Concarneau. Calme du Matin. Op. 219 (Larghetto)

In August 1891 Signac was in Concarneau, on the south coast of Brittany, mostly to race. He had bought a yacht, the Olympia, and spent the regatta weeks on the water, often with his friend the critic Félix Fénéon. Concarneau lived off sardines, and each morning the fishing boats went out together. That is the scene here, the fleet leaving the harbour on a still summer morning, sails doubled in almost flat water. Signac painted five views of the port that summer and gave each one a musical tempo. This is the Larghetto, slow and broad, numbered between a Scherzo and an Allegro maestoso. It stayed in private hands, and in November 2022, sold at Christie's in New York from the collection of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, it fetched 39.3 million dollars, the most ever paid for a Signac at auction.