The Basin of Flushing

In 1896 Signac went to Brussels with his friend, the Belgian painter Théo van Rysselberghe, for the opening of La Libre Esthétique, the city's yearly show of new art, and for a dinner given by the poet Émile Verhaeren. From there he moved on through the ports and towns of the Low Countries, Antwerp, Veere, Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Amsterdam and Vlissingen among them. Vlissingen, which the English call Flushing, sits at the mouth of the Scheldt. In this view of its harbour basin, a quay and a bare tree hold the left side, while masts, a windmill and the harbour buildings fade into haze. The water is built from short strokes of green and blue, and the sky from lilac and pale pink. Signac painted almost the same view a second time in rosier tones.