Updated 14 May 2025
Currently not on display
Currently not on display
Fishing Boat
| Date | early 20th century |
|---|---|
| Materials and Techniques | pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper |
| Size（cm） | 28.0 x 44.0 |
| Inscriptions | Signed lower left: P Signac |
| Credit Line | Matsukata Collection |
| Standard ref. | M1792 |
| Category | Drawings |
| Collection Number | D.1959-0071 |
In the 1890s, Signac ceased employing oil painting when working on an actual view and began to use watercolour instead. Whereas his oil paintings were composed of divisionism and pointillism, Signac resorted to the unique effect of watercolour to capture the view of a particular instant in nature. The flicker of the sea surface reflecting the fishing boats is portrayed with a quick brush, showing that this artist had a keen eye for observing an instantaneous phenomenon in nature. (Source: The Digital Gallery. 1999-2006)
Provenance
Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris; purchased from Galerie Bernheim-Jeune by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe, ca. May 1923 (Fr. 4,500 for five watercolours by Signac) [see bill of sale of Galerie Bernheim-Jeune to Léonce Bénédite, dated 30 May 1923, in Bibliothèque centrale des musées nationaux, Paris; copy in NMWA curatorial files]; sequestered by French government, 1944; vested in French government under San Francisco Peace Treaty, 1952; transferred from French to Japanese government, 23 January 1959; entered into NMWA, April 1959.
Exhibition History
- 1997
- Expressiveness of Materials, National Museum of Art, Osaka, 17 April 1997 - 22 June 1997, cat. no. 35
- 2001
- French Masterpiece Drawings from The National Museum of Western Art Collection, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 27 March 2001 - 24 June 2001, exhibited March 27 - May 13
- 2019
- The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey: Upon the 60th Anniversary of the NMWA, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 11 June 2019 - 23 September 2019, cat. no. 126, col. repr.
Bibliography
- 1959
- Mizue : a monthly review of the fine arts. no. 651, Special Number, July 1959 (in Japanese)
- 1961
- Catalogue du Musée National d'Art Occidental, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1961 (Préface and Catalogue Général in Japanese and French), P-281.
- 1990
- The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. 1377.
- 2019
- The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey (exh. cat.). Jingaoka, Megumi, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of the Western Art, Tokyo; Yomiuri Shimbun; NHK; NHK Promotions, 2019, pp. 214, 218, 370, cat. no. 126, col. repr.
- 2019
- The Matsukata Collection: Complete Catalogue of the European Art. Kawaguchi, Masako; Jingaoka, Megumi, eds. vol. 2: Sculpture, Drawings, Prints and Decorative Arts and Other Works, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2019, cat. no. 1792, col. repr.