David Marquis

This is Boulevard de Clichy by Signac painted in 1886. Signac was a Post Impressionist working in sort of pointillist technique, and he continued to work in this manner for most of his life. Boulevard de Clichy, it has the impression of just having happened. It was a moment in time, he didn’t think this out, he painted this in a few moments looking out his window. And he captured the essence of this moment in time, and yet when I really stand back and I start to analyze it, I realize there is nothing accidental in this painting. This is really extremely well thought out.

He gives you the impression that it was a snapshot in time. He got it all to work so incredibly well: the proportions of the color or the placement of the colors, the warm, the cool, the space. Everything it just works. And your eye constantly moves around this very active surface. You can’t keep your eyes still, your eye just wants to move and keep embracing every single passage, and it’s delightful when that happens, when you look at a picture. You take it in all at once and then at the same time, your eye just keeps moving around, being caressed, for lack of a better word, by every passage in this.

Eric Bruce

The green button will take you to a tour of the painting and how Signac uniquely uses Delacroix’s ideas about color.