Port-en-Bessin, The Valley

Port-en-Bessin is a Normandy harbour that Georges Seurat also painted in a celebrated 1888 series, but Signac's view of its valley predates Seurat's famous works by four years. This 1884 canvas in the Kröller-Müller Museum dates from the period when Signac was developing his Post-Impressionist approach under the influence of Monet and before the fully systematic Neo-Impressionist method was codified. The Kröller-Müller holds this alongside several other Signac early works, making it one of the strongest institutional collections of his transitional period.

At this early date Signac's brushwork is closer to Impressionist practice than his later systematic divisionism. The valley landscape is rendered with varied stroke directions and sizes showing sensitivity to different surfaces.