Arbres

Arbres (Trees, 1896) shows Signac applying his full Saint-Tropez-period divisionist technique to a close-up study of Mediterranean vegetation. While most of his celebrated work focused on harbours and water, studies of landscape and foliage allowed him to explore how divisionism rendered the complex, broken light filtering through trees. By 1896 Signac was in the most productive phase of his Saint-Tropez years. Fondation Bemberg, Toulouse.

Foliage is rendered in interlocking dabs of warm green, yellow, and olive, with cooler blue-greens in the shadowed masses. The fragmented, irregular forms of the tree canopy produce a naturally varied dot-like surface that aligns well with divisionist technique. Sky glimpsed between branches provides vivid blue-orange complementary contrast.