The Old Port at Marseille

The Old Port at Marseille (1907) shows Signac visiting southern France's great Mediterranean commercial port, where the ancient Vieux-Port offers a panoramic harbour scene of remarkable scale and activity. By 1907 Signac had been living and sailing in the south of France for over fifteen years and had developed a mature divisionist style suited to the intense Provençal light. Marseille's Old Port, with its fishing boats, ferry traffic, and surrounding hills, is one of the most historically resonant subjects in French maritime painting. Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

The broad panoramic harbour is rendered in large, mosaic-like patches of vivid Mediterranean colour — ultramarine, emerald, ochre, and rose — applied in a now-looser divisionist technique. The intense sunlight of the Midi is conveyed through the high-key palette and strong chromatic contrasts.