Opus 217. Auf dem Email eines von Takten und Winkeln, Tönen und Farbtönen rhythmisierten Grundes, Bildnis des M. Félix Fénéon im Jahr 1890

Felix Feneon was the critic who, in 1886, coined the word Neo-Impressionism to describe what Signac and Seurat were doing with their tiny dots of pure colour, and Signac painted this as a thank-you. Feneon stands in crisp profile holding a flower, his pointed goatee echoed by the swirl behind him. That kaleidoscopic background was lifted from a Japanese woodblock print in Signac's own collection, then pushed toward the period's fascination with charts linking colour to emotion. The absurdly long title, with its talk of beats, angles, tones and tints, is half a joke and half a serious claim that painting could be built on system. Feneon was also a committed anarchist who, four years later, would stand trial after a bombing. The Rockefellers gave the portrait to the Museum of Modern Art in 1991.