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Harbour Scene

Paul Signac

European Art

With his friend the painter Georges Seurat, Paul Signac developed a style called Divisionism, which relies on the viewer’s eye to optically blend the artist’s small marks of bright, contrasting color. This luminous color lithograph, related to an oil painting of the same subject, harmonizes contrasting shades of blue and orange to convey a sense of a lightfilled port and sunstruck waves. The technology of color lithography may in fact have been an influence on Divisionist technique: as early as the 1840s, lithographers were relying on patterns of stippled dots in contrasting colors to produce the illusion of a wider color range in their prints.
MEDIUM Lithograph in six colors on wove paper
DATES ca. 1894
DIMENSIONS 15 3/4 × 12 3/4 in. (40 × 32.4 cm)  (show scale)
SIGNATURE Signed, "P. Signac" in pencil lower right
COLLECTIONS European Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 38.118
CREDIT LINE By exchange
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Paul Signac (French, 1863-1935). Harbour Scene, ca. 1894. Lithograph in six colors on wove paper, 15 3/4 × 12 3/4 in. (40 × 32.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, By exchange, 38.118 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 38.118_PS4.jpg)
STATE 3rd, Final
EDITION Edition: 33/40
IMAGE overall, 38.118_PS4.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2016
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RIGHTS STATEMENT No known copyright restrictions
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Paul Signac (French, 1863-1935). <em>Harbour Scene</em>, ca. 1894. Lithograph in six colors on wove paper, 15 3/4 × 12 3/4 in. (40 × 32.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, By exchange, 38.118 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 38.118_PS4.jpg)