The Pine Tree at Saint Tropez _{(Paul Signac, Neo-impressionism)}

By the time Signac created The Pine Tree at Saint Tropez, he was no longer enthusiastic about Pointillism, having developed his own style. He had passed a number of stages: through Impressionism, he arrived at Georges Seurat's Neo-impressionism - only to reject it later and give free reign to his talent of a tender colorist. Tenderness of color - that is the term, though informal, that applies to Signac's landscapes of his late period.

He, in a way, mingled the two styles - Impressionisms and Pointillism. Instead of dots, he used large, differently directed brushstrokes of pure color. This technique helped him achieve a miraculous effect: you can almost see the clouds float and hear the leaves whisper. Unlike traditional Pointillist works, Signac's late pictures never give an impression of time standing still, which is typical of dotted images. How can one believe that there is no more time when one can watch the clouds moving in the sky and the trees glittering?

Signac's Other Works