Brief Report

The picture of The Seine at Courbevoie was painted by Paul Signac at the age of just 20, while he was still entirely under the influence of the Impressionists (fig. 1). There are numerous testimonies to Signac's admiration for Monet, which is said to have inspired him to paint in the open air after visiting the Monet exhibition in the rooms of the art magazine "La Vie Moderne" in 1880. Three years later, when Signac sought to capture this Seine riverscape on canvas, he chose a loose weave in the study grade known as pochade. On the off-white ground he first drew vertical and horizontal lines, to mark the central axes of the picture, in reddish-brown pencil (figs 5, 6). Possibly these lines served to help him structure the landscape motif, which would indicate that the picture was painted on the spot. There are no other drawn compositional planning lines discernible. There may however be some, if he used a reddish-brown medium not accessible to infra-red examination and then covered them with opaque paint. The existence of such a drawing is suggested by the fact that Signac painted large areas of individual regions while leaving out those places later occupied by some other motif, such as the boats. The detailed execution of individual motifs was often preceded by their being outlined in paint. The individual shapes are given expression with loosely applied brushstrokes of varying length. The paint was applied wet-in-wet throughout and the painting integrates the colour of the ground either through semi-transparent paint applications or by leaving the ground entirely free of paint (figs 8, 9). The final paint applications were designed to loosen up the boundaries between individual motifs or else to place pale impasto accents. We should imagine the original colours of the picture markedly cooler without the coats of varnish which have since yellowed considerably.

Paul Signac
The Seine near Courbevoie, oil on canvas, 1883, 45.2 x 81.7 cm, WRM Dep. FC 798

Paul Signac

born on 11 November 1863 in Paris,
died on 15 August 1935 ibidem

Brief report with complete data as downloadable pdf-file

Further illustrations:

Fig. 02

Verso, lined


Fig. 03

UV fluorescence


Fig. 04

Detail, signature with date and indication of location &quotNeuilly&quot, the latter in a different colour and partly covered by the paper sticking down the edge of the canvas


Fig. 05

Detail, reddish-brown pencil line of the vertical central axis, partly visible in the sky in normal incident line


Fig. 06

Reddish-brown pencil line indicating the vertical and horizontal central axes of the picture, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 07

Detail, top right-hand corner of picture, beneath the paper the loosely woven original canvas is visible


Fig. 08

Detail, course of river with depiction of boat and, above, the riverbank, left unpainted to incorporate the ground, which is now a yellowishgrey as a result of the overlying coats of varnish


Fig. 09

Detail course of river with depiction of boat; raking light reveals not only the depths of the structure of the original loosely woven canvas, but also the increased accumulations of browned varnish remains


Fig. 10

Detail, trees in the left background with heavy pressure marks on the paint-layer (raking light)


Fig. 11

Detail, left-hand edge of picture, losses in the paint-layer reveal the off-white ground