Woman with a Parasol

Painted in 1893 and held at the Musée d'Orsay, this work depicting a woman with a parasol in a sunlit landscape continues Signac's engagement with figure subjects alongside his harbour views. The parasol subject had been thoroughly explored by the Impressionists — most memorably by Monet and Renoir — and Signac's version repositions it within Neo-Impressionist chromatic theory. Feminine leisure in a bright outdoor setting allowed him to demonstrate simultaneous contrast between the warm parasol and the cool shadows it cast. The subject bridges the social world of Impressionism and the more formal, systematic concerns of Post-Impressionism.

The figure is integrated into the landscape through the same divisionist touch used for sky and foliage, avoiding the tonal modelling of academic painting. The parasol likely provides a strong warm focus against which complementary cool tones in shadow and sky activate the optical vibration central to Signac's method.