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    Sale 6919

    IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN ART EVENING SALE

    London

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    22 June 2004

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    • Paul Signac (1863-1935)
    Lot 14

    Paul Signac (1863-1935)

    Mont Saint-Michel. Brume et soleil

    Price realised

    GBP 587,650

    Estimate

    GBP 300,000 - GBP 450,000

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    Paul Signac (1863-1935)
    Mont Saint-Michel. Brume et soleil
    signed and dated 'P.Signac 97' (lower right)
    oil on canvas
    18 3/8 x 21 7/8 in. (46.7 x 55.6 cm.)
    Painted in 1897

    Provenance

    Théo van Rysselberghe, Paris.
    Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, by 1907.
    Joanny Peytel, Paris, by 1907.
    Anonymous sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 31 March 1960, lot 85 (illustrated in colour). Stiebel Ltd., New York.
    Nahum Goldmann, Jerusalem; estate sale, Sotheby's, New York, 17 November 1983, lot 125.
    Anonymous sale, Christie's, New York, 7 November 2001, lot 153 (illustrated on the cover of the catalogue).
    Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

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    Literature and exhibited

    Literature

    The artist's handlist, titled St Michel. Brume et Soleil.
    J. Leclerq, 'Galeries Durand-Ruel', in La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, 18 March 1899, p. 94.
    G. Coquiot, 'La vie artistique. II. Signac, Luce, Cross', in La Vogue, no. 4, April 1899, p. 58.
    H. Ghéon, 'Lettre d'Angèle. Chez Durand-Ruel: le pointillisme', in L'Ermitage, April 1899, p. 314.
    T. Natanson, 'Une date de la peinture française: March 1899', in La Revue Blanche, April 1899, p. 508.
    G. Denoinville, 'Sensations d'art', in Le Voltaire, 2 March 1904, p. 3.
    L. Vauxcelles, 'La vie artistique. Exposition Paul Signac', in Le Gil Blas, 26 January 1907, p. 2.
    J. Sutter, Les Néo-impressionnistes, Paris, 1970, p. 52.
    F. Cachin, Signac, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Paris, 2000, p. 231, no. 307 (illustrated in colour p. 118).


    Exhibited

    Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Exposition, March 1899, no. 118 (titled Le Mont Saint-Michel: Soleil dans la brume).
    Brussels, Salon de la Libre Esthétique, Exposition des peintres impressionnistes, February - March 1904, no. 152 (titled Mont Saint-Michel; matin, brume).
    Paris, Galerie Bernheim Jeune, Paul Signac, January - February 1907, no. 30 (titled Le Mont Saint-Michel).
    Bakersfield, Bakersfield Museum of Art, Lightness of Being, December 2003 - April 2004 (illustrated pl. 7).


    Lot Essay

    In the early months of 1897, Paul Signac wrote to his friend Henri Edmond Cross saying that he had painted several pictures in Mont Saint-Michel, and that the best were studies of the varying weather effects. Mont Saint-Michel. Brume et soleil, demonstrates the extent to which Signac aimed to 'link up the triangle of the Mont with the curve of the river' (Signac, quoted in F. Cachin, op. cit, p. 231). However, due to the impracticalities of painting a study of the weather 'on site', what with the length of time that the lengthy process takes, the paintings that he described to Cross were probably studies, rather than finished works, and it is believed that the series of finished Mont Saint-Michel pictures was completed in Saint-Tropez later that year. (This explains why, in his description of the earlier Mont Saint-Michel paintings, he refers to them as being rendered 'en deux coups de pinceaux', a somewhat unlikely description of the Pointillist Mont Saint-Michel. Brume et soleil it is rather into the latter category that such evidently hastily-painted works as C.308 and 309, both entitled Mont Saint-Michel, fall).
    Mont Saint-Michel. Brume et soleil was given by Signac to the painter Théo van Rysselberghe, possibly in return for a portrait that the latter had painted of the former the previous year Van Rysselberghe had been for some time an adherent to Pointillism, and his ties with Signac and the other French Neo-Impressionists had been strengthened by their joint participation in the exhibitions of the Les XX in Brussels. Van Rysselberghe's divisionist portrait showed Signac at the tiller aboard his boat, reflecting his enthusiasm for sailing as well as their joint adherence to Neo-Impressionism. This was an important period in Van Rysselberghe's life as well, as it was only the year after Mont Saint-Michel. Brume et soleil was painted that he finally fulfilled his dream of moving to Paris, where he thrived.

    Other information

    Special Notice

    VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium


    Pre-Lot Text

    THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTOR

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