The Château des Papes in Avignon

Painted in 1909, this view of the medieval papal fortress at Avignon on the Rhône represents Signac's mature engagement with the monumental architecture of southern France. By this date Signac was making annual watercolour sketching tours of French rivers, ports, and cities, and his oils of southern landmarks show the Mediterranean light that he had adopted as his spiritual home since discovering Saint-Tropez. The Palais des Papes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, provided a soaring vertical mass against which Signac could orchestrate sky, river, and stone in chromatic counterpoint. Now at the Musée d'Orsay, it is one of his most celebrated architectural subjects.

The massive ochre and golden bulk of the fortress is built from carefully differentiated warm strokes ranging from sand yellow to deep sienna, while the Rhône below reflects the sky in cool blue and violet tiles. The high horizon and close framing create an almost flattened, decorative quality that anticipates twentieth-century abstract pattern.