Opus 217. Against the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones, and Tints, Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon in 1890

Painted in 1890 and now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, this full-title work — Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon in 1890 — is among Signac's most extraordinary and theoretically self-conscious paintings. Félix Fénéon was the foremost critical champion of Neo-Impressionism, the anarchist writer who coined the term 'Neo-Impressionism' and celebrated Seurat and Signac in the little magazines of the Symbolist avant-garde. The swirling background of rhythmic abstract patterns — unprecedented in Signac's output — translates the Symbolist aesthetic into visual form. Its extravagant title declares the work's ambition to synthesise colour theory, symbolism, and portraiture.

The background spirals of colour — pink, orange, blue, and green in repeating rhythmic arcs — represent a radical departure from Signac's landscape practice, embedding the sitter in an almost abstract decorative field. Fénéon's figure is rendered with the characteristic Neo-Impressionist dot against these dynamically swirling grounds.