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拍品专文
When Paul Signac, a keen painter as well as an avid sailor, discovered La Rochelle in 1911, he was enchanted with the place. The famous port, celebrated for its beauty in part because of the mediaeval towers which still frame the entrance to the harbour, would become a form of Muse for the artist. His love of La Rochelle is clear in Arc-en-ciel, La Rochelle, Le Port, which he painted at the beginning 1912. It was a mark of his own appreciation of this picture that he exhibited it the following year at the 'Exposition de la Société des artistes indépendants', of which he was the president. There, he hung it next to a watercolour of the same subject which appears to have served as a preparatory work for the larger oil. These two pictures garnered much attention, not least from the writer Guillaume Apollinaire, who heaped praise upon it:
'Paul Signac returns from La Rochelle. A watercolour, taken doubtless from life and filled with a great variety of colours, serves as a sketch for a large painting representing the Port of La Rochelle and in which the artist's talent appears to have been renewed; he has gained in force, the contrasts appear less considered and the canvas has a depth. This is one of the greatest pieces of Neo-Impressionism' (Guillaume Apollinaire, 'A travers le salon des Indépendants', 18 March 1913, reproduced in F. Cachin, Signac: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Paris, 2000, p. 299).
This picture has also had a distinguished history of ownership: it was formerly owned by the industrialist Henri Canonne, whose collection included an incredible array of Impressionist masterpieces including seventeen of Claude Monet's Nymphéas, as well as pictures by Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Edouard Vuillard, amongst others; many of these now grace the walls of prominent museums. When Arc-en-ciel. La Rochelle. Le Port was offered by Bernheim Jeune in 1925, it was chosen and purchased by Juliette Sardou, herself a pointilliste painter, and her husband Count Henri Keller, a naval officer. Juliette, who had been a student of Signac and remained his correspondent for many years, chose two paintings by the artist at this time, but only kept Le Rochelle, Arc en ciel, Le port her whole life. It remained in the hands of members of her family to this day.
Looking at Arc-en-ciel, La Rochelle, Le Port, it comes as no surprise to find that it has been the object of such formidable attention, both in the press at the time of the Salon des Indépendants and from subsequent collectors. This is a radiant painting, filled with light and movement, showing one of Signac's most favoured motifs: a harbour. Signac's love of light and colour is clearly evident in Arc-en-ciel, La Rochelle, Le Port; so too is his love of boating. He has relished depicting the bustle of the masts and their sails, the hanging canvas, the rippling water, the flags and pennants. Painted at the end of the age of the sail, this is truly a celebration of boating.
Signac's relationship with La Rochelle was one that endured, as is clear from the fact that, in August 1920, eight years later, he would write to Juliette Sardou in rapture about the qualities of the harbour:
'I have worked like a young madman at La Rochelle; it is a magnificent port, framed by noble architecture where a flotilla of multicoloured hulls and many-hued sails is crammed. But all that moves, appears, flees, and you have to work fast. It is an impassioned hunt. I only just have time to make a watercolour sketch, and the poor oil painters despair' (Signac, letter to Juliette Sardou, August 1920, Private collection).
The following year, he would create another celebrated oil of the harbour which is now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. While Signac's letter to his student and his return to the motif reveal his continued fascination with La Rochelle, it also provides a telling insight into the artist's working practice, as did his inclusion of the preparatory watercolour at the 'Exposition de la Société des artistes indépendants'. Signac appears to have used the watercolour, taken with snapshot celerity in order to capture the fleeting, fugitive effects of light and movement within the port, as the basis for this painstakingly-rendered oil, which has clearly been made with an incredible application over a long period of time. Looking at the meticulously built-up surface of Arc-en-ciel, La Rochelle, Le Port, the viewer can easily understand why during this period he painted very few pictures, making them all the rarer; indeed, this is one of only four canvases from 1912, two of which are now in museums (Sortie du port de La Rochelle is in the Johannesburg At Gallery; Le Pont des Arts is in the Museum Folkwang, Essen). Signac himself, despite originally having been inspired by Claude Monet in the earlier days of Impressionism, dismissed the importance of pleinairisme except as a hook at the beginning of the creative process:
'Personally, except for a quick indication which memory or a camera would often supply just as well, any artist's work must be creative. And isn't the painter just as well able to create at his table or at his easel as under a bridge or on a road?' (Signac, quoted in A. Distel, 'Portrait of Paul Signac: Yachtsman, Writer, Indépendant, and Revolutionary', pp. 37-50, M. Ferretti-Bocquillon et al. (ed.), Signac: 1863-1935, exh. cat., New York, 2001, p. 38).
Certainly, this appears to be the case in Arc-en-ciel, La Rochelle, Le Port, which brims with the artist's own passion for his motif, conveying a rich sense of presence and immediacy despite largely being the slowly-assembled product of his studio. Signac has deftly used vertical forms of the masts of the boats and the fortifications of the port as rhythmic punctuation marks across the picture surface, recalling musical annotations. This is an apt reflection, as it recalls Signac's earlier works, in which the artist consciously mimicked the world of music by ascribing them 'Opus' numbers. Those picture, dating from the height of the Neo-Impressionism which was to become so associated with the 'Société des artistes indépendants', which was formed in 1884, retained the scientific precision of the use of Pointillisme that Signac developed in part under the influence of his friend and fellow artist, Georges Seurat. However, after the death of his mentor in 1891, Signac began to create pictures that featured a less rigorous colour code, and which instead reintroduced the initial passion that had led the self-taught artist to choose his vocation. This transformation can be seen to have reached its apogee in Arc-en-ciel, La Rochelle, Le Port to the extent the vivacity of the artist's application even merited discussion from Apollinaire. This is clear in the vivid palette, with its flecks of green, red and yellow glowing through the dominant blues of the water and the sky; and it is also clear in the sheer energy of the brushstrokes, applied with what appears to be a lively, jabbing frenzy that belies the incredibly intense process of creation. This scintillating, shimmering brushwork allows Signac to pay a glowing and loving tribute to the port of La Rochelle which he found so enchanting.
'Paul Signac returns from La Rochelle. A watercolour, taken doubtless from life and filled with a great variety of colours, serves as a sketch for a large painting representing the Port of La Rochelle and in which the artist's talent appears to have been renewed; he has gained in force, the contrasts appear less considered and the canvas has a depth. This is one of the greatest pieces of Neo-Impressionism' (Guillaume Apollinaire, 'A travers le salon des Indépendants', 18 March 1913, reproduced in F. Cachin, Signac: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Paris, 2000, p. 299).
This picture has also had a distinguished history of ownership: it was formerly owned by the industrialist Henri Canonne, whose collection included an incredible array of Impressionist masterpieces including seventeen of Claude Monet's Nymphéas, as well as pictures by Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Edouard Vuillard, amongst others; many of these now grace the walls of prominent museums. When Arc-en-ciel. La Rochelle. Le Port was offered by Bernheim Jeune in 1925, it was chosen and purchased by Juliette Sardou, herself a pointilliste painter, and her husband Count Henri Keller, a naval officer. Juliette, who had been a student of Signac and remained his correspondent for many years, chose two paintings by the artist at this time, but only kept Le Rochelle, Arc en ciel, Le port her whole life. It remained in the hands of members of her family to this day.
Looking at Arc-en-ciel, La Rochelle, Le Port, it comes as no surprise to find that it has been the object of such formidable attention, both in the press at the time of the Salon des Indépendants and from subsequent collectors. This is a radiant painting, filled with light and movement, showing one of Signac's most favoured motifs: a harbour. Signac's love of light and colour is clearly evident in Arc-en-ciel, La Rochelle, Le Port; so too is his love of boating. He has relished depicting the bustle of the masts and their sails, the hanging canvas, the rippling water, the flags and pennants. Painted at the end of the age of the sail, this is truly a celebration of boating.
Signac's relationship with La Rochelle was one that endured, as is clear from the fact that, in August 1920, eight years later, he would write to Juliette Sardou in rapture about the qualities of the harbour:
'I have worked like a young madman at La Rochelle; it is a magnificent port, framed by noble architecture where a flotilla of multicoloured hulls and many-hued sails is crammed. But all that moves, appears, flees, and you have to work fast. It is an impassioned hunt. I only just have time to make a watercolour sketch, and the poor oil painters despair' (Signac, letter to Juliette Sardou, August 1920, Private collection).
The following year, he would create another celebrated oil of the harbour which is now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. While Signac's letter to his student and his return to the motif reveal his continued fascination with La Rochelle, it also provides a telling insight into the artist's working practice, as did his inclusion of the preparatory watercolour at the 'Exposition de la Société des artistes indépendants'. Signac appears to have used the watercolour, taken with snapshot celerity in order to capture the fleeting, fugitive effects of light and movement within the port, as the basis for this painstakingly-rendered oil, which has clearly been made with an incredible application over a long period of time. Looking at the meticulously built-up surface of Arc-en-ciel, La Rochelle, Le Port, the viewer can easily understand why during this period he painted very few pictures, making them all the rarer; indeed, this is one of only four canvases from 1912, two of which are now in museums (Sortie du port de La Rochelle is in the Johannesburg At Gallery; Le Pont des Arts is in the Museum Folkwang, Essen). Signac himself, despite originally having been inspired by Claude Monet in the earlier days of Impressionism, dismissed the importance of pleinairisme except as a hook at the beginning of the creative process:
'Personally, except for a quick indication which memory or a camera would often supply just as well, any artist's work must be creative. And isn't the painter just as well able to create at his table or at his easel as under a bridge or on a road?' (Signac, quoted in A. Distel, 'Portrait of Paul Signac: Yachtsman, Writer, Indépendant, and Revolutionary', pp. 37-50, M. Ferretti-Bocquillon et al. (ed.), Signac: 1863-1935, exh. cat., New York, 2001, p. 38).
Certainly, this appears to be the case in Arc-en-ciel, La Rochelle, Le Port, which brims with the artist's own passion for his motif, conveying a rich sense of presence and immediacy despite largely being the slowly-assembled product of his studio. Signac has deftly used vertical forms of the masts of the boats and the fortifications of the port as rhythmic punctuation marks across the picture surface, recalling musical annotations. This is an apt reflection, as it recalls Signac's earlier works, in which the artist consciously mimicked the world of music by ascribing them 'Opus' numbers. Those picture, dating from the height of the Neo-Impressionism which was to become so associated with the 'Société des artistes indépendants', which was formed in 1884, retained the scientific precision of the use of Pointillisme that Signac developed in part under the influence of his friend and fellow artist, Georges Seurat. However, after the death of his mentor in 1891, Signac began to create pictures that featured a less rigorous colour code, and which instead reintroduced the initial passion that had led the self-taught artist to choose his vocation. This transformation can be seen to have reached its apogee in Arc-en-ciel, La Rochelle, Le Port to the extent the vivacity of the artist's application even merited discussion from Apollinaire. This is clear in the vivid palette, with its flecks of green, red and yellow glowing through the dominant blues of the water and the sky; and it is also clear in the sheer energy of the brushstrokes, applied with what appears to be a lively, jabbing frenzy that belies the incredibly intense process of creation. This scintillating, shimmering brushwork allows Signac to pay a glowing and loving tribute to the port of La Rochelle which he found so enchanting.