The Railway Junction near Bois-Colombes

The Railway Junction near Bois-Colombes (1886) was painted the year of the decisive Neo-Impressionist exhibition and shows Signac's early interest in industrial and infrastructural subjects. Railway junctions — with their converging tracks, signals, and mechanical infrastructure — were among the quintessential subjects of modern urban painting. Signac's interest in railways and industry aligns him with his anarchist politics: the railways were emblematic of industrial capitalism's transformation of landscape and society. Leeds Art Gallery.

Railway tracks and signals create strong diagonal lines across the composition, receding into a divisionist landscape of dots. The industrial palette — greys, browns, and muted greens — is handled with the same systematic chromatic rigour as Signac's coastal subjects, demonstrating divisionism's applicability to urban rather than natural subjects.