La Rochelle

Signac's attachment to La Rochelle extended beyond single visits, and his multiple views of the town's harbor represent one of his most sustained engagements with an Atlantic coastal subject. The town's architectural character — particularly the medieval Tour Saint-Nicolas and Tour de la Chaîne guarding the harbor entrance — provided a compositional framework that recurred across different versions in different atmospheric conditions and different times of day. Signac's La Rochelle paintings were exhibited in Paris and contributed to his reputation as a painter who could apply divisionist theory across a range of geographic and atmospheric conditions.

The harbor's distinctive twin towers anchor the mid-distance of the composition, with the water surface in the foreground providing a mirror of the architectural ensemble above. Signac's dots in the water mix the reflected tower colors with the intrinsic blue-grey of the Atlantic harbor, creating the complex optical mixture his theory predicted.