The Port of Saint-Tropez|Paul Signac |Search Collection | The National Museum of Western Art

Updated 18 April 2025

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On Display

Permanent collection

Paul Signac

Paris, 1863 - Paris, 1935

The Port of Saint-Tropez

Date	1901-02
Materials and Techniques	oil on canvas
Size（cm）	131 x 161.5
Inscriptions	Signed lower right: P. Signac
Credit Line	Purchased
Standard ref.	Cachin 359
Category	Paintings
Collection Number	P.1987-0003

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; Purchased by the NMWA, 1988.

Exhibition History

1902: Exposition de la Société des Artistes Indépendants, Cours-la-Reine, Paris, 29 March 1902 - 5 May 1902, cat. no. 1633 (titled Saint Tropez)
1904: Exposition des peintres impressionnistes, La Libre Esthétique, Bruxelles, 25 February 1904 - 29 March 1904, cat. no. 153
1907: Paul Signac, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 21 January 1907 - 2 February 1907, cat. no. 17 (titled Saint-Tropez, Le Port)
1912: Museum Folkwang, Hagen, 0 1912 - 0 1912, cat. no. 188
1929: Museum Folkwang, Essen, 0 1929 - 0 1929, cat. no. 300
1952: , Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 19 October 1952 - 30 November 1952, cat. no. 13
1969: Museum Folkwang, Essen, 0 1969 - 0 1969, cat. no. 105, repr.
1973: Selected European Master of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Marlborough Fine Art, London, 0 1973 - 0 1973, cat. no. 144, repr.
1983: Master of the 19th and 20th Centuries: Inaugural Exhibition, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., Tokyo, 0 1983 - 0 1983, cat. no. 19, repr.
1983: Master of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Marlborough Gallery Inc., New York, 0 1983 - 0 1983, cat. no. 45, repr.
1997: Expressiveness of Materials, National Museum of Art, Osaka, 17 April 1997 - 22 June 1997, cat. no. 38
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.
2013: Monet, An Eye for Landscapes: Innovation in 19th Century French Landscape Paintings, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 7 December 2013 - 9 March 2014, cat. no. 95, col. repr.
2022: Renoir—Monet—Gauguin: Images of a Floating World: the Collections of Kōjirō Matsukata and Karl Ernst Osthaus, Museum Folkwang, 6 February 2022 - 15 May 2022
2022: In Dialogue with Nature - from Friedrich, Monet and Van Gogh to Richter, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 4 June 2022 - 11 September 2022, cat. no. 64
2024: Does the Future Sleep Here?: Revisiting the Museum's Response to Contemporary Art after 65 Years, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 12 March 2024 - 12 May 2024

Bibliography

1902: Laertes. Les Salons. Exposition des Indépendants. La Dépêche de Toulouse. 1 April 1902, p. 5
1902: Anonymous. Les Indépendants. Le Petit Bleu de Paris. 5 May 1902, p. 2
1902: Anonymous. Le Cri de Paris. 9 April 1902, p. 4
1902: Bidou, Henri. Le Salon des Indépendants. L'Occident. June 1902, p. 253
1902: Fleury, Arbert. Les Indépendants. L'Effort. 15 June 1902, p. 58
1902: Klingsor, Tristan. Les Salons de 1902. Le Salon des Indépendants. La Plume. 1 May 1902, p. 567
1904: Fénéon, Félix. L’Art à Paris. Exposition Paul Signac. L’Art Moderne. 18 December 1904, pp. 409-410
1907: Jamot, Paul. Exposition Paul Signac. La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité. no. 4, 26 January 1907, p. 28
1912: Museum Folkwang. Freyer, Kurt, ed, vol. 1 Moderne Kunst: Plastik, Malerei, Graphik, Hagen, 1912, cat. no. 189
1929: Museum Folkwang. Waldstein, Agnes, ed, vol. 1 Moderne Kunst: Plastik, Malerei, Graphik, Essen, 1929, cat. no. 298
1967: Lindemann, G. Kunst, Künstler, Kunstwerke. Essen, 1967, pp. 266-267, repr.
1969: Museum Folkwang Essen, Gemälde 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Rickman, Herbert, ed, Essen, Museum Folkwang, 1969, cat. no. 206, repr.
1986: Paul Signac 1863-1935: Watercolours and Drawings (exh. cat.). Bosman, Suan. Marlborough Gallery, London, November 1986. London, 1986, p. 11, fig. 15, 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.
1992: Ferretti-Bocquillon, Maria. Peintures. Dessins et aquarelles. Signac & Saint-Tropez: 1892-1913 (exh. cat.). Musée de l'Annonciade, Saint-Tropez, 20 June - 6 October 1992; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims, 6 November - 13 December 1992. [Saint-Tropez], [Musée de l'Annonciade], 1992, pp. 76-77, repr.
1997: Ferretti-Bocquillon, Maria. Paul Signac au temps d’Harmonie 1895-1913. Signac et la libération de la couleur: de Matisse à Mondrian (exh. cat.). Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster, 1 December 1996 – 16 February 1997; Musée de Grenoble, 9 March – 25 May 1997; Kunstsammulungen zu Weimer, 15 June – 31 August 1997. Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1997, p. 66
2000: Cachin, Françoise. Signac: catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint. Paris, Gallimard, 2000, cat. no. 359, repr.
2009: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 90, col. repr.
2013: MONET, An Eye For Landscapes: Innovation in 19th Century French Landscape Paintings(exh. cat.). Tokyo, TBS, c2013, cat. no. 95, col. repr.
2013: Masterpieces: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2013 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 112, col. repr.
2022: In Dialogue with Nature: from Friedrich, Monet and Van Gogh to Richter (exh. cat.). Jingaoka, Megumi; Shinfuji, Atsushi; Yomiuri Shimbun, Museum Exhibition Department, eds. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; Yomiuri Shimbun; NHK; NHK Promotions, 2022, pp. 138, 259, cat. no. 64, col. repr.
2022: Renoir—Monet—Gauguin: Images of a Floating World: the Collections of Kōjirō Matsukata and Karl Ernst Osthaus (exh.cat.). Engel, Nadine; Herlemann, Rebecca, eds. Berlin, Hatje Cantz, [2022], pp. 287, 368, col. repr.
2024: Does the Future Sleep Here?: Revisiting the Museum's Response to Contemporary Art after 65 Years (exh. cat.). Shinfuji, Atsushi; Mochizuki, Kaoru, eds. [Tokyo], Culture Convenience Club; Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, 2024, pp. 250, 309, col. repr.

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