Paul SIGNAC (1863-1935) Lot n° 13

LES VOILIERS, circa 1920 Watercolor and graphite on paper Signed lower right Annotated and signed "With all my regrets for having missed you in La Rochelle. I was at Croix-de-vie to see the parade: it lasts two hours and is renewed every day - Very friendly" bottom left 10 x 32.5 cm (at sight) - 3.9 x 12.8 in. (on sight) Signed on the lower right, annotated and dedicated on the lower left, watercolor and pencil on paper Provenance - Sotheby's New York Sale, 18/05/1972 - Collection Mr & Mrs. Irving Cohen, Palm Beach - Collection Elie Faure, La Rochelle - Sotheby's New York Sale, 08/05/2013 - Collection Alex & Elisabeth Lewyt, USA Madame Marina Ferretti has confirmed the authenticity of this work. "Perspective effects pushing the sea at an acute angle into the beach, houses dressed like fortresses, no greenery, a definitive calm, an infinitely soft general blondness, - for the Midi in M. Signac's paintings is not apocryphal: it is a Midi where the solar orange reflected everywhere, flattens the sky, anaemia of local qualities, weakens the reactive force of the colours, clarifies the shadows. More superbly than ever M. Signac manifests his virtues of observation and harmony" L'Art moderne de Bruxelles, 15 April 1888, In Félix Fénéon, Œuvres-plus-que-complètes, Droz, 1970.