Antibes

Painted in 1918, this work exemplifies Signac's development of Neo-Impressionism after Seurat's death in 1891, when he became the movement's chief theorist and publicist. His 1899 treatise 'D'Eugène Delacroix au néo-impressionisme' codified Divisionist color theory and traced its historical roots. He influenced Matisse, Derain, and the Fauves, who absorbed his liberation of color from naturalistic description before abandoning the systematic dot in favor of pure expressive freedom His systematic deployment of complementary color pairs and advocacy for anarchist ideals gave Neo-Impressionism both its technical rigor and its political dimension.

Signac applied paint in larger, mosaic-like rectangular strokes than Seurat, creating a more decorative and rhythmically dynamic surface. His palette is vivid and saturated — strong complementary pairings of orange against blue, violet against yellow — with particular mastery of Mediterranean light.