The Calanque at Saint Tropez 1906

Paul Signac made this watercolor of The Calanque at Saint Tropez in an unknown year, and it feels like a page torn from a sketchbook, a direct record of seeing. The scene is alive with gestural marks and a shimmering palette of blues, yellows, and oranges. You can almost feel the Mediterranean sun baking the rocks and the gentle breeze rustling through the trees. Signac’s strokes dance across the paper, capturing the essence of the landscape in a kind of shorthand. He's not trying to copy nature, but to translate it. I imagine him perched on a hillside, squinting at the light, his hand moving quickly to keep up with the changing conditions. There's a real sense of freedom and spontaneity in the way he applies the paint, letting the colors bleed and blend. It reminds me that painting is as much about feeling as it is about seeing—and that artists like Signac are in conversation with each other, generation after generation.