Two Cypresses

Two Cypresses as a subject situated Signac in an explicit dialogue with Van Gogh, whose celebrated cypress paintings from Saint-Rémy (1889) were well known among the Post-Impressionist circle — Signac had visited Van Gogh in Arles in 1889 and was one of the few painters of his generation who had direct personal knowledge of Van Gogh's late work. Where Van Gogh's cypresses writhe with expressive energy, Signac's version substitutes divisionist structure for expressionist gesture — the same motif analyzed through his systematic color theory rather than subjective emotional response.

The cypress silhouettes, with their dark, flame-like forms, are painted in Signac's warm greens and grey-greens against a sky of cool blue and violet dots. The complementary contrast between the cypress's dark greens and the warm orange-yellow of any surrounding Mediterranean landscape beneath creates Signac's characteristic chromatic vibrancy.