The Lagoon of Saint Mark, Venice
Artist
Paul Signac
(French, 1863 - 1935)
CultureFrench
Date1905
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions51 x 64 in. (129.5 x 162.6 cm)
Overall, Frame: 61 x 73 3/4 x 3 1/2 in. (154.9 x 187.3 x 8.9 cm)
Overall, Frame: 61 x 73 3/4 x 3 1/2 in. (154.9 x 187.3 x 8.9 cm)
InscribedSigned and dated lower left: "P. Signac 1905"
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number77.344
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 217
Label TextPaul Signac French, 1865–1935 The Lagoon of Saint Mark, Venice, 1905 Oil on canvas Look closely and you’ll see clusters of bright dabs of color. Then take a few steps back and watch as a dreamy seascape comes into focus. Paul Signac pushed the artistic breakthroughs of the Impressionists in a more disciplined direction by studying modern optics and color theory. Together with Georges Seurat, he developed a method of painting in tiny touches of pure color carefully placed on the canvas according to specific chromatic properties. The experimental style, called Divisionism, allowed the viewer’s eyes to meld the individual dots of color into harmonious scenes. By 1905, however, Signac began to reject his own highly disciplined technique, adopting the looser and more decorative mode seen here. In this lush view of a Venetian lagoon, the artist abandons topographical accuracy for a sweeping mosaic of sensuous color. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 77.344 ProvenanceThe artist, Paris, 1905; Eugène Druet, 1905; Gustave Fayet, 1905; Bernheim-Jeune, 1907, Galerie E. Druet, Paris, 1920; Dr. A. Roudinesco, Paris, 1920-1954; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, 1977. Exhibition HistoryGalerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, January 21 - February 2, 1907 "Exposition de Peintures et d'Aquarelles de Henri Edmond Cross et Paul Signac," Galerie E. Druet, Paris, June 19 - July 3, 1911. (Exhib. cat. no. 15). "Trente Ans d'Art Indépendant 1884-1914," Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées," Paris, Feb. 20 - March 21, 1926. (Exhib. cat. no. 2369). "Exposition Paul Signac," Galerie Bernheim-Jeune et Cie., Paris, May 19 - 30, 1930. "Seurat et ses Amis," Les Expositions des Beaux-Arts et de la Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris, Dec. 1933 - Jan. 1934. (Exhib. cat. no. 91). "Exposition Paul Signac," Petit Palais, Paris, Feb. - March 1934. (Exhib. cat. no. 23). "Il Divisionismo," XXVI Biennale di Venezia, Venice, summer 1952. (Exhib. cat. no. 26). "Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; Seattle Art Museum; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Minneapolis Art Institute; St. Louis City Art Museum; William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City; Detroit Institute of Arts; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, March 2, 1956 - April 14, 1957. (Exhib. cat. no. 90). "French Paintings 1789-1929 from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Dayton Art Institute, March 25 - May 22, 1960. (Exhib. cat. no. 79). "'The Outline and the Dot:' Two Aspects of Post-Impressionism," Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, March 4 - 25, 1962. (Exhib. cat. no. 35). "French Masters of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century," Finch College Museum of Art, New York, May 1 - June 9, 1962. (Exhib. cat. no. 40). "The Controversial Century 1850-1950," Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Massachusetts, and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1962. (Exhib. cat. not paged). "Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville, June 12 - Sept. 5, 1977. (Exhib. cat. no. 47). "French Paintings from The Chrysler Museum," North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, May 31 - Sept. 14, 1986, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL, Nov. 6, 1986 - Jan. 18, 1987. (Exhib. cat. no. 42). "Treasures for the Community: The Chrysler Collects, 1989-1996," October 25, 1996 - February 16, 1997. "Signac, 1863-1935," Grand Palais, Feb. 27 - May 28, 2001; Van Gogh Museum, June 18 - September 9, 2001; Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 1 - December 31, 2001. "1912: Mission Moderne: Die Jahrhundertschau des Sonderbundes," Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, August 31 - December 30, 2012.Published ReferencesBertina S. Manning. _Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.: An Exhibition Organized by the Portland Art Museum, Oregon. Portland: Portland Art Association. 1956. No. 90. Priscilla C. Colt and Charles H. Elam. _French Paintings 1789-1929 from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._. Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio. 1960. No.79. Foreword by Charles F. Comfort, LL.D., and an introduction by William S.A. Dale, Ph.D. _The Controversial Century: 1850-1950_. Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Massachusetts. 1962: n.p. Eric M. Zafran and Mario Amaya. _Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._. Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville. 1977. No. 47. Chrysler Museum. _Selections from the Permanent Collection: The Chrysler Museum_. Norfolk, VA: Chrysler Museum of Art. 1982: p. 67. Jefferson C. Harrison. _French Paintings from the Chrysler Museum_. The Chrysler Museum. 1986. No. 42. Achim Moeller. _Private Views_. New York: Achim Moeller Fine Art Limited. 1990: illustrated under no. 5. Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. The Chrysler Museum. 1991. Plate 122, 158-159. Exhibition catalogue with essays by Anne Distel, John Leighton, Susan Alyson Stein, and Marina Ferretti-Bocquillon. _Signac_, 1863-1935. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux. 2001: 292-294, illustrated no.113. Françoise Cachin. _Signac: Catalogue Raissoné de l'Oeuvre Peint_. Paris: Gallimard. 2000: 132, 268-269; no. 415. Marina Ferretti-Bocquillon, Anne Distel, John Leighton, and Susan Alyson Stein, with contributions by Kathryn Calley Galitz and Sjraar van Heugten. SIGNAC, 1863-1935. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press. 2001: 235-236, no. 113. Ernst Vegelin van Claerbergen and Barnaby Wright, _André Derain: The London Paintings_, exh. cat., Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, London, England, 2005, 45, fig. 25. Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 53, fig. 52. ISBN: 978-0-940744-72-1 Barbara Schaefer, ed., _1912: Mission Moderne: Die Jahrhundertschau des Sonderbundes_, exh. cat. (Cologne, Germany: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, 2012) 368-369. Susan Jaques, _A Love for the Beautiful: Discovering America's Hidden Art Museums_, (Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 2012), 126.
