'The exploration of colour would be, in effect, the true interest of Signac’s work, much more than the scientific quest for the laws of harmony that guided Seurat. And while mysticism is an unfitting term to describe Signac, who was a confirmed anarchist, it is tempting to say that he was a devout worshipper of colour'
Painted with a dazzling array of carefully applied colour, Saint-Tropez. Le rayon vert exemplifies Paul Signac’s pioneering development of Neo-Impressionist colour theory in a region much loved by the artist. Signac first encountered Saint-Tropez in April 1892, when he set sail on his boat Olympia from Concarneau and headed to the southern French coast in search of the region’s distinct light and colours (fig. 1). At this t.mes , the port of Saint-Tropez could only be accessed by boat, and as the artist approached it from the water he was struck by the terracotta-roofed houses that lined its streets. Saint-Tropez made a lasting impression, inspiring numerous compositions that focus on both the town itself and the surrounding landscape. Dating from 1906, Saint-Tropez. Le rayon vert shows the artist returning to this much-loved subject, using the distinctive longer brush strokes and simplified palette that he developed in the latter part of his career.
In the present painting, Signac depicts the bay of Saint-Tropez from the land looking out to sea. The unusual crop of the composition reveals the artist’s adept handling of colour and form, as well as his understanding of modern developments in photography. Framed by a section of rugged coastline on the left and the bustle of the port on the right, the seascape is elevated by a band of yellow pigment separating sky from water and infusing the composition with warmth. The sharp verticals of the sails intensify the compositional dynamism, providing a visual counterpart to the thick foliage of the trees that line the water’s edge. The focal point is, however, the presentation of a rare meteorological phenomenon; the titular rayon vert refers to a green ray that somet.mes s occurs around sunset or sunrise as a result of a distinct refraction of sunlight. For Signac, an artist so deeply influenced by colour, such natural phenomena provided an ideal opportunity to explore new or unusual colour combinations; a technique also practiced the previous year in his Venetian painting L’Arc-en-ciel (Venise) (fig. 2).
Signac’s experimental approach to colour would have a lasting impact on his contemporaries and the generation of artists that came of age at the 1905 Salon d’Automne and would subsequently be known as the Fauves. Matisse visited Signac in Saint-Tropez in the summer of 1904, painting his seminal work Luxe, Calme et Volupté (fig. 3) shortly after. This composition - which is often considered the starting point of Fauvism - was purchased by Signac in 1905 and provides an interesting counterpoint to the present work. The warm pink tones and the patches of bright yellow that imbue Matisse’s work with its tangible warmth, are used to similar effect by Signac in a way that powerfully conjures the unique qualities of the French Mediterranean.
The richness of the palette employed in Saint-Tropez. Le rayon vert is amplified by Signac’s technique; dashes of paint are applied in larger, looser strokes than the more tightly spaced dots of his earlier compositions creating a greater sense of spontaneity and expression.
'After c. 1900 Signac adopted a larger brushstroke, and began to work in mosaic-like blocks of paint, placed separately on the white-primed canvas, and somet.mes s at an angle to suggest directional movement. The priming is often left visible around the touches [which] give the painting a luminosity, alongside the richness of its colour'
At the t.mes that the present work was painted, Signac had grown disillusioned with the stringent approach of Divisionism. He felt that whilst concentrated dots of colour allowed for the greater interplay of light across the canvas they did not align with his primary concern of conveying and investigating colour fields. Author and Signac scholar Marina Ferretti Bocquillon has remarked upon the stylistic shift that ensued: ‘From that t.mes on, his polychromatic harmonies derive more openly from the contrast of hues, often with the juxtaposition of large fields of colour. Signac’s technique tends toward an increasingly powerful expression of colour, and an oscillation between polychromy and monochromy cadences his oeuvre.’ (M. Ferretti Bocquillon, Ex. Cat., Lausanne, Fondation de l’Hermitage & Lugano, Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, Signac Reflections on Water, 2016-17, p. 20). In the present work Signac embraces this monochromy, exploring varying hues of reds and pinks, which dominate the palette and offset the titular rayon vert: ‘The painter thus abandoned the principle of optical mixing and the tiny dot of Divisionism’s heyday for broader brushstrokes that give his paintings the allure of vividly coloured mosaics.’ (M. Ferretti Bocquillon, ibid., 2016-17, p. 20). This change in technique creates a marked shift in tone; colour here is a celebratory force, rendered with a rich energy that makes these later works among Signac’s most sought-after paintings. Having belonged in the same private collects ion since it last came for auction in 1958, Saint-Tropez. Le rayon vert represents a rare opportunity to acquire a work from this hugely important period of Signac’s career.
Signac’s Paintings of Saint-Tropez in Museum collects ions
