Women by the Well

In 1892 Paul Signac sailed south and discovered Saint-Tropez, then a quiet fishing village, and it hooked him so completely that he spent half of every year there for the next two decades. This was one of the first big pictures to come out of that move. Two young women draw water from a well, and behind them Signac laid in the real view: the hill crowned by its citadel, the sea, the jetty of the little harbor, the ridges of the Maures beyond. He built it all from small, even touches of pure color, and thought of it less as a snapshot than as decoration, a panel meant for a shaded wall. He gave it a number, Opus 238, as though it were a piece of music.