Castle of Comblat

Castle of Comblat (1887) was painted during the same Cantal summer that produced La Vallée. The medieval castle of Comblat-le-Château, set on a rocky promontory above the Truyère river before the valley was later flooded to create the Grandval reservoir, provided an imposing historic architectural subject. Signac's willingness to travel into the French interior — away from coast and river — for painting subjects reflects his restless geographical curiosity. La Boverie, Liège.

The castle's rocky promontory and stone towers are rendered in warm ochre and grey divisionist dots, the surrounding valley in cooler greens and blues. The medieval subject required Signac to adapt his systematic method to irregular, dramatic forms rather than the flat geometries of harbour and sea compositions.