.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present work was painted in October of 1886, whilst Signac was staying in Fécamp, during one of his regular summer sojourns in upper Normandy. Fécamp had also been the subject of a series of paintings by Monet, whom Signac greatly admired, and this view of the dramatic stretch of coastline that surrounded the busy fishing village was created shortly after Signac's participation in the eighth and final group exhibition of the Impressionists in May-June of 1886. This event sparked a transitional phase for the Signac as he began to explore the revolutionary divisionist technique developed by Georges Seurat and move towards a more rigorous composition which is lent stability in the present work by the side of the boat in the foreground.
Signac was an avid yachtsman and while boats are omnipresent in his paintings, this seems to be the first appearance of a pictorial conceit that gives the illusion of the viewer sitting in a boat on the water, a viewpoint he subsequently used in three other compositions shortly thereafter, Collioure. Le Mohamed-el-Sadok (1887, Cachin 157, Whitney Collection, New York), Arrière du Tub, Opus 175 (1888, Cachin 161, Christie's, New York, 9 May 2007, lot 35, $11,688,000) and Avant du Tub, Opus 176 (1888, Cachin 162).
Signac was an avid yachtsman and while boats are omnipresent in his paintings, this seems to be the first appearance of a pictorial conceit that gives the illusion of the viewer sitting in a boat on the water, a viewpoint he subsequently used in three other compositions shortly thereafter, Collioure. Le Mohamed-el-Sadok (1887, Cachin 157, Whitney Collection, New York), Arrière du Tub, Opus 175 (1888, Cachin 161, Christie's, New York, 9 May 2007, lot 35, $11,688,000) and Avant du Tub, Opus 176 (1888, Cachin 162).