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Lot Essay
Painted in 1886, and heralding the new Divisionist technique that would come to define the artist’s oeuvre, Paul Signac’s Les Andelys, Port Morin (Opus no. 136) depicts an early morning view of the river Seine. Awash with mauve, periwinkle, and pale blue tonalities, the scene is serenity incarnate, a world just beginning to wake. Across the glassy surface of the river are several pitched-roof homes nestled among the trees. Much of the canvas is given over to the pathway in the foreground, which is dappled with shadows from nearby vegetation, and is likely where Signac planted his easel to paint the river. The angle of the road is perpendicular to the bridge that crosses the Seine, and together the two introduce a structural dynamism into the canvas.
Signac was inspired to take up painting in the early 1880s after seeing several of Claude Monet’s canvases. Save for a short period spent at Emile Bin’s studio, he had no real formal training but, instead, spent countless hours studying the works of artists he admired—a list which, in addition to Monet, included Gustave Caillebotte—in order to analyze their technique and approach. From Monet, Signac developed a deep reverence for color, which would remain central to his practice throughout his career. From Caillebotte, Signac imbibed the artist’s unconventional treatment of space, and Les Andelys, Port Morin, too, displays a novel arrangement of the scene.
While he initially dabbled in Impressionism, it was Signac’s friendship with Georges Seurat that would ultimately prove the most influential on his bourgeoning idiom. The two met in 1884, and together developed Divisionism, a movement that drew on the physics of light, the interactions of colored pigments, and the psychology of perception as a means of imbuing a canvas with luminosity and optical vibrancy. Signac and Seurat were soon joined by several other artists, including Maximilien Luce and Henri-Edmond Cross, who would gather at Signac’s studio on the Impasse Hélène, now the Boulevard de Clichy, to discuss their work. Comparing their novel canvases to those of the Impressionists, critic Gustave Kahn wrote, “Armed with a new method (of juxtaposed dots) which permit them to follow more exactly the subtleties of light and its effects, they are fond of calm countrysides and less troubled waters and wish to represent not merely the look of the landscape at this particular moment but also its silhouette on this particular day” (quoted in F. Cachin, Paul Signac, Greenwich, 1971, p. 26).
It was during the summer of 1886 that Signac began to truly refine his technique. He spent those months in Les Andelys, an idyllic French commune around sixty miles northwest of Paris. While there, he painted several views of the town and the Seine, a number of which are now held in museums worldwide, including The Art Institute of Chicago (Cachin, no. 125), the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena (Cachin, no. 126), and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris (Cachin, no. 128).
When Signac exhibited Les Andelys, Port Morin and several other canvases painted at Les Andelys, including Les Andelys, les bains (Opus no. 137, Les bains à Lucas) (Lot 61 of the present sale), at the Salon des Indépendants in August of 1886, the works were met with much praise. Félix Fénéon, who coined the term Neo-Impressionism, wrote of “the verve of M. Signac” (quoted in the F. Cachin, op. cit., 2000, p. 174). In a separate review, Fénéon specifically mentioned the present work, writing, “And the Seine flows and in its waters flow the skies and the riverside greenery, under a sun that kindles high-perched ruins into flames—Le Château-Gaillard de ma fenêtre—that shreds the shrubs gentle shadows—Le Port-Morin” (quoted in ibid.). Kahn, too, was particularly taken by Signac’s representation of light, observing, “It is the blaze of the Mediterranean sun that is fixed in these landscapes, imbued with the joy of things and illustrated with fantasies of light” (quoted in M. Ferretti-Bocquillon, exh. cat., op. cit., 2001, p. 122).
Signac gifted many of these canvases to his circle of family and friends, and the first owner of Les Andelys, Port Morin (Opus no. 136) was Léon Lemonnier, a close family friend. The painting was later acquired by Charles Cunningham, Jr., a longtime trustee of The Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Signac was inspired to take up painting in the early 1880s after seeing several of Claude Monet’s canvases. Save for a short period spent at Emile Bin’s studio, he had no real formal training but, instead, spent countless hours studying the works of artists he admired—a list which, in addition to Monet, included Gustave Caillebotte—in order to analyze their technique and approach. From Monet, Signac developed a deep reverence for color, which would remain central to his practice throughout his career. From Caillebotte, Signac imbibed the artist’s unconventional treatment of space, and Les Andelys, Port Morin, too, displays a novel arrangement of the scene.
While he initially dabbled in Impressionism, it was Signac’s friendship with Georges Seurat that would ultimately prove the most influential on his bourgeoning idiom. The two met in 1884, and together developed Divisionism, a movement that drew on the physics of light, the interactions of colored pigments, and the psychology of perception as a means of imbuing a canvas with luminosity and optical vibrancy. Signac and Seurat were soon joined by several other artists, including Maximilien Luce and Henri-Edmond Cross, who would gather at Signac’s studio on the Impasse Hélène, now the Boulevard de Clichy, to discuss their work. Comparing their novel canvases to those of the Impressionists, critic Gustave Kahn wrote, “Armed with a new method (of juxtaposed dots) which permit them to follow more exactly the subtleties of light and its effects, they are fond of calm countrysides and less troubled waters and wish to represent not merely the look of the landscape at this particular moment but also its silhouette on this particular day” (quoted in F. Cachin, Paul Signac, Greenwich, 1971, p. 26).
It was during the summer of 1886 that Signac began to truly refine his technique. He spent those months in Les Andelys, an idyllic French commune around sixty miles northwest of Paris. While there, he painted several views of the town and the Seine, a number of which are now held in museums worldwide, including The Art Institute of Chicago (Cachin, no. 125), the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena (Cachin, no. 126), and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris (Cachin, no. 128).
When Signac exhibited Les Andelys, Port Morin and several other canvases painted at Les Andelys, including Les Andelys, les bains (Opus no. 137, Les bains à Lucas) (Lot 61 of the present sale), at the Salon des Indépendants in August of 1886, the works were met with much praise. Félix Fénéon, who coined the term Neo-Impressionism, wrote of “the verve of M. Signac” (quoted in the F. Cachin, op. cit., 2000, p. 174). In a separate review, Fénéon specifically mentioned the present work, writing, “And the Seine flows and in its waters flow the skies and the riverside greenery, under a sun that kindles high-perched ruins into flames—Le Château-Gaillard de ma fenêtre—that shreds the shrubs gentle shadows—Le Port-Morin” (quoted in ibid.). Kahn, too, was particularly taken by Signac’s representation of light, observing, “It is the blaze of the Mediterranean sun that is fixed in these landscapes, imbued with the joy of things and illustrated with fantasies of light” (quoted in M. Ferretti-Bocquillon, exh. cat., op. cit., 2001, p. 122).
Signac gifted many of these canvases to his circle of family and friends, and the first owner of Les Andelys, Port Morin (Opus no. 136) was Léon Lemonnier, a close family friend. The painting was later acquired by Charles Cunningham, Jr., a longtime trustee of The Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.