Blessing of the Tuna Fleet at Groix

Groix is a small island off the south coast of Brittany, and in the years around the First World War it was the leading tuna port in France. Up to 300 sailing boats worked out of Port-Tudy, and the islanders were proud enough of the trade to put a tuna on the church steeple where the weathercock normally goes.

Before each season the fleet was blessed. Signac went over to the island more than once to watch the ceremony and sketch it, and in December 1923 he worked the studies up into this oil, still laying the colour on in separate touches as he had since the 1880s. He was 60. The painting went to the Salon des Indépendants the following spring, the exhibiting society he had presided over since 1908, and was well received there.