The Tugboat, Canal in Samois

Samois-sur-Seine is a small commune on the Seine south of Paris, and the canal there provided Signac with an inland waterway subject more intimate in scale than his harbour paintings. The tugboat — a working industrial vessel — places this 1901 canvas in a tradition of industrial river painting running from Monet's Seine series through the divisionist interest in modern labour. Signac was broadly sympathetic to anarchist politics and to images of working-class labour, and the tugboat rather than a sailing yacht carries social implications consistent with those commitments. Now in the Israel Museum.

The tugboat provides a dark, compact form in contrast to the open water around it, its practical geometry at odds with the shimmering divisionist surface treatment. Signac uses the boat's reflection in the canal to extend its presence into the compositional centre.