Les Andelys, Côte d'Aval

Painted in 1886 and now at the Art Institute of Chicago, this view of the chalk cliffs at Les Andelys on the Seine in Normandy belongs to Signac's pivotal transitional year when he fully adopted divisionist theory. Les Andelys, with its dramatic riverside cliffs and medieval castle ruins, was a popular subject for landscape painters making the journey down the Seine. The work dates to the same year as the eighth and final Impressionist exhibition, at which Seurat showed Sunday on La Grande Jatte — the defining moment for Neo-Impressionism's public emergence. Signac was painting in direct solidarity with Seurat's new method.

The chalk cliff face is built from carefully varied strokes of white, grey-blue, and pale pink that capture the cool reflected light of northern France. The Seine below reflects the sky in bands of blue and green, with the horizontal water surface contrasting the vertical drama of the cliff. The early pointillist touch is relatively fine and regular.