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Portrieux. Les mƒts. Opus 182 signed and dated 'P. Signac. 88' (lower left), numbered 'Op. 182' (lower right) oil on canvas 18 1/8 x 211/2 in. (46 x 54.6 cm.) Painted in 1888 PROVENANCE Jean Ajalbert, Paris. Ren‚ Keller, Paris; sale, Palais Galliera, MaŒtres Rheims et Laurin, Paris, 12 March 1969, lot 76. The Lefevre Gallery (Alex. Reid & Lefevre Ltd.), London. Paul Mellon, Upperville (acquired in 1969); sale, Christie's, New York, 15 November 1983, lot 25. Acquired at the above sale. LITERATURE The Artist's Handlist ( Cahier d'Opus ), no. 182 (titled Des mƒts. Portrieux ). E. Demolder, L'Artiste, February 1890, p. 100. J. Krexpel, "Le Salon des XX", La Revue Blanche, no. 1, 1 February 1890, p. 11. G. Lecomte, "Beaux-Arts. L'exposition des n‚o-impressionnistes", Art et Critique, 29 March 1890, p. 204. J. Christophe, "Causerie. L'impressionnisme … l'Exposition des Artistes Ind‚pendants", Journal des Artistes, 6 April 1890, p. 102. G. Geffroy, "Chronique d'art ind‚pendants", La Revue d'Aujourd'hui, no. 4, 15 April 1890, pp. 267-270. J.L. Leclercq, "Aux Ind‚pendants", Mercure de France, May 1890, p. 175. J. Ajalbert, "Un demi-siŠcle d'art ind‚pendant", Les Nouvelles Litt‚raires, 10 February 1934, p. 4. Connaissance des Arts, February 1969, p. 38 (illustrated). "Conseils aux acheteurs", Connaissance des Arts, July 1969, p. 93 (illustrated). F. Cachin, Signac, catalogue raisonn‚ de l'oeuvre peint, Paris, 2000, p. 187, no. 166 (illustrated; illustrated in color, p. 101). A. Distel, Signac: Au temps d'harmonie, Paris, 2001, p. 46 (illustrated). EXHIBITION Paris, 6Šme Exposition des Artistes Ind‚pendants, March-April 1890, no. 743 (titled La Mer. Portrieux [ C“tes du Nord ]). Brussels, 7Šme Exposition des XX, February 1890, no. 3 (titled La Mer. Portrieux [C“tes du Nord ]; catalogue reproduced in Art et Critique, 1 February 1890, p. 77). Paris, Salon des Ind‚pendants, March-April 1890, no. 743 (titled La Mer. Portrieux [C“tes du Nord ]). Paris, Grand Palais and Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Signac 1863-1935, February-September 2001, p. 175, no. 29 (illustrated in color, p. 174). NOTES Paul Signac spent the summer of 1888 painting in Portrieux, a seaside village along the English Channel in northern Brittany. There he produced nine paintings and six studies evoking the dramatic colors, scintillating light and maritime vistas of this small Breton port. The paintings in this celebrated series include views of the port, jetty and lighthouse, as well as the Plage de la Comtesse and the Tertre Denis. Signac spent the summer in Portrieux with the writer Jean Ajalbert, who later recalled, "We decided to spend the summer at the same spot, each taking up lodgings at a fisherman's, eating our meals with him. From Portrieux, we sailed over to Jersey. An unforgettable vacation". When Signac returned to Paris in the fall, he gave this painting to Ajalbert as a memento of their summer together. Les mƒts, Portrieux. Opus 182, considered one the most illustrious paintings in this series, exemplifies the height of Signac's achievement in the pointillist movement. His meticulous and controlled brushwork, undulating rhythm of line and light, and strict application of color theory, imbued with a distinctly personal touch, demonstrate his mastery of this highly methodical style of painting. Fran‡oise Cachin, author of Signac's recently published catalogue raisonn‚, distinguishes this period of his work, "He came to realize that the best part of his sensibility and of the pointillist technique were activated for him by scenes of sunshine and sea, by everything that sparkled, teemed and splashed in the bright light. In 1887 at Collioure, and the following year at Portrieux, Signac painted seascapes with a balance and a gentleness that he perhaps never again equaled. Signac had been especially sensitive to the austere poetry of these landscapes made up of the interplay of water, light, and rock. It was in Portrieux, that he became most attached to the decorative and synthetic values of the lines, to the effects of contrast" (F. Cachin, op. cit., pp. 38-39). 'Opus 182' refers to a numbering system that Signac employed in his paintings between 1887 and 1894. He frequently titled his paintings with musical terms such as Opus, Adagio, Larghetto, and Scherzo, demonstrating his interest in color harmonies and rhythmical compositions. Signac's paintings from Portrieux were deeply influenced by Charles Henry, a theoretician investigating the relationship between aesthetics, music, and mathematics. Symbolist writer T‚odor de Wyziwa elucidated upon Henry's idea for the Revue Wagn‚rienne in May 1886, "Colors and lines, like words, have for our soul an emotional value independent of the very objects they represent. Henceforth these colors, these contours, these expressions are tied in our souls to these emotions, and thus they have become not just signs of visual sensations, but also signs of our emotions, like syllables of poetry, like notes of music, emotional signs. Thus certain painters have used colors and lines in a pure symphonic arrangement, heedless of a visual object to be painted directly" (quoted in R.L. Herbert, Neo-Impressionism, New York, 1968, p. 23). The influence of Henry's theories on the rhythmical elements of line and color is evident in this intricate composition. The pattern of vertical lines created by the masts and jetty form a staccato-like rhythm along the canvas. The dramatic perspective produced by the jetty lures the viewer toward the faint horizon line where sea and sky meet. Yet, the severity of these vertical lines is balanced by the soothing expanse of color and light and the stillness of the scene. Signac methodically applied diminutive dots of complementary colors to create an intense optical sensation; the brilliant colors seem to vibrate across the canvas. This technique, referred to by Signac and his colleagues as divisionism, was pioneered by Georges Seurat. John Rewald elaborates on Seurat's principles of divisionism and color theory, "By adopting tiny brushstrokes in the form of dots, Seurat managed to accumulate even on small surfaces a great variety of colors and tones, each corresponding to one of the elements which contributed to the appearance of the object. At a given distance--which varied according to the size of the dots chosen for the specific painting--these tiny particles would blend optically. And this optical mixture, according to Seurat and his friends, produced a far greater intensity and luminosity of color than any mixture of pigments" (J. Rewald, Post-Impressionism: From Van Gogh to Gauguin, New York, 1978, p. 80). Seurat's influence is particularly evident in Signac's canvases from Portrieux. Seurat had spent the summer of 1888 in Port-en-Bessin, similarly painting seascapes (fig. 2). When comparing Seurat's paintings from Port-en-Bessin with those of Signac from Portrieux, critic Jules Christophe commented, "Similar calm effects have been achieved by M. Paul Signac in his views of Portrieux, which present about the same setting in a region of the same nature, at identical times of the day and seasons, seeming to have been painted on the same day, in a fraternal communion of ideas" (J. Christophe, "L'Exposition des Artistes Ind‚pendants", Journal des Artistes, 29 September 1889, quoted in Signac 1863-1935, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001, p. 305). But Rewald attests, "The others even considered him more precise and scientific than Seurat himself. They also found that his work was apt to be more luminous than that of Seurat" (J. Rewald, op.cit., p. 124). Signac became acquainted with Seurat in 1884, after viewing his monumental painting Baigneuses … AsniŠres at the first exhibition of the Soci‚t‚ des Artistes Ind‚pendants . Signac, deeply interested in the scientific principles of Seurat's painting, enthusiastically adopted his methodical style. The two young colleagues presented a strong contrast: Seurat, an aloof and introverted man was trained academically at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, while the gregarious Signac, who was aligned with the progressive literary and intellectual circles of Paris, was largely self-taught. As Cachin notes, "...on account of his own character and Seurat's reserve, Signac found himself acting as the movement's mouthpiece and proselytizer, seeking to persuade young artists to adopt the technique, and clearly advocating the method in the name of rationalism in opposition to the other trends born of a reaction to impressionism" (F. Cachin, op. cit., p. 42). Writer Gustave Kahn reminisced of gatherings of the neo-impressionists and the Parisian avant-garde, "We spent evenings of friendly, enthusiastic, aesthetic camaraderie in the spacious studio of Paul Signac, the best housed of the young painters on the Impasse H‚lŠne (Boulevard de Clichy), a studio already decorated with fine canvases by the young painter, and also by a large mahogany bookcase filled with fine books by the naturalist writers and rare editions of symbolist poets. In Signac's studio, Seurat, Luce Dubois-Pillet, Cross, and Van Rysselberghe rubbed shoulders with Paul Adam, F‚lix F‚n‚on, and myself. Henri de R‚gnier was seen there. A musician, Gabriel Faur‚, and Paul Alexis used to come, and Camille Pissarro, the gentle patriarch and master to whom everyone listened, who had just joined the pointillists" (quoted in ibid., pp. 26-27). Signac's connections with the Symbolist literary circle in Paris added strong weight to their cause. One of the most ardent supporters of the group's innovations was the writer, F‚lix F‚n‚on, who in 1886 coined the term "neo-impressionism". F‚n‚on published a number of articles and essays fervently supporting the innovations of this new group of painters. Although they would have preferred the more accurate name, "chromoluminarists", Signac explained the group's willingness to take on the name of neo-impressionists was "to pay homage to the efforts of their predecessors and to emphasize that while procedures varied, the ends were still the same: light and color. It is in this sense that the term neo-impressionist should be understood, for the technique employed by these painters is utterly unlike that of the impressionists: to the degree that the technique of the latter is instinctive and instantaneous, that of the neo-impressionists is deliberate and constant" (P. Signac quoted in J. Rewald, op. cit., p. 89). Upon Seurat's early death in 1891, Signac became the leading proponent of the pointillist movement. He later developed a more abstract style, his pointillist dots becoming mosaic-like squares. But it was his work in the late 1880s and early 1890s, most specifically his "Opus" pictures, that are truly regarded as the height of his pointillist technique. Perhaps it was F‚n‚on who, in 1890, most poignantly described Signac's works of this period, as "exemplary specimens of a highly developed decorative art, which sacrifices the anecdote to the arabesque, nomenclature to synthesis, the fugitive to the permanent, and confers on nature-weary at last of its precarious reality-authentic reality" (F. F‚n‚on, "Paul Signac", Les Hommes d'Aujourd'hui, vol. 8 (no. 373), 1890, quoted in ibid, p. 124). (fig. 1) Signac at the tiller of his yacht, Olympia, circa 1895. (Archives Signac) (fig. 2) Georges Seurat, Port-en-Bessin, 1888. Rijksmuseum Kr”ller-M쳌ller, Otterlo, The Netherlands.