Paul Signac

The Artist's Handlist (Cahier d'Opus): no. 71, listed as La Halle aux Poissons
The Artist's Handlist (Cahier Manuscrit): listed as Port en Bessin. La halle aux poissons
Gaston Lévy, 'Pré-catalogue', circa 1932, illustrated p. 67
Michael F. Zimmerman, Les Mondes de Seurat, Paris, 1991, fig. 373, illustrated in colour p. 204
Françoise Cachin, Signac, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, Paris, 2000, no. 64, illustrated p. 159

The present work was painted in the small coastal town of Port-en-Bessin in Normandy, which Signac visited for the first time in July and August of 1882. Following his passion for sea and sailing, the artist spent the two following summers there, painting the town’s pier, its beach, cemetery and the quays. Executed during his third stay at Port-en-Bessin during the summer of 1884, the present work depicts the fishing boats around the town’s harbour, with the newly built fish market visible on the right. Although stylistically under a great influence of the Impressionists, particularly Monet, Signac avoided the fashionable resorts like Deauville and Trouville that had already been exhaustively painted by his predecessors, and found a fresh source of inspiration in the modest fishing town of Port-en-Bessin.

The year 1884, when this work was executed, was of pivotal importance in the development of Signac’s art. It was at this time that he took part in setting up the Salon des Artistes Indépendants, at which he would exhibit annually from then on. Working at the Salon, he met a number of avant-garde artists including Seurat, Dubois-Pillet, Angrand and Cross, who were to become the key figures of the Neo-Impressionist movement.

Executed in bright, vivid colours applied in decisive brushstrokes, the present work shows Signac’s admiration for the Impressionists, while at the same time expressing the qualities that would soon be fully explored in his Neo-Impressionist method and would determine his future evolution.