Notre Dame, die Insel Saint-Louis, vom Quai de la Tournelle aus gesehen, bei Sonnenlicht

This 1885 canvas — an early Signac depicting Notre Dame and the Île Saint-Louis seen from the Quai de la Tournelle — is from the year he met Seurat and converted to Neo-Impressionism. In 1885 Signac was transitioning from a more Impressionist approach, and this Paris river scene shows him applying systematic color analysis to a classic Parisian motif. Notre Dame as a subject had attracted Impressionist painters including Monet, but Signac's approach brings a more methodical color organization to bear on the cathedral and river view. The Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal holds the canvas as part of its collection of French nineteenth-century masters.

The early date shows in a handling still transitional between Impressionism and full Neo-Impressionism — the brushwork is more varied and less systematically dotted than his mature work. The Seine's surface reflects the cathedral in shimmering horizontal strokes. The overall palette is already carefully organized around warm-cool contrasts.