Paul Signac original watercolor on paper 35x24 cm hand signed

This is in very good condition Paul Signac (Paris, 1863-id., 1935) French painter atributed. Initially he aligned himself with the Impressionists, but after meeting Georges Seurat in 1884 he ascribed, as an artist and theoretician, to Neo-Impressionism or Pointillism. In his works, he mainly depicted maritime scenes (ports, sailboats, lighthouses), first with a strict pointillism and later with a broader touch, proportional to the dimensions of the painting. His freer, less rigorous style works are the ones that are of greatest interest and the ones that uniquely captivated Henri Matisse. Two paintings, The Palace of the Popes and The Entrance to the Port of La Rochelle, evidenced his growing interest in light and colours.
Coming from a wealthy family, Paul Signac was able to devote himself almost entirely to painting. He trained at the École des Arts-Décoratifs in Paris (1882) and in a free workshop. In 1884 he actively collaborated in the creation of the Société des Artistes Indépendants (of which in 1903 he would exercise the vice presidency and in 1909 the presidency) and in the foundation of the Salon des Indépendants. Two years later he participated in the IX Impressionist Exhibition together with Edgar Degas, Jean-Louis Forain, Camille Pissarro, Paul Gauguin and Georges Seurat.
Under the impulse of Seurat, Signac delved into the pointillist technique, taking as motifs the banks of the Seine and the Mediterranean coasts. He formulated his aesthetic ideas in From Eugène Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism (1899). The work is a defense of the technical procedures adopted by the neo-impressionist painters, a school officially born in 1886, of which, in addition to Signac, Georges Seurat (the founder), Henry-Edmond Cross, Camille Pissarro, Maximilien Luce and Théo van Rysselberghe, painters animated by the common aspiration to give their canvases the maximum of luminosity. This purpose is sought by the use of pure colors not mixed on the palette, although juxtaposed on the canvas so that seen from a distance, melting into the retina ("mélange optique"), they preserve the original splendor in the derived color.
After Seurat's death, Paul Signac moved to Saint-Tropez, where he lived until 1911. He was a great traveler and navigator throughout his life, and this love of travel took him from La Rochelle to Marseille and from Venice to Constantinople, trips in which he would paint mainly marine subjects and that would explain the large number of watercolors present in his work, in addition to his particular, agile and exact style. His technique ceased to adhere so strictly to the pointillist rules, and evolved towards a broadening of his brushstrokes.
From 1913 Signac made long stays in Antibes, although he continued to keep his Paris studio. In addition to landscapes and portraits, he also painted still lifes and some decorative compositions. In his oil paintings, Signac is willful and thoughtful; on the other hand, in his watercolors he reveals his sensitivity and expresses himself freely. The painter played a very considerable role in the formation of the group of neo-impressionists; He also served as a link between Pissarro, Seurat and the Symbolist writers, and befriended Belgian painters who formed a second group of Neo-Impressionists. Provenance available upon request. Private Collection.