Paul Signac (French, 1863–1935), , Petit Andély

Paul Signac (French, 1863–1935)
Petit Andély, Château Gaillard
Signed, located and dated 'P. Signac/Petit Andely [sic] 1923' bottom right, watercolor and pencil heightened with white gouache on paper
Sheet size: 10 x 16 in. (25.4 x 40.6cm)
PROVENANCE:
Collection La Faille, Paris.
Charles E. Slatkin, New York, New York.
Acquired directly from the above.
Private Collection, New York.
EXHBITED:
Santa Barbara Museum, 1959 (per label verso).
San Diego Museum, 1960 (per label verso).
NOTE:
In early June 1886, Paul Signac moved to the small town of Les Andelys in Normandy, not too far from Giverny. The artist was first introduced to the beauty of this quaint area by Camille Pissarro, who lived in the nearby village of Éragny-sur-Epte. There, Signac completed a series of exactly ten landscape paintings in which he explored the full potential of his new pointillist approach, applying small dots of pure color directly onto the canvas rather than blending them on a palette. Upon his return to Paris in the fall, Signac showed four of his works at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Indépendants, much to the public's surprise. Art critic Félix Fénéon praised them for their special luminosity and their boldness: "The colours provoke each other to mad chromatic flights-they exult, shout!" (Félix Fénéon, Les Impressionnistes en 1886, Paris, 1886, p. 301, quoted in Marina Ferretti, Signac 1863-1935, New York, 2001, p. 121).
While Les Andelys served as the subject of Signac's early pointillist canvases of 1886, it would also be revisited during a period in which Signac was utilizing the watercolor medium to achieve new artistic effects. The present work, painted upon the artist's return to the town in 1921, is an example of Signac's efforts to develop a satisfying synthetization of color and forms. Executed en plein-air along the banks of the river Seine, the work revisits many of the motifs that Signac found attractive in Les Andelys in his earlier paintings, such as the verdant greens of the grassy bank, the shimmering water, and a glaring summer sky. Yet, in contrast with these earlier works in which Signac depicted peaceful town at water's edge, the viewer here is presented with a more dramatic landscape view dominated by the ruins of Château Gaillard, a 12th century fortress built by Richard the Lionheart, which hover impressively over the quiet village.
The artist paints an embankment in the foreground to draw us into the scene, creating depth in the landscape and offering a perspective akin to that of the artist when he completed the work. We then find the intense greens of the trees along the left bank and the white, hazy-bright sky, which serve successfully as a frame for the ruins of the château, proudly standing in the center of the composition as its sole, pyramidal focal point. The reflection of the ruins upon the water in the foreground further amplifies this effect and provides the viewer with the illusion that they can almost seize the ruins, beckoning us to return to the scene once more.
The work showcases a new freedom in Signac's graphic style, somewhat distanced from the earlier exactness of Pointillism. The artist here is more interested in l'effet d'ensemble rather than the recording of every aspect of the town in front of him. The deliberately muted tones of the scene, combined with the artist's use of faint pencil lines, work to create a monochromatic ensemble, a sense of harmony and timelessness pleasing to both the mind and the senses. The work is very much an elaboration of Signac's contemporary research (particularly of his obsession with water), but it also reveals the artist's long-standing sympathies toward the medieval town, perhaps betraying the slightest sense of nostalgia.
We wish to thank Ms. Marina Ferretti for confirming the authenticity of the present lot. The watercolor will be included in the forthcoming new edition of the Catalogue Raisonné of the artist’s work, and will be accompanied by a Letter of Authenticity. Dimensions: