Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice

Artist Paul Signac (French, 1863-1935)

Date1905

DimensionsPainting: 28 15/16 × 36 1/4 in. (73.5 × 92.1 cm)
Frame: 38 3/4 × 46 × 3 in. (98.4 × 116.8 × 7.6 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1952.78

On View

Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion (2444 Monroe Street), Glass Study Room GP

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesPaul Signac, Paris, Bernheim-Jeune, 1907, no. 12, repr. (as Entree du Grand Canal).

Cousturier, Lucie, Paul Signac, 1922, repr. croquis p. 29.

Paul Signac, Paris, Bernheim-Jeune, 1930, no. 27, repr.

Besson, G., Paul Signac, Paris, 1935, pl. 8.

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Sutton, Denys, "Nineteenth-Century Painting: Trends and Cross-Currents," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 495, repr. fig. 31, p. 494.

Neo-Impressionism, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1968, no. 104, repr.

Jullien, R., Les impressionistes francais et l'Italie, Paris, 1968, pp. 17, 29.

Lee, Katharine C., "French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 12, no. 3, Autumn 1969, repr. p. 79.

Cachin, Francoise, Paul Signac, Greenwich, 1971, p. 90, repr. fig. 83.

Seurat et la néo-impressionisme, Tokyo, Japan Art Center, 1972, repr. (col.) no.54.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 152, pl. 282.

Ravin, James G., "Optical Painting: Pointillism," Ophthalmic Forum, vol. 2, no. 2, 1984, repr. n.p.

Gerstein, Marc, Impressionism: Selections from Five American Museums, New York, Hudson Hills, 1989, no. 81, p. 184, repr. (col.).

Waddington, Chris "Symphony of Color," Arts, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, vol. 13, no. 1, Jan. 1990, repr. p. 8 (col.).

Marmor, Michael F. and James G. Ravin, The Eye of the Artist, St. Louis, 1996, pp. 12, 13, fig. 1-15 (col.).

Cachin, Francoise, Signac: catalogue raisonne de l'oeuvre peint, Paris, 2000, no. 424, p. 272, repr. p. 133 (col.).

Ferretti-Bocquillon, Marina, et al., Signac, 1863-1935, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001, no. 114, pp. 294, 296, repr. (col.) in French edition; pp. 28, 237-238, repr. (col.) in English translation.

Monery, Jean-Paul, "Un moderne naturel," Paul Signac, Paris (Connaissance des Arts, numero special), 2001, repr. p. 59 (col.).

Greco, Stephen, "Signac," France no. 59, Fall 2001, repr. p. 21 (col.).

Simpson, Fronia W., ed., Neo-Impressionism: Artists on the Edge, Portland, ME, Portland Museum of Art, 2002, p. 38, fig. 24, (col.).

Schwander, Martin, Venice: from Canaletto and Turner to Monet, Ostfildern, Hatje/Cantz, 2008, repr. p. 189 (col.).

Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism: Paintings from the Brooklyn Museums, Flint, Flint Institute of Arts, 2009, p. 181, fig. 2, p. 181.

Marmor, Michael F. and James G. Ravin, The Artist's Eyes: Vision and the History of Art, New York, Abrams, 2009, p. 53, fig. 87, p. 52, repr. (det. col.) front cover, back cover.

Kavcakova, Alena and Ivo Bartecek, The Book of Artistic Autographs of European Modernists, Olomouc, Univerzita Palackeho, 2015, p. 159, plate 29, repr. (col.) p. 157.

Exhibition HistoryParis, Bernheim-Jeune, Paul Signac, 1907, no. 12 (as Entree du Grand Canal).

Paris, Bernheim-Jeune, Paul Signac, 1930, no. 27.

Paris, Petit Palais, Paul Signac, 1934, no. 21.

New York, Wildenstein, Camille Pissarro: His Place in Art, 1945, no. 68.

Paris, Louvre, Signac, 1963, no. 65.

New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Neo-Impressionism, 1968, no. 104.

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Saint Louis Art Museum; Toledo Museum of Art, Impressionism: Selections from Five American Museums, 1989-1990.

Paris, Grand Palais; Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum; New York, Metropolitian Museum of Art, Signac, 1863-1935, 2001, no. 114.

Paris, Louvre, 2001.

Portland, ME, Museum of Art, Neo-Impressionism: Artists on the Edge, Jun. 27-Oct. 20, 2002.

Riehen/Basel, Fondation Beyeler, Venice: from Canaletto and Turner to Monet, Sept. 28, 2008-Jan. 25, 2009.

Flint, Flint Institute of Arts, Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism: Paintings from the Brooklyn Museums, 2009.

Toledo Museum of Art, Venice: Light and Landscape, November 5, 2010-March 11, 2011.

Toledo Museum of Art, From the Collection: 300 Years of French Landscape Painting, Jul. 17-Oct. 11, 2015.

Label TextIt may immediately strike you that the style of this painting is different from almost any other in this gallery. Compare it to a nearby Impressionist painting by Pissarro or Monet, and the difference becomes even clearer. Though often using fragmented brushstrokes, the Impressionists blended their colors on the canvas. Paul Signac and other Neo-Impressionists like Georges Seurat and Cross sought a more scientific process based on color theory and optics. They treated color as light, placing dots or strokes of pure pigment side by side so that the eye would “mix” them when the canvas was viewed from a distance. While Seurat applied paint in dots (points in French)—leading to the term pointillism to describe the technique—his admirer Signac came to favor longer dashes that resemble the individual stones of a mosaic. Signac was, in fact, influenced by the Byzantine mosaics he had admired on trips to Istanbul and Venice.