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Lot Essay
Marina Ferretti has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
‘I have worked like a young madman at La Rochelle; it is a magnificent port, framed by noble architecture where a flotilla of multi-coloured hulls and many hued sails is crammed. But all that moves, appears, flees, and you have to work fast. It is an impassioned hunt. I only just have time to make a watercolour sketch, and the poor oil painters despair…’ (Signac, letter to Juliette Sardou, August 1920, Private Collection).
Filled with an effervescent play of vibrant colour, Paul Signac’s La Tour des Quatre Sergents, La Rochelle captures not only the life of the bustling Atlantic port of La Rochelle, but also the renewed fervour with which the artist approached painting during the 1920s. A dedicated humanitarian and pacifist, Signac had been left distraught by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Writing to his wife shortly after the declaration of war, he proclaimed: ‘I really think I shall never recover from the appalling distress in which I am sinking, despite my efforts…’ (Signac, quoted in Signac 1863-1935, exh. cat., New York, 2001, p. 314). His painting suffered throughout the conflict, with the artist producing only a handful of oils, as he struggled to come to terms with the fact that everything he held dear was slowly disintegrating around him. Following the cessation of hostilities in 1918, however, Signac experienced a new flurry of activity, as he re-engaged with the motifs and locations which had proved so inspirational to his art in the years preceding the war. Travelling along the French coastline once again in search of visual stimuli for his painting, he journeyed from Antibes to Marseille, from Saint-Paul-de-Vence to Cherbourg, capturing the timeless way of life and serene atmosphere of the harbours and towns that he encountered.
Amongst Signac’s favourite subjects during this period was La Rochelle. Letters dating from the artist’s visit during the summer of 1920 describe the manner in which its vibrant atmosphere and lively harbour captivated his painterly imagination. Located on the Bay of Biscay, the port of La Rochelle was widely celebrated for the grandeur of its medieval architecture, most notably the distinctive profiles of the three towers which punctuated its embattlements – the round Tour de la Chaîe, built in 1375, to the crennelated Tour Saint-Nicolas of 1384, and the elaborately decorated tower of the Tour des Quatres Sergents, dating from 1445. These impressive structures stood as markers to the entrance of the port, a herald to all sailors that they had reached the safety of the harbour. Signac had first discovered the beauty of La Rochelle in 1911 when, enchanted by the hustle and bustle of the lively port, he executed a series of watercolours and pen and ink sketches, which were later used to construct the luminous composition Arc-en-ciel, La Rochelle, le Port (1912). Depicting a cluster of brightly coloured fishing boats as they prepare to depart the enclosed harbour for the open sea, this painting marked the beginning of Signac’s fascination with La Rochelle, whose charms would draw the artist back to her harbour on numerous occasions over the ensuing two decades.
Painted in 1927, La Tour des Quatre Sergents, La Rochelle stands as a testament not only to Signac’s enduring interest in the day-to-day goings on of the lively port, but also to his own passion for sailing. The artist was an enthusiastic and avid yachtsman, buying his first boat when he was a teenager and continuing to sail for the rest of his lifetime. Indeed, in the present composition, Signac appears to have captured the scene whilst on the water himself. Focusing on the unique profile of a tuna fishing boat as it sails past the Tour des Quatre Sergents, the artist pays particular attention to the details and nuances of the craft’s structure, rendering its intricate rigging system with a clarity and precision that reveals the depth of his sailing knowledge. The Tour des Quatres Sergents, so named for its role as an interim gaol for the protagonists of the ‘Conspiracy of La Rochelle,’ had undergone a programme of restoration in the years immediately preceding the outbreak of the First World War. Signac uses the architectural structure as an anchor within the scene, its elaborately decorated spire offering a counterbalance to the thin, spindly mast of the boat. Emphasising its pure physical mass, Signac celebrates the tower’s enduring presence within the landscape, its unwavering permanence and stability through centuries of conflict and upheaval offering a striking contrast to the fleeting, transient presence of the boat as it glides elegantly through the water.
In many ways, though, the true subject of La Tour des Quatre Sergents, La Rochelle is the delicate interplay of colour and light effects that dance across the landscape. Executed using a luminous palette of primarily lilac, teal, and cerulean tones, the composition becomes a showcase for the artist’s highly individual take on the pointillist technique. Pointilism had been conceived by Signac’s close friend and colleague, Georges Seurat, as a scientific, rational and technical alternative to the Impressionists’ instinctive and spontaneous treatment of nature. Rejecting the irregular brushwork of the Impressionists, Seurat and Signac advocated a more calculated and systematic application of pigment, governed by the principles of colour theory. However, following Seurat’s death in 1892, Signac began to use a less restrictive and dogmatic approach to the technique, adopting instead a freer and more expressive painterly style, applying colour in broad, tesserae-like strokes of paint rather than the precise, minute dots of colour which had marked his earlier canvases. Signac’s mastery of this technique is evident in the present composition, as he creates a mosaic of luminous colour, with each individual brushstroke bringing a new life and dynamism to the surface of the canvas.
‘I have worked like a young madman at La Rochelle; it is a magnificent port, framed by noble architecture where a flotilla of multi-coloured hulls and many hued sails is crammed. But all that moves, appears, flees, and you have to work fast. It is an impassioned hunt. I only just have time to make a watercolour sketch, and the poor oil painters despair…’ (Signac, letter to Juliette Sardou, August 1920, Private Collection).
Filled with an effervescent play of vibrant colour, Paul Signac’s La Tour des Quatre Sergents, La Rochelle captures not only the life of the bustling Atlantic port of La Rochelle, but also the renewed fervour with which the artist approached painting during the 1920s. A dedicated humanitarian and pacifist, Signac had been left distraught by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Writing to his wife shortly after the declaration of war, he proclaimed: ‘I really think I shall never recover from the appalling distress in which I am sinking, despite my efforts…’ (Signac, quoted in Signac 1863-1935, exh. cat., New York, 2001, p. 314). His painting suffered throughout the conflict, with the artist producing only a handful of oils, as he struggled to come to terms with the fact that everything he held dear was slowly disintegrating around him. Following the cessation of hostilities in 1918, however, Signac experienced a new flurry of activity, as he re-engaged with the motifs and locations which had proved so inspirational to his art in the years preceding the war. Travelling along the French coastline once again in search of visual stimuli for his painting, he journeyed from Antibes to Marseille, from Saint-Paul-de-Vence to Cherbourg, capturing the timeless way of life and serene atmosphere of the harbours and towns that he encountered.
Amongst Signac’s favourite subjects during this period was La Rochelle. Letters dating from the artist’s visit during the summer of 1920 describe the manner in which its vibrant atmosphere and lively harbour captivated his painterly imagination. Located on the Bay of Biscay, the port of La Rochelle was widely celebrated for the grandeur of its medieval architecture, most notably the distinctive profiles of the three towers which punctuated its embattlements – the round Tour de la Chaîe, built in 1375, to the crennelated Tour Saint-Nicolas of 1384, and the elaborately decorated tower of the Tour des Quatres Sergents, dating from 1445. These impressive structures stood as markers to the entrance of the port, a herald to all sailors that they had reached the safety of the harbour. Signac had first discovered the beauty of La Rochelle in 1911 when, enchanted by the hustle and bustle of the lively port, he executed a series of watercolours and pen and ink sketches, which were later used to construct the luminous composition Arc-en-ciel, La Rochelle, le Port (1912). Depicting a cluster of brightly coloured fishing boats as they prepare to depart the enclosed harbour for the open sea, this painting marked the beginning of Signac’s fascination with La Rochelle, whose charms would draw the artist back to her harbour on numerous occasions over the ensuing two decades.
Painted in 1927, La Tour des Quatre Sergents, La Rochelle stands as a testament not only to Signac’s enduring interest in the day-to-day goings on of the lively port, but also to his own passion for sailing. The artist was an enthusiastic and avid yachtsman, buying his first boat when he was a teenager and continuing to sail for the rest of his lifetime. Indeed, in the present composition, Signac appears to have captured the scene whilst on the water himself. Focusing on the unique profile of a tuna fishing boat as it sails past the Tour des Quatre Sergents, the artist pays particular attention to the details and nuances of the craft’s structure, rendering its intricate rigging system with a clarity and precision that reveals the depth of his sailing knowledge. The Tour des Quatres Sergents, so named for its role as an interim gaol for the protagonists of the ‘Conspiracy of La Rochelle,’ had undergone a programme of restoration in the years immediately preceding the outbreak of the First World War. Signac uses the architectural structure as an anchor within the scene, its elaborately decorated spire offering a counterbalance to the thin, spindly mast of the boat. Emphasising its pure physical mass, Signac celebrates the tower’s enduring presence within the landscape, its unwavering permanence and stability through centuries of conflict and upheaval offering a striking contrast to the fleeting, transient presence of the boat as it glides elegantly through the water.
In many ways, though, the true subject of La Tour des Quatre Sergents, La Rochelle is the delicate interplay of colour and light effects that dance across the landscape. Executed using a luminous palette of primarily lilac, teal, and cerulean tones, the composition becomes a showcase for the artist’s highly individual take on the pointillist technique. Pointilism had been conceived by Signac’s close friend and colleague, Georges Seurat, as a scientific, rational and technical alternative to the Impressionists’ instinctive and spontaneous treatment of nature. Rejecting the irregular brushwork of the Impressionists, Seurat and Signac advocated a more calculated and systematic application of pigment, governed by the principles of colour theory. However, following Seurat’s death in 1892, Signac began to use a less restrictive and dogmatic approach to the technique, adopting instead a freer and more expressive painterly style, applying colour in broad, tesserae-like strokes of paint rather than the precise, minute dots of colour which had marked his earlier canvases. Signac’s mastery of this technique is evident in the present composition, as he creates a mosaic of luminous colour, with each individual brushstroke bringing a new life and dynamism to the surface of the canvas.