Saint-Tropez, les pins parasols aux Canoubiers

This 1897 canvas of the parasol pines at the Canoubiers near Saint-Tropez is among Signac's most successful applications of his Pointillist method to the Mediterranean landscape. The distinctive silhouette of the Provençal parasol pine — with its wide, flat canopy on a tall straight trunk — provided him with a natural motif of strong geometric character ideal for his purposes. The Annonciade Museum in Saint-Tropez holds several Signac works as befits the institution in the village he made famous as a painters' destination. The dappled light filtering through the pine canopy creates precisely the kind of color interaction his systematic method could render most effectively.

The pine canopy creates a complex pattern of warm light and cool shadow rendered in Signac's mosaic stroke technique. Blues and greens of sky and vegetation interact with warm ochres of sunlit ground. The strong trunk verticals give compositional structure to the otherwise complex mass of foliage overhead.