Over the last few months I have looked at many of the oil and watercolour paintings of Paul Signac (1863-1935), a modern master whose work spans a period of enormous change in art, from Impressionism to Modernism. In this article and its sequel I provide a short survey of some of his major paintings, together with links to each of the articles in that series.
After a promising start painting landscapes in Impressionist style, Signac’s oil paintings made the transition to Georges Seurat’s new Neo-Impressionism in early 1886.

Much of his view of Snow, Boulevard de Clichy, Paris, from January 1886, is white, but it also features more vivid colours in Divisionist passages such as the wall of a house at the right. Rather than using the established complementary colours of red and green for his spots of paint, he here chooses red and blue, and blue and yellow (which are complementary), signs of his developing insight into colour combinations.
Seurat’s transition may well have been precipitated by his friend Camille Pissarro, who switched to Neo-Impressionism in January 1886, and must have been greatly influenced by Georges Seurat, who moved into a new studio next door to Signac’s in June.

This painting of Gasometers at Clichy is one of the first of his excursions into this new territory. This is one of many views that he painted of the immediate vicinity of his family’s house, several of which show similar industrial motifs. At the time these gasometers were novel, and were probably designed by Gustave Eiffel, who was just starting work on designing his eponymous tower.

Les Andelys. La Berge shows this picturesque bend on the River Seine, where the ruins of the Château Gaillard overlook the riverside houses. This has featured in many more traditional paintings of these twin villages.

Following his earlier painting of two milliners in Les Modistes (1885-86), Signac found inspiration in Caillebotte’s painting of Luncheon (1876) for another interior, this time showing the bourgeoisie at table. La salle à manger, variously known as Breakfast or The Dining Room (1886-87) is perhaps his first major Neo-Impressionist painting. Critical reception was encouraging, and this was exhibited in Brussels the following year at the Salon des XX.
From his early career, Signac was enamoured with bodies of water, from inland rivers to the ports and coasts of France. He also engaged in a range of water activities, from paddling small craft to sailing large yachts.

In 1889, when he was on the Mediterranean coast near Marseille, he painted five substantial canvases, including this view of Cassis. Cap Lombard. All show coastal scenes, and when he exhibited them together with seven paintings of Portrieux at the Salon des XX the following year they had the overall title of The Sea.

Sunday, which Signac started in October 1888 and completed in March 1890, is perhaps the best-known of his interiors, and continues their theme of the humdrum life of the bourgeoisie. Its composition is a modification of Caillebotte’s Interior: Woman at the Window (1880), which Signac developed from a lithograph and a series of studies. Its static, stultified composition and atmosphere are intentional, and pervade its every detail.

In total contrast is Against the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones, and Tints, Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon in 1890 (1890-91). This is a unique combination of colour theory, Japonisme, decorative art, and portrait, set against a background of colour wheels expressed according to a Japanese kimono pattern.
His friend Félix Fénéon is shown as the dandy he appeared to be, but has the air of a circus ringmaster, perhaps reflecting his ability to spot and encourage artistic talent. He was an odd contradiction, by day a clerk in the War Ministry, a well-known anarchist suspected of bombing a restaurant in 1894, and one of the most astute art critics of the time. Somehow Signac captures all of those, together with their long friendship.

More typical of Signac’s fine maritime paintings is Concarneau, Return of the Sloops (presto finale) (1891), which shows the coast of Brittany, and sold unusually quickly. This marks the end of his first period of Divisionism, before he discovered the light and colour of the Midi.
After the early and sudden death of Georges Seurat, Signac became the de facto leader of the Neo-Impressionist movement, and continued to develop and practice its colour and optical theory, particularly in his paintings of the Midi.

Woman with a Parasol is a portrait of the artist’s wife, and a Neo-Impressionist reworking of a popular Impressionist theme. Although Berthe Roblès had modelled for several of Signac’s previous paintings, this is the first in which he shows her face clearly. It’s an exemplary demonstration of the principles of simultaneous contrast in action. For example, the dominant colours used in the handle of the parasol change from orange to green and back again according to the surrounding colour.

Saint-Tropez. The Red Buoy shows the Quai Jean-Jaurès behind the richly coloured reflections of those buildings, with a colour scheme dominated by the blue of the water, its complementary vermilion sail and buoy, and the pale orange of the buildings and their reflections. Signac developed the composition and colour harmonies during the summer of 1895 before starting the final version.
References
Cachin F (2000) Signac. Catalogue raisoné de l’Oeuvre Peint, Gallimard. ISBN 2 07 011597 6.
Ferretti-Bocquillon M et al (2001) Signac 1863-1935, Yale UP. ISBN 0 300 08860 4.
Ferretti-Bocquillon M et al. (2013) Signac, les Couleurs de l’Eau, Gallimard. ISBN 978 2 07 014106 7.