Paul Signac

Jean Ajalbert, Paris (acquired by 1902)
Chresteil Collection, Paris (acquired by 1914)
Private Collection, London (by descent from the above and sold: Sotheby’s, London, November 29, 1988, lot 39)
Private Collection, London (acquired at the above sale and sold: Christie’s, London, June 26, 2001, lot 130)
Acquired at the above sale

The Artist's Handlist (Cahier d’opus), 1887-1902, no. 86 (dated 1884)
The Artist's Handlist (Cahier manuscrit), 1902-09, n.n. (dated 1884)
Gaston Lévy, Pré-catalogue, circa 1932, listed p. 82
Françoise Cachin, Signac: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, Paris, 2000, no. 77, illustrated p. 162

This work is in very good condition. The canvas is unlined.The impasto is rich and well preserved. The pigments are vibrant and fresh. There are a few scattered pindot losses along the lower left edge. There is some minor paint shrinkage throughout the lighter pigments in the sky. Under UV light there is a nailhead sized spot of inpainting at the center of the right edge and minor, thin strokes of inpainting throughout the sky to address aforementioned pigment shrinkage. Otherwise fine.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Le Pont de Suresnes is a wonderful example of the beautifully loose brushwork of Signac’s early manner in which he embraced the stylistic and compositional strategies of the great Impressionists. The Impressionist preoccupation with light is something that would remain a mainstay in Signac’s work throughout his career. As Jean Cassou has written, "Light, in short, made [Signac] its favorite. Light gave him all that it had to give. It was his Muse, as well as his favorite object of study. It accorded so well with his magnanimous, open-hearted humanity that it provided him with a never-ending source of radiant images" (Jean Cassou, "Paul Signac" in Paul Signac (exhibition catalogue), Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., London, 1954, n.p.). The rich atmosphere and brilliant cascading light along the surface of the choppy waters of Le Pont de Suresnes hints at what would soon become the defining attributes of the artist's work—a buoyant and exuberant color palette and a systematic application of small strokes and dots of colors (see fig. 1). In the present work the broad brushstrokes and vibrant colors illustrate his desire to capture the play of light and color in landscape, hinting at the landscapes to come when, with Georges Seurat, he fully developed the Pointillist style. Painted in 1884, the present work depicts the small suburb of Suresnes on the western outskirts of Paris. These suburbs on the banks of the Seine and its tributaries, such as St. Cloud, Sèvres and Argenteuil, provided endless inspiration for the Impressionist painters. The first owner of the present work was Jean Ajalbert, a writer from Signac’s circle who, along with Gustave Kahn, Felix Fénéon and Paul Adam, was involved in the avant-garde debates of the time. Ajalbert praised the work of Signac in an article in La Revue moderne: “Signac proceeds from an ineffable sureness of eye and hand, with rousing good humor. You sense the artist is enamored of his art, loving nature where he looks to surprise its most fleeting aspects” (Jean Ajalbert, “Le Salon des impressionnistes” in La Revue moderne, Paris, June 20, 1886, n.p.). 

In her catalogue raisonné, Françoise Cachin explains that this work was signed and dated at some point after its execution, which explains the discrepancy between the date the painting bears and the date recorded in Signac’s various handlists.