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Lot Essay
Scintillating with Paul Signac’s characteristically dynamic and expressive brushstrokes, Mont Saint-Michel beautifully captures the iridescence of pastel lighting as it poetically cloaks this eponymous major French landmark. Painted in 1897, Signac created this work amidst a series of seven works inspired by this medieval monastery located on the border between Normandy and Brittany.
The passage in the foreground guides us down a pathway towards the Mont Saint-Michel in the distance, towering above the bay and almost immersed in the celestial blues and wispy clouds above. The titles of the works depicting the Mont Saint-Michel often highlight the misty sun-lit horizon, drawing attention to the height of the abbey as well as its atmospheric, spiritual presence; this work serves as a key study for Mont Saint-Michel. Brume et soleil executed the same year. Signac reveals his compositional focus for the Mont Saint-Michel works to the artist Henri Edmond Cross in early March 1897: ‘Le but : relier le triangle du Mont avec la courbe de la rivière’ (‘The goal: to relate the triangle of the mountain with the curve of the river’). The angularity of the abbey and the juxtaposition of such curvilinear details create a fascinating landscape that is punctuated by the verticality of the historic monument and trees.
In the artist’s journal entry dated 1st January 1898, Signac recounts ‘je commence l’année bien tranquillement en travaillant toute la journée à donner les dernières touches à mes Mont Saint-Michel’ (‘I'm starting the year off tranquilly, working all day to put the finishing touches on my Mont Saint-Michel paintings’). Mont Saint-Michel serves as a visual documentation of Signac’s increasing shift from pointillism to patches of larger brushstrokes, building the composition as a mosaic of kaleidoscopic pigmented tiles. With the highest tides in continental Europe, Signac depicts the dramatic changes in high and low tides by the extent to which the trees are submerged by water, becoming an island for a few hours when the tide reaches its highest point.
The passage in the foreground guides us down a pathway towards the Mont Saint-Michel in the distance, towering above the bay and almost immersed in the celestial blues and wispy clouds above. The titles of the works depicting the Mont Saint-Michel often highlight the misty sun-lit horizon, drawing attention to the height of the abbey as well as its atmospheric, spiritual presence; this work serves as a key study for Mont Saint-Michel. Brume et soleil executed the same year. Signac reveals his compositional focus for the Mont Saint-Michel works to the artist Henri Edmond Cross in early March 1897: ‘Le but : relier le triangle du Mont avec la courbe de la rivière’ (‘The goal: to relate the triangle of the mountain with the curve of the river’). The angularity of the abbey and the juxtaposition of such curvilinear details create a fascinating landscape that is punctuated by the verticality of the historic monument and trees.
In the artist’s journal entry dated 1st January 1898, Signac recounts ‘je commence l’année bien tranquillement en travaillant toute la journée à donner les dernières touches à mes Mont Saint-Michel’ (‘I'm starting the year off tranquilly, working all day to put the finishing touches on my Mont Saint-Michel paintings’). Mont Saint-Michel serves as a visual documentation of Signac’s increasing shift from pointillism to patches of larger brushstrokes, building the composition as a mosaic of kaleidoscopic pigmented tiles. With the highest tides in continental Europe, Signac depicts the dramatic changes in high and low tides by the extent to which the trees are submerged by water, becoming an island for a few hours when the tide reaches its highest point.