Comblat-le-Château, the Meadow, Opus 161

Painted in 1887 and bearing the systematic opus number 161, this work depicting a meadow at Comblat-le-Château in the Cantal region of the Auvergne belongs to Signac's pivotal Neo-Impressionist period following his formal adoption of divisionism alongside Seurat in 1886. The opus numbering reflects Signac's quasi-scientific ambition to treat painting as a systematic, repeatable discipline analogous to musical composition. Now at the Dallas Museum of Art, the painting is a characteristic example of his application of chromatic theory to a rural landscape far removed from the Mediterranean harbours with which his name is most associated.

Regular dots of pure colour — greens, yellows, and blues for the meadow and sky — are applied with methodical consistency across the canvas, demonstrating Seurat's theories of optical mixture. The systematic alternation of warm and cool tones across the ground plane creates a shimmering, vibrant surface that suggests intense summer light.