Saint-Tropez, the Port at Sunset, Opus 236

Saint-Tropez, the Port at Sunset, Opus 236 (1892) documents the harbour of the Provençal fishing village at the moment Signac was establishing his home there. He had discovered Saint-Tropez in 1892 and immediately purchased a house, making the town his primary base for the next decade. Opus numbers indicate Signac's systematic approach to cataloguing his works as a composer numbers compositions. The sunset subject — sky and water unified by warm orange and purple hues — is one of the most celebrated chromatic conditions in his repertoire. Museum Barberini.

Warm sunset tones in orange, pink, and gold dominate the upper composition, reflected in cooler violet and blue in the harbour water. The town's rooftops and quay are silhouetted in darker dots. The finely systematic divisionist surface shows Signac at the height of his early Saint-Tropez maturity.