Paul Signac

After the death of Georges Seurat in the spring of 1891, Paul Signac and Henri-Edmond Cross became the figureheads of the Neo-Impressionist movement he had founded. In the early 1890s, the two painters moved from Paris to the French Riviera, where Signac settled in the fishing village of Saint-Tropez in 1892. The artists were close friends and enjoyed lively exchange and mutual influence as they continued to develop the Pointillist visual language. Like many of their Neo-Impressionist colleagues, they sympathized with anarchism, which sought to liberate the individual from social and governmental coercion. For both painters, the South of France and the beauty of the Riviera, unsullied by industrialization, functioned as a metaphor for the ideal of the anarchistic social utopia they were seeking to express in their depictions of nature.

Sun-drenched images of the coast and sea played a prominent role in the work of both artists during the 1890s. The Port at Sunset, Opus 236 (Saint-Tropez) is one of Signac’s first Pointillist works after his discovery of the French Riviera, and stylistically it is still indebted to Seurat. Along the harbor, both sea and sky appear golden in the light of the setting sun, contrasting with pictorial elements rendered in shades of blue and violet. The triangle formed by the landing stage in the foreground is echoed in the exaggerated contours of the boat sail. The cast shadows on the gently rippling water lead the viewer’s gaze toward the ship, lending depth and volume to the middle ground. The solemn evening mood and impression of utter stillness intensify the dreamy character so typical of Signac’s images of Saint-Tropez. Compositionally, the piece is closely related to his painting Evening Calm, Concarneau from the previous year, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

In the catalogue raisonné of Signac’s paintings compiled by Françoise Cachin and Marina Ferretti-Bocquillon, The Port at Sunset, Opus 236 (Saint-Tropez) is listed as no. 229. The subtitle “Opus 236” corresponds to the ongoing sequence of opus numbers with which Signac titled his pieces from 1887 to 1894, evoking the musical rhythms and clearly articulated harmonies that inspired his art.

Daniel Zamani

Exposition des peintres néo-impressionnistes, Salons de l’hôtel Brébant, Paris, December 1892–January 1893, no.58

Dixième Exposition des XX, Musée d'Art Moderne, Brussels, February 1893

Seconde exposition annuelle, Association pour L’Art, Anvers, May 1893

Signac & Saint-Tropez: 1892–1913, Musée de l’Annonciade, Saint-Tropez, June–October 1992; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims, November/December 1992, no.1

Signac: 1863–1935, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, February 27–May 28, 2001; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, June 15–September 9, 2001; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 9–December 30, 2001, no.59 (Paris); 61 (Amsterdam, New York)

Neo-Impressionism and the Dream of Realities: Painting, Poetry, Music, The Phillips Collection, Washington, October 27, 2014–January 11, 2015

Impressionism: The Hasso Plattner Collection, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, from September 5, 2020

by 1902, Georges Lecomte, Paris, gift from the artist
n.d., Mme Odile Favrel, Paris
October 22, 1958, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, on commission from the above
ca. 1959, Sam Salz, New York
n.d., Mrs. Van Horn, Paoli, Pennsylvania
n.d., Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, New York
May 12, 1980, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, lot 21
Private collection, acquired at the above sale
May 11, 1993, Sotheby’s, New York, lot 23
Acquavella Galleries, New York, acquired at the above sale
May 1994, Private collection, London, acquired from the above
February 27, 2019, Christie’s, London, lot 26, consigned by the above

Exposition des Peintres Néo-Impressionnistes, exh. cat. Salons de l’hôtel Brébant, Paris 1892, no.58 (Soleil couché (Saint-Tropez))

T. Natanson, “Exposition des Vingt,” in La Revue Blanche (March 1893), 217–22, here p. 219

Yvanhoë Rambosson, “Le mois artistique: Quatrième Exposition des Peintres Impressionnistes et Symbolistes,” in Mercure de France 2 (1893), p. 369 (Marine)

Antoine de La Rochefoucauld, “Paul Signac”, in Le Coeur (May 1893), p. 4/5

Dixième Exposition des XX, exh. cat. Musée d'Art Moderne, Brussels 1893, (Op 233 Soleil couchant/Soleil couché. Saint-Tropez)

Seconde exposition annuelle, exh. cat. Association pour L’Art, Anvers 1893, (Op. 233 Soleil couchant/Soleil couché Saint Tropez)

Paul Signac, Cahier d'opus 1887–1902 (The artist’s list), no.236 (Le port au soleil couchant)

Paul Signac, Cahier manuscrit 1902–1909 (The artist’s list), (Le port au soleil couchant)

Gaston Lévy and Paul Signac, Pré-catalogue 1929–1932 (The artist’s catalogue), p. 225 (Le port au soleil couchant)

Marie-Jeanne Chartrain-Hebbelinck, “Les lettres de Paul Signac à Octave Maus,” in Bulletin des Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique 18 (January/February 1969), p. 74

Mary Blume, “Saint-Tropez Serving Up a Little Culture,” in International Herald Tribune (July 13, 1992), p. 20, ill. p. 20

P. Daix, “Signac à Saint-Tropez,” in Le Quotidien de Paris (July 16, 1992), p. 18

P. Schneider, “Signac à bon port,” in L’Express (September 3, 1992), p. 94

Signac & Saint-Tropez 1892–1913, exh. cat. Musée de l’Annonciade, Saint-Tropez 1992, no. 1, p. 30, ill. p. 31

C. Finch, “Neo-impressionist paintings,” in Interior Design (October 1993), p. 196/97, ill. p. 197

Françoise Cachin and Marina Ferretti-Bocquillon, Signac: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, Paris 2000, no. 229, p. 208, ill. p. 44, 208

Signac: 1863–1935, exh. cat. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris 2001, no. 59

Signac: 1863–1935, exh. cat. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam 2001, no. 61, p. 179, ill. p. 179

Signac: 1863–1935, exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2001

Neo-Impressionism and the Dream of Realities: Painting, Poetry, Music, exh. cat. The Phillips Collection, Washington 2014, p. 114, 180, ill. p. 119, fig. 83 (detail p. 100)