Gate, St.Tropez

Gate, Saint-Tropez (1896) is one of numerous paintings Signac made of his adopted Mediterranean home town during the decade he lived there. By 1896 he had established the village as his primary base and was exploring every aspect of the town — its harbour, streets, and medieval fortifications. The ancient gate, part of the town's historic walls, offered an architectural subject that differed from the open harbour views more typical of his Saint-Tropez work. National Museum of Art of Romania.

The medieval stonework is rendered in warm ochre and rose divisionist dots, contrasting with the blue of sea and sky visible through or beyond the gate's arch. The architectural framing device — an arch or gateway — organises the composition geometrically, setting Signac's chromatic fieldwork within a firm structural order.