Paul Signac (1863-1935)

Le jardin à Saint-Paul

Details
Paul Signac (1863-1935)
Le jardin à Saint-Paul
signed and dated bottom left 'P. Signac 1923'
oil on canvas
28¾ x 36¼ in. (73 x 92 cm.)
Painted in 1923
Provenance
Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris
Henri Canonne, Paris (acquired from the above in 1924)
Georges Selz, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner in Nov., 1950
Exhibited
Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paul Signac, May, 1923, no. 10
Brussels, Galerie Georges Giroux, 1923, no. 184

Lot Essay

Françoise Cachin will include this painting in her forthcoming Signac catalogue raisonné.

In 1922 and 1923, Signac frequently worked in the south of France in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. The present painting depicts the view from the Colombe d'Or restaurant in Saint-Paul, looking towards the town of Vence itself. It is an excellent example of Signac's characteristic mature style, in which the artist employed bold, wide brushstrokes laden with color to describe the hot southern landscape. As John House has written about the works which Signac executed after 1905,

Signac adopted a larger brushstroke, and began to work in mosaic-like blocks of paint, placed separately on the white-primed canvas, and sometimes at an angle to suggest directional movement. The priming is often left visible around the touches, and gives the painting a luminosity alongside the richness of color. (J. House, exh. cat., Post-Impressionism, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1979, p. 140)