Paul Signac 1863 – 1935
Oil on panel 15.1 x 25.1 cm
Given by the Very Rev. E. Milner White, Dean of York, 1959
Collections record: PD.9-1959
© The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Like Boudin, Brittany was one of Signac’s favourite haunts. He visited the Emerald coast in the summer of 1884, and returned there on several occasions until 1892, when he moved his base to Saint Tropez.
This view is of the harbour at Portrieux, where Signac worked between June and September 1888. It is one of six studies in oils on panel and nine finished canvases that he made during his stay, which represent the port from a range of different viewpoints. Many of the paintings bear the subtitle ‘opus’, referring to a chronological list of his works which Signac kept between 1887 and 1902; this is ‘opus 188’, one of four relating to the painting Portrieux: La Houle (Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, 1888).
This painting formerly belonged to Georges Seurat.
