The Port of St. Tropez II, from the seventh album of L'Estampe originale

Paul Signacs The Port of St. Tropez II from 1894 is a color lithograph from the seventh album of L'Estampe originale that depicts the Mediterranean port that would become the artists home and principal subject for the rest of his career. St. Tropez, the small fishing village on the French Riviera that Signac discovered in 1892 and where he purchased a house in 1897, provided the artist with the intense southern light and brilliant color that transformed his painting from the cooler tonalities of his Parisian work to the warm, saturated palette of his Mediterranean period. The port, with its fishing boats, masts, and reflections on the water, provided Signac with a subject that combined the geometric forms of the boats and buildings with the atmospheric effects of the Mediterranean light in a composition of extraordinary chromatic richness. The six colors of the lithograph, yellow, dark blue, light blue, green, red, and peach, are printed in separate impressions that must be precisely registered to create the final image, and the resulting color interactions demonstrate the optical mixing that was the theoretical foundation of Neo-Impressionist painting. L'Estampe originale was a series of albums published by Andre Marty that presented original prints by leading French artists, and Signacs contribution to the seventh album demonstrates the seriousness with which the leading Neo-Impressionist approached the print medium.

Signacs lithographs of St. Tropez are among the most accomplished color prints of the Neo-Impressionist period, and their influence on the development of color lithography extends through the 20th century. The Port of St. Tropez II demonstrates the chromatic richness and compositional sophistication of his print practice.

A 1894 six-color lithograph by Signac of the Port of St. Tropez from L'Estampe originale, combining Mediterranean light with the geometric forms of boats and port architecture in optical color mixing that demonstrates Neo-Impressionist print practice at its finest.