The Andelys

Paul Signacs The Andelys from 1895 is a color lithograph printed in seven colors on ivory wove paper that depicts the Norman town of Les Andelys on the Seine, where Signac spent the summer painting alongside his fellow Neo-Impressionist Camille Pissarro. The Andelys, with its dramatic chalk cliffs and the ruins of the medieval Chateau Gaillard perched above the river, provided Signac with a subject that combined the topographic interest of a specific place with the atmospheric effects of light on water and stone that were central to the Neo-Impressionist project. The lithograph medium, with its capacity for flat, even areas of color and precise registration, allowed Signac to translate the Pointillist technique of his paintings into a print format in which the individual dots of pigment are replaced by areas of uniform color that interact optically in the viewers eye. The seven colors, pink, blue-gray, blue, green, dark green, yellow, and orange, are printed in separate impressions that must be perfectly registered to create the final image, and the complexity of the registration demonstrates Signacs commitment to the lithographic medium as a vehicle for serious artistic expression rather than mere reproduction. The year 1895 places this lithograph in the period when Signac was at the height of his Neo-Impressionist practice, before his style began to evolve toward the freer brushwork and larger dots of his later work.

Signacs color lithographs are significant contributions to the history of printmaking and Neo-Impressionism, demonstrating that the Pointillist technique could be translated into the print medium without loss of chromatic intensity. The Andelys influenced the development of color lithography and the broader tradition of artist-printmakers who use print as a primary medium.

A 1895 seven-color lithograph by Signac depicting Les Andelys with its chalk cliffs and Chateau Gaillard on the Seine, translating Pointillist technique into precise color registration that demonstrates lithography as a primary medium for Neo-Impressionist expression.