Hafeneinfahrt, Portrieux

Signac spent the summer of 1888 at Portrieux, a small fishing and bathing town on the north coast of Brittany, and came back with a whole series of the harbour seen from different points. This is the entrance to that port. He was 25 and one of the young Neo-Impressionists, building each picture from separate small touches of pure colour, the method he and Georges Seurat had worked out to make light feel measured and exact rather than caught in a hurry. Sea, sky and the arms of the harbour are laid down as calm bands of that stippled colour. Portrieux is part of Saint-Quay-Portrieux now, and it still keeps the working harbour Signac sat watching.