Lighthouse at Groix

The lighthouse at the Île de Groix, off the Breton coast near Lorient, was one of Signac's key Atlantic subjects from the late 1880s — a period when he was working along the Atlantic coast of France as part of his campaign to apply divisionist theory to different atmospheric conditions from those of the Paris suburbs and the Mediterranean. Lighthouses had particular resonance in late nineteenth-century painting: they were simultaneously technical infrastructure of modern maritime safety and romantic symbols of isolation, endurance, and the navigational relationship between humanity and the sea.

The lighthouse tower is painted in warm creamy whites and buff tones, its clean geometric form contrasting with the looser treatment of sea and sky around it. Signac typically places the lighthouse against a sky of cool blue and violet, maximizing the warm-cool contrast between the lit stone and the atmospheric surround.