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Lot Essay
Signac spent the summer of 1885 in Saint-Briac, a Breton town situated on a long inlet that opened into the English Channel. The present work is one of seventeen painted in Saint-Briac during this time, which have been documented in the artist's catalogue raisonné. Here, as in most of the others, Signac takes advantage of the configuration of the bay to show expanses of water bounded by shorelines both in the foreground and on the horizon. The hamlet of Le Béchet appears on the distant shore of the present work. The catalogue entry for the 1935 Drouot sale describes the sailboat at upper center as being le bateau de l'artiste. Signac owned thirty-two small craft during his career, the best-known of which was the sailing yacht Olympia, which he had built in the Breton port of Roscoff in 1891 and used to tour the French coast.
Signac began to paint in 1881 and was largely self-taught. The chief influence on his work at the time of the present painting was Armand Guillaumin (cf. lot 233). Signac met Guillaumin in Paris in 1884, around the time of the first Salon des Artistes Indépendants in May, to which Signac had contributed a painting. He later recalled, "the painter I admired most when I was twenty was Guillaumin. One day I was painting on the quays of the Ile Saint-Louis. A man who was looking at my canvas over my shoulder suddenly said to me: 'That's not bad! I do some painting myself...my name is Guillaumin'" (quoted in M. Ferretti-Bocquillon et al, Signac 1863-1935, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001, p. 299). It was during the Salon that Signac met the artist who would ultimately have a far greater and lasting impact on his painting: Georges Seurat. Together with Henri-Edmond Cross (see lot 266) and Albert Dubois-Pillet, they formed in July 1884 the Société des Artistes Indépendants, the group which would become the center of the Neo-Impressionist movement.
Signac began to paint in 1881 and was largely self-taught. The chief influence on his work at the time of the present painting was Armand Guillaumin (cf. lot 233). Signac met Guillaumin in Paris in 1884, around the time of the first Salon des Artistes Indépendants in May, to which Signac had contributed a painting. He later recalled, "the painter I admired most when I was twenty was Guillaumin. One day I was painting on the quays of the Ile Saint-Louis. A man who was looking at my canvas over my shoulder suddenly said to me: 'That's not bad! I do some painting myself...my name is Guillaumin'" (quoted in M. Ferretti-Bocquillon et al, Signac 1863-1935, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001, p. 299). It was during the Salon that Signac met the artist who would ultimately have a far greater and lasting impact on his painting: Georges Seurat. Together with Henri-Edmond Cross (see lot 266) and Albert Dubois-Pillet, they formed in July 1884 the Société des Artistes Indépendants, the group which would become the center of the Neo-Impressionist movement.