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Lot Essay
The studies on this double-sided sheet are related to two oil paintings done in 1908. The recto is a study for Venise. Matin (Cachin, no. 468), and the verso is a study for Venise. Saint-Georges (Cachin, no. 469). Signac traveled to Italy in February-April 1908, spending two weeks in Florence, and visited Sienna, Rome and several other cities to view late Medieval and Renaissance painting. He concluded his trip with a month-long stay in Venice, before returning to his home in Saint-Tropez in early May.
Signac often executed large-scale studies for planned oil paintings, squaring the sheets for transfer of the image to canvas when later working in the studio. The size of the present studies approximates the dimensions of many of the eleven paintings in Signac's 1908 Venetian series. The artist also recorded the finished compositions in small watercolors kept in a notebook. There is a watercolor of this type related to Venise. Matin in the James T. Dyke Collection, Little Rock, Arkansas, in which the artist dates the oil painting as having been done in June 1908, a month after his return from Italy (see M.F. Bocquillon and C. Cachin, Paul Signac, A Collection of Watercolors and Drawings, exh. cat. The Arkansas Art Center, 2000, no. 36).
Signac often executed large-scale studies for planned oil paintings, squaring the sheets for transfer of the image to canvas when later working in the studio. The size of the present studies approximates the dimensions of many of the eleven paintings in Signac's 1908 Venetian series. The artist also recorded the finished compositions in small watercolors kept in a notebook. There is a watercolor of this type related to Venise. Matin in the James T. Dyke Collection, Little Rock, Arkansas, in which the artist dates the oil painting as having been done in June 1908, a month after his return from Italy (see M.F. Bocquillon and C. Cachin, Paul Signac, A Collection of Watercolors and Drawings, exh. cat. The Arkansas Art Center, 2000, no. 36).