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Lesson Plans—Works of Art
Object Descriptions and Suggested Discussion Questions

Paul Signac (1863–1935) Quay at Clichy, 1887 Oil on canvas The Baltimore Museum of Art: Gift of Frederick H. Gottlieb BMA 1928.6.1

A generation younger than Monet and Degas, Paul Signac joined the impressionists in time for their final group exhibition in 1886. The following year he painted Quay at Clichy. Signac admired Monet’s art and wrote to him, “I have been following the wonderful path you broke for us.” Signac was inspired by impressionists’ color and their depiction of scenes from daily life, but he went beyond impressionism in creating a new, personal style.

In 1884 Signac exhibited early works in an exhibition by a loosely organized society named the Group of Independent Artists. Among the group, Signac met and befriended Georges Seurat, and together they became the most devoted practitioners of a method of painting called pointillism. Signac and Seurat were more theoretically minded than the older impressionists. In practicing pointillism, the artists explored scientific ideas about color and how it affects the human eye. Their technique refined the famous divided brushstrokes of unblended colors of the impressionists into carefully controlled, tightly spaced, small points of color. The effect of viewing a large canvas covered with thousands of tiny dots of separate colors can be astonishing. Their process eliminated much of the free-flowing texture of the fast-working method of painters such as Monet.

Signac displays the results of this process in Quay at Clichy. A quay (pronounced “key”) is a waterside landing. The word is related to the word key, meaning an island, as in the Florida Keys. Clichy is a suburb to the north of Paris through which the Seine River flows, visible in the background with one of its bridges.

Like most pointillist paintings, this composition shows a greater emphasis on the structure of the subjects than an impressionist painting would, presenting clear shapes and silhouettes rather than allowing objects to dissolve in light and shadow. Notice how clearly lines along the quay recede into the distance and how sharp the dot-formed outlines of the buildings and trees are against the sky. When viewed at a distance, the small spots of color fuse together into large areas of sky and road, but when the viewer approaches the canvas, these forms disappear as the dots become noticeable. The influence of impressionism shows in Signac’s decision to turn an otherwise unimportant landscape view into a beautiful image. Clichy was an industrial area, but Signac found beauty even in its factories and storage tanks. Many of Signac’s scenes include water, which was his great love after art. By the end of his life, he owned 32 sailboats.

Suggested Discussion Questions

• Many impressionist and postimpressionist paintings are views of Parisians enjoying leisure activities in parks and suburban outdoor settings. List all the features you would include in the ideal city park. Consider structures and their uses, natural features, plants, access and works of art.
• Describe the way Signac applies paint in this composition. Try to envision the process of painting a scene using only small dots of color. How many would you estimate would be required to cover one square inch? Signac’s painting is about 18 x 26 inches. Can you figure out how many dots it would require?
• Art reflects the personality and temperament of the artist. What qualities would be necessary to complete a pointillist painting using only tiny dots of color?