.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
拍品專文
After spending time in Venice in 1905, Paul Signac returned to the South of France with the goal of painting the port of Marseille. These canvases are widely regarded as some of Signac’s best and several are held in museum collections including Marseille. La Bonne Mère (Cachin, no. 433; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and Sortie du port de Marseille (Cachin, no. 442; Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg). Marseille. Le Vieux Port, the present work, is a poetic rendering of boats and water. Signac has depicted the calm bay as a vision of pastel purple, pink, and blue tonalities that reflect the placid sky above. These hues radiate outward from the centre of the canvas while touches of yellow, dark blue, and green define the edges of the composition. In the background, the Tour Saint-Jean softens against the rosy sky. The paintings of the port of Marseille were praised by Signac’s contemporaries, including the critic Gustave Geffroy who wanted the artist to design a related tapestry for the Manufacture des Gobelins. Unfortunately, the commission was never realised.
Signac’s pictorial investigation of various ports was inspired by the 18th century French painter Claude-Joseph Vernet, whose Vues des ports de France were created between 1754 and 1765. He was commissioned by King Louis XV to depict France’s thriving ports, including that of Marseille. Signac’s own interpretation was geographically more diverse, and he chose to paint views of Venice and Rotterdam in addition to those of La Rochelle, Saint-Tropez, and Marseille. Decades later he would reincarnate the project, fulfilling, in 1929, his dream of painting watercolours of one hundred ports of France. The earlier paintings of the Provençal ports, including the present work, are particularly evocative and harmonious, encapsulating the happiness that Signac described to his mother upon his initial arrival in the region: ‘I am settled here since yesterday and overjoyed... In front of the golden coast of the gulf, the blue sea breaking on a small beach, my beach... there is enough material to work on for the rest of my days. Happiness – that is what I have just discovered’ (P. Signac quoted in M. Ferretti-Bocquillon et al., Signac: 1863-1935, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001, p. 172).
Signac had first sailed to the South of France in 1892 following the death of his friend and creative partner Georges Seurat. The two artists had met in 1884 while organising the first Salon des Artistes Indépendants. A fruitful exchange ensued as did a strong, supportive friendship. Both Signac and Seurat began a series of chromatic experiments, exploring the physical and psychological play of colour and perception. With Seurat’s sudden passing, Signac took it upon himself to cement his friend’s legacy, an exhausting and overwhelming undertaking. Encouraged by his friend Henri-Edmond Cross, who had already decamped to the south, Signac decided to leave Paris, a choice which forever changed his art. A skilled yachtsman, Signac set sail from Bénodet, in Brittany, navigating his boat Olympia towards the port of Saint-Tropez. A world seemingly untouched by the forces of industrialisation awaited him. Struck by its tranquillity, Signac elected to make the fishing village his home, and it was there that his paintings underwent a transformation.
While he never completely eschewed the pointillist technique that he had developed alongside Seurat, over the next several years, Signac moved away from its rigid application towards a looser, less regimented approach. The gestural brushwork that defines the surface of Marseille. Le Vieux Port is characteristic of the artist’s later work. Here, the brushstrokes form small rectangles that coexist in a mosaic-like arrangement. The pinks and purples that fill the canvas seem to emanate light, bathing the scene in summer’s warmth and producing a lyrical balance between sky and sea. As Signac explained in treatise D'Eugène Delacroix au néo-impressionisme, published in 1899, the neo-impressionists had one goal: ‘to give colour as much radiance as possible’ (quoted in D'Eugène Delacroix au néo-impressionisme, Paris, 1921, p. 76).
By the time Marseille. Le Vieux Port was painted, Signac was a leading figure in the art world. An 1899 group presentation at Durand-Ruel marked the rise of the Neo-Impressionists. Shortly thereafter, Signac received his first solo exhibition in 1902 at Siegfried Bing’s Maison de l'Art Nouveau. This was followed by shows at Druet in 1904, and, in November of 1906, at Bernheim-Jeune in which the present work was exhibited. Félix Fénéon, the art critic and early champion of Neo-Impressionism, had been engaged by the gallery to oversee its contemporary art section and the first exhibition he organised was dedicated to Signac’s work. Signac’s compositions, at once scientific and sublime, influenced a generation of younger artists, including Henri Matisse and Robert Delaunay, many of whom tried their hand at Neo-Impressionism as a means of resolving their understanding of and approach to colour.
Marseille. Le Vieux Port was previously owned by Henry van de Velde. The Belgian architect and later founder of Art Nouveau began his career as a painter and was deeply influenced by Signac and Seurat. Signac in turn, counted Van de Velde amongst the pioneers of Neo-Impressionism.
Signac’s pictorial investigation of various ports was inspired by the 18th century French painter Claude-Joseph Vernet, whose Vues des ports de France were created between 1754 and 1765. He was commissioned by King Louis XV to depict France’s thriving ports, including that of Marseille. Signac’s own interpretation was geographically more diverse, and he chose to paint views of Venice and Rotterdam in addition to those of La Rochelle, Saint-Tropez, and Marseille. Decades later he would reincarnate the project, fulfilling, in 1929, his dream of painting watercolours of one hundred ports of France. The earlier paintings of the Provençal ports, including the present work, are particularly evocative and harmonious, encapsulating the happiness that Signac described to his mother upon his initial arrival in the region: ‘I am settled here since yesterday and overjoyed... In front of the golden coast of the gulf, the blue sea breaking on a small beach, my beach... there is enough material to work on for the rest of my days. Happiness – that is what I have just discovered’ (P. Signac quoted in M. Ferretti-Bocquillon et al., Signac: 1863-1935, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001, p. 172).
Signac had first sailed to the South of France in 1892 following the death of his friend and creative partner Georges Seurat. The two artists had met in 1884 while organising the first Salon des Artistes Indépendants. A fruitful exchange ensued as did a strong, supportive friendship. Both Signac and Seurat began a series of chromatic experiments, exploring the physical and psychological play of colour and perception. With Seurat’s sudden passing, Signac took it upon himself to cement his friend’s legacy, an exhausting and overwhelming undertaking. Encouraged by his friend Henri-Edmond Cross, who had already decamped to the south, Signac decided to leave Paris, a choice which forever changed his art. A skilled yachtsman, Signac set sail from Bénodet, in Brittany, navigating his boat Olympia towards the port of Saint-Tropez. A world seemingly untouched by the forces of industrialisation awaited him. Struck by its tranquillity, Signac elected to make the fishing village his home, and it was there that his paintings underwent a transformation.
While he never completely eschewed the pointillist technique that he had developed alongside Seurat, over the next several years, Signac moved away from its rigid application towards a looser, less regimented approach. The gestural brushwork that defines the surface of Marseille. Le Vieux Port is characteristic of the artist’s later work. Here, the brushstrokes form small rectangles that coexist in a mosaic-like arrangement. The pinks and purples that fill the canvas seem to emanate light, bathing the scene in summer’s warmth and producing a lyrical balance between sky and sea. As Signac explained in treatise D'Eugène Delacroix au néo-impressionisme, published in 1899, the neo-impressionists had one goal: ‘to give colour as much radiance as possible’ (quoted in D'Eugène Delacroix au néo-impressionisme, Paris, 1921, p. 76).
By the time Marseille. Le Vieux Port was painted, Signac was a leading figure in the art world. An 1899 group presentation at Durand-Ruel marked the rise of the Neo-Impressionists. Shortly thereafter, Signac received his first solo exhibition in 1902 at Siegfried Bing’s Maison de l'Art Nouveau. This was followed by shows at Druet in 1904, and, in November of 1906, at Bernheim-Jeune in which the present work was exhibited. Félix Fénéon, the art critic and early champion of Neo-Impressionism, had been engaged by the gallery to oversee its contemporary art section and the first exhibition he organised was dedicated to Signac’s work. Signac’s compositions, at once scientific and sublime, influenced a generation of younger artists, including Henri Matisse and Robert Delaunay, many of whom tried their hand at Neo-Impressionism as a means of resolving their understanding of and approach to colour.
Marseille. Le Vieux Port was previously owned by Henry van de Velde. The Belgian architect and later founder of Art Nouveau began his career as a painter and was deeply influenced by Signac and Seurat. Signac in turn, counted Van de Velde amongst the pioneers of Neo-Impressionism.