The Seine at Herblay

At the end of the summer of 1889, Paul Signac, the painter at the centre of the group that built pictures from dots of pure colour, invited Luce to Herblay, a village on a bend of the Seine north-west of Paris. For several weeks the two painted side by side. This canvas, signed and dated '90 in a lower corner, is the larger picture he worked up afterwards from that stay. The pale sky, the curve of the river, the path along the slope, the dark trees and the red roofs among them are all laid down in small separate touches, pinks and oranges set against greens and violets. The State bought the painting in 1939, through its scheme for purchases from living artists, when Luce was past 80.