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Signac was greatly shocked by the death of Seurat who had joined him in defending and extolling the spread of Neo-impressionism. Thanks to the efforts of his friend the painter H. E. Cross, Signac left the year after the death of Seurat (1892) on a yacht voyage around the Mediterranean. He discovered the still as yet small fishing harbor of Saint-Tropez during this trip and for the next ten years he traveled between Saint-Tropez and Paris in the creation of his paintings. A series of developments in the artistic directions of Signac's work can be seen over this period. First we see the softening of the linear rigor of his compositions, followed by an increase in size of the distinctive dots of pigment that characterize the Neo-impressionist style. In this later change, he strengthened the characteristics of the individual touches and the contrast between them, surpassing the optical mixture that had been the Pointillists' first objective. This work depicting the port of Saint-Tropez in its entirety is one of his most monumental works of this period, providing an extreme expression of these formal changes. Signaling Signac's emergence from the Neo-impressionists and revealing intimations of the birth of Fauvism, this work represents Signac's achievements at the turn of the century. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no. 90)

Provenance

Karl-Ernst Osthaus, Hagen; Museum Folkwang, Essen; Marlborough Fine Art, London

Exhibition History

1902

Exposition de la Société des Artistes Indépendants, Paris, 1902 - 1902, cat. no. 1633

1907

Paul Signac, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1907 - 1907, cat. no. 13

1912

Museum Folkwang, Hagen, 1912 - 1912, cat. no. 188

1929

Museum Folkwang, Essen, 1929 - 1929, cat. no. 300

1952

Paul Signac, Kunstverein, Düsseldorf, 1952 - 1952, cat. no. 13

1969

Museum Folkwang, Essen, 1969 - 1969, cat. no. 105, repr.

1973

Selected European Master of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Marlborough Fine Art, London, 1973 - 1973, cat. no. 73, repr.

1983

Master of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Marlborough Gallery Inc., New York, 1983 - 1983, cat. no. 45, repr.

1983

Master of the 19th and 20th Centuries: Inaugural Exhibition, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., Tokyo, 1983 - 1983, cat. no. 19, repr.

1995

[Exhibition for Children] Exploring Mysterious Painted World, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 11 July 1995 - 10 September 1995

2000

Tanka at the National Museum of Western Art: An Encounter between Poet and Art, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 25 July 2000 - 29 October 2000, cat. no. 60

2001

Signac, 1863-1935, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 27 February 2001 - 28 May 2001, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 15 June-9 September 2001; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 9 October- 30 December, cat. no. 105, col. repr.

Bibliography

1967

Lindemann, G. Kunst, Künstler, Kunstwerke. Essen, 1967, pp. 266-267, repr.

1989

Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1989 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 82, repr.

1990

Catalogue of painting acquisitions: 1979-1989. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1990, pp. 65-66, repr.

1990

Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. Nos. 21-22 (1986-87), 1990, Yaegashi, Haruki. New Acquisitions 1986-87. pp. 15-16, Catalogue of the New Acquisitions 1986-87. pp. 34-35, repr.