precise, methodical application of pigment governed by the scientific principles of color theory. Van Rysselberghe first encountered this style of painting during a visit to Paris in 1886 with the Belgian poet Emile Verhaeren. At the exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, the pair was struck by Seurat's masterpiece, Dimanche après-midi à la Grande Jatte (Art Institute of Chicago). Shortly thereafter, they arranged to meet Seurat and invited him to exhibit the painting the following year in Brussels with the avant-garde group, Les XX. Van Rysselberghe himself began painting in a divisionist manner in 1888 and quickly forged a close and enduring friendship with Paul Signac, one of the movement's most vocal adherents. In 1892, the year that Port de Cette, les tartanes was painted, Van Rysselberghe wrote to Signac, "Like you I am more convinced of the excellence of our technique than ever, and I find a real delight in it because it's so logical and good" (quoted in ibid., p. 13).
The present painting was executed in April of 1892, during a trip that Van Rysselberghe and Signac took to the south of France aboard the latter's yacht Olympia. Seurat had died the previous year, and Van Rysselberghe and Signac jointly organized posthumous exhibitions of his work in Brussels and Paris during the spring of 1892. Shortly thereafter, the duo set out on the Olympia. "I am leaving tomorrow for the coast--with Pierre Olin," Van Rysselberghe wrote to his friend Gustave Maus. "He's leaving me at Bordeaux and Signac will join me. Then, the canal du Midi: Montauban, Carcassone, Toulouse, etc. and then Cette, Marseilles, Toulon and the sea! Oh, it's going to be really great" (quoted in ibid., p. 13). During the third week of April, Signac made an oil sketch of Van Rysselberghe on the Olympia, in the process of painting Port de Cette, les tartanes (fig. 1). The artist is seen poised with brush in hand, his sharp profile and bohemian elegance clearly evident. The sketch also contains a discreet allusion to the principles of color theory that the two friends espoused: blue and yellow are dominant, punctuated by the red-green checkerboard design inside of the artist's beret. Van Rysselberghe talked of making a portrait of Signac at this time as well--"aboard Olympia with a lot of cobalt"--but did not actually undertake the painting until a second sea voyage with Signac four years later (fig. 2; quoted in ibid., p. 14). Following the expedition in 1892, the two artists exchanged pictures to seal the memory of their trip. Van Rysselberghe gave Signac a portrait of his chief mariner, L'homme à la barre (Feltkamp, no. 1892-003; Musée d'Orsay, Paris) and received in return one of Signac's most important canvases of the period, Le pin Bonaventure (fig. 3).
The present picture depicts the harbor at Cette, one of the towns that Van Rysselberghe and Signac visited aboard the Olympia. Known since 1927 as Sète, Cette was an important commercial port on the Mediterranean coast of France, situated midway between Marseilles and Collioure. In Port de Cette, les tartanes, Van Rysselberghe depicts the view south across the outer basin, looking toward the lighthouse and the tower of Fort Saint-Pierre (both of which are also visible in the background of Signac's oil sketch). Instead of showing the brisk activity of the crowded harbor, however, Van Rysselberghe presents a tranquil, almost static scene. Only three boats are in motion, two that have just set out and a third that is being readied for embarkation by sailors who secure the unfurled sails. The sense of early morning calm is reinforced by the repeated use of stable horizontals and verticals in the composition, most notably the lighthouse, tower, and ships' masts that interrupt the low horizon. The chromatic structure of the painting further stabilizes the composition. The warm, blond tonality of the light is balanced by the cool blue of the sky and the sea, while the overall brightness of the scene is tempered by darker areas in the boats in the right foreground and by the painted border. Discussing Port de Cette, les tartanes, Bocquillon concludes, "It is in landscapes that Van Rysselberghe was at his boldest, producing pictures characterized by an almost abstract sense of color and a strict, geometric scheme. Going far beyond a mere diversion, these landscapes are genuinely successful and reveal a freedom with regard to nature that is not present in his portraits. A strict application of Neo-Impressionist technique meant that Van R. was required to use a beneficial rigor that forced him to discipline his natural verve and facility" (ibid., p. 14).
The present painting may be one of six canvases that Van Rysselberghe chose to include in the final exhibition in 1893 of Les XX, an association of avant-garde artists in Brussels similar to the Société des Indépendants in Paris. Van Rysselberghe, who had helped to found Les XX in 1883, played an important role in organizing the group's annual exhibitions and was the key figure in establishing its international reputation. He worked tirelessly to recruit high-profile exhibitors from Paris and other European capitals, transforming Les XX into the principal vehicle for the dissemination of new artistic ideas in Belgium. The group was voluntarily disbanded in 1893 on the occasion of its tenth exhibition and was re constituted as another annual exhibition society known as La Libre Esthétique.
Around the turn of the century, Van Rysselberghe began to abandon divisionism, turning instead toward more emphatic handling and a less divided touch. At the same time, his close friendship with Signac, founded on their shared artistic ideals, began to wane. In a letter to Signac dated 1902, Van Rysselberghe wrote, "While I share some of your ways of seeing, I don't share all of them" (quoted in ibid., p. 17). Five years later, the Belgian painter declared, "I am moving farther and farther away from that way of seeing--let's say understanding--painting, insofar as I ever felt it in this way" (quoted in ibid., p. 17). Their argument came to an end in March of 1909, with a final letter from Van Rysselberghe to Signac: "In writing these lines I do not wish to prolong a discussion which I would regret seeing come to an unhappy conclusion as much as you" (quoted in ibid., p. 18).
(fig. 1) Paul Signac, Théo Van Rysselberghe peignant à bord de l'Olympia (à 30 ans), 1892. Private Collection. BARCODE 23657410
(fig. 2) Théo Van Rysselberghe, Portrait de Paul Signac à la barre de l'Olympia, 1896-1897. Private Collection. BARCODE 23657427
(fig. 3) Paul Signac, Le pin Bonaventure, 1893. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. BARCODE 23657434