Le Sentier des Douanes

Signac had discovered the little fishing port of Saint-Tropez in 1892, when it was still hard to reach and known to almost nobody. Over the following years he drew other painters down to that stretch of coast, and in the summer of 1904 Matisse worked right beside him there. This view looks along the sentier des douanes, the path the customs men once walked above the shore. Signac made his studies outdoors but built the final canvas back in the studio in 1905, laying the colour down in separate small strokes so the light seems to vibrate rather than sit still. The picture entered the museum in Grenoble in 1923, left to it by the collectors Marcel Sembat and Georgette Agutte.