Paul Signac

Léon Marseille, Paris
Willy Dubois, Bruxelles (1923)
Berheim-Jeune, Paris (1929)
Gaston Lévy, Paris (1929)
Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 10th June 1937, lot 56 (titled Antibes. Le soir) 
Purchased at the above sale by the father of the present owner

André Paulin, "Arts. Paul Signac" in Triptyque, December 1932, p. 29-32 (discussed; incorrectly titled Saint Tropez)
Françoise Cachin, P. Signac, Paris, 1971, no. 102, illustrated p. 109
Françoise Cachin, Signac, Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint, Paris, 2000, no. 533, illustrated p. 311

Signac had originally been encouraged to travel to the south of France by Henri-Edmond Cross in 1892, who wrote enthusiastic letters describing the beauty of the Cote d’Azur, the vibrant colours and strong sunlight. An experienced sailor, Signac set sail on his yacht the Olympia, named in honour of Manet (fig. 1), and arrived in Saint Tropez the same year. Henceforth the scenery and coastline of the South of France had a profound impact on Signac's œuvre.

The present work was painted in Antibes in 1919, where the artist had settled six years earlier. Signac executed numerous views of the port, catching the changing light on the sea, the fort and the sky. Marina Feretti-Bocquillon describes the series of views of Antibes that the artist executed in early 1919 as 'probably the most beautiful testimony of the pleasure that the artist took painting after nature' (M. Feretti-Bocquillon in Signac (exhibition catalogue), Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 2002, p. 319).

The bold and confident brushstrokes which enliven the surface of Antibes. Orage are typical of the artist’s post-1905 oeuvre. As John House observed, 'Signac adopted a larger brushstroke, and began to work in mosaic-like blocks of paint, placed separately on the white primed canvas, and sometimes at an angle to subject directional movement. The priming is often left visible around the touches, and gives the painting a luminosity alongside the richness of its colour' (John House, Post-Impressionism (exhibition catalogue), Royal Academy of Art, London, 1979, p. 140)