Paul Signac, The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely, 1886, oil on canvas, 17 11/16 x 25 9/16 in. (44.9 x 64.9 cm), Purchase: acquired through the generosity of an anonymous donor, F78-13
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Fig. 1. Paul Signac, Les Andelys, The Riverbank, 1886, oil on canvas, 25 11/16 x 32 1/16 in. (65.3 x 81.5 cm), Musée d’Orsay, Paris, RF 1996 6. © 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph © Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France/Bridgeman Images
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Fig. 2. Lévy et Neurdein Réunis, Petit Andely, Ruines du Château Gaillard (Petit Andely, Ruins of the Château Gaillard), ca. 1920–1932, postcard, 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. (14 x 8.9 cm), collection of the author
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Fig. 3. Félix Vallotton, Square in Les Andelys with the Château Gaillard, 1924, oil on canvas, 39 3/8 x 28 3/4 in. (100 x 73 cm), Musée Alphonse Georges Poulain, Vernon, France, inv. 90.10.1. Photograph © Musée Alphonse Georges Poulain, Ville de Vernon
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Fig. 4. Map of Petit Andely
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Fig. 5. Paul Signac, Les Andelys, Château Gaillard, 1921, oil on canvas, 25 3/8 x 36 in. (64.5 x 91.5 cm), private collection. © 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph courtesy of Sotheby’s, Inc. © 2011
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Paul Signac, The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely, 1886

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doi: 10.37764/78973.5.728
ArtistPaul Signac, French, 1863–1935
TitleThe Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely
Object Date1886
Alternate and Variant TitlesLe château Gaillard, vue de ma fenêtre.—Petit-Andely.—Juin-juillet 1886
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions (Unframed)17 11/16 x 25 9/16 (44.9 x 64.9 cm)
SignatureSigned lower right: P. Signac
Credit LineThe Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Purchase: acquired through the generosity of an anonymous donor, F78-13
Catalogue Entry

curatorial

Citation

Chicago:

Brigid M. Boyle, “Paul Signac, The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely, 1886,” catalogue entry in French Paintings, 1600–1945: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.728.5407.

MLA:

Boyle, Brigid M. “Paul Signac, The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely, 1886,” catalogue entry. French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023. doi: 10.37764/78973.5.728.5407.

Twenty-two-year-old Paul Signac had been a professional artist for only six years when he painted The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit Andely. After his father’s premature death in 1880, Signac left school, rented an apartment in the Paris neighborhood of Montmartre, and immersed himself in avant-garde art and literature. In June of that year, he attended Claude Monet’s (1840–1926) inaugural solo show, an experience that convinced him of his own artistic vocation.1The exhibition in question was Le peintre Claude Monet at the Galerie du journal illustré La Vie Moderne, 7 boulevard des Italiens, Paris, which opened June 7, 1880. For the impact of this show on Signac’s career choice, see Marina Ferretti-Bocquillon et al., Signac: 1863–1935, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001), 69. Over the next half-decade, he befriended established and up-and-coming painters, helped found the Société des Artistes IndépendantsSociété des Artistes Indépendants: A group founded in 1884 in Paris by Odilon Redon, Albert Dubois-Pillet, Georges Seurat, and Paul Signac that created the Salon des Indépendants as an alternative to exhibiting at the Salon organized and juried by the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture). The Salon des Indépendants has no selection committee; instead, artists can exhibit on payment of a fee. The exhibitions became the main venue for many artists, particularly the Post-Impressionists in the late 19th century. The Salon des Indépendants is still in existence today. See also Salon, the. in 1884, and—crucially—met Georges Seurat (1859–1891) just as the latter was rethinking his approach to color and developing a bold new painting method known as pointillismpointillism: A technique of painting using tiny dots of pure colors, which when seen from a distance are blended by the viewer’s eye. It was developed by French Neo-Impressionist painters in the mid-1880s as a means of producing luminous effects., which became the defining feature of the movement now known as Neo-ImpressionismNeo-Impressionism: A term coined in 1886 by French art critic Félix Fénéon to describe a style of painting pioneered by Georges Seurat. He and his followers espoused a scientific approach to color and a painting technique known as pointillism..2For the nuances between pointillism and divisionism, see Floyd Ratcliff, Paul Signac and Color in Neo-Impressionism (New York: Rockefeller University Press, 1992), 37–38. Signac was among the first to embrace Seurat’s innovative ideas about color and technique, and his extant correspondence from the summer of 1886 attests to his initial struggles. He confided some of his frustrations to Camille Pissarro (1830–1903): “Have you discovered the useful method of dividing [color]? Me, I am having difficulties and wasting time, working a lot without any results. I believe I have made some strides, however.”3Paul Signac to Camille Pissarro, summer 1886, Archives de Camille Pissarro (Paris: Hotel Drouot, November 21, 1975), unpaginated, lot 166. “Avez-vous trouvé le moyen pratique de diviser? Moi je barbotte, perds mon temps, travaillant beaucoup sans aucun résultat. Je crois cependant avoir fait de progrès.” All translations are by Brigid M. Boyle. Signac’s assessment of his progress was perhaps too harsh, for changes in his painting practice are already evident in The Château Gaillard. Where previously Signac had emulated the fluid brushwork of the Impressionists, here he utilized dots of unmixed green and yellow pigment for both the foliage in the foreground and the grassy cliffs beyond. Signac used linear strokes for occasional tree branches and roof outlines, but he composed most of the scene with small touches of paint.

Set in Normandy, the Nelson-Atkins landscape depicts the riverfront communecommune: In France and French-speaking countries, a commune is a small administrative division governed by a mayor and municipal council. of Les Andelys, birthplace of French classical painter Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665). Located sixty miles northwest of Paris, this district is divided into two towns: Petit Andely, along the Seine River, and Grand Andely, further inland. Its artistic heritage and proximity to the capital appealed to Signac, who wished to remain near Paris during the summer of 1886 so that he could assist with the second annual exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants.4Ferretti-Bocquillon et al., Signac, 121. Signac was a member of the hanging committee. He vacationed in Petit Andely from June to September, joined halfway through by Pissarro’s son Lucien (1863–1944), himself an aspiring artist.5Lucien Pissarro stayed with his cousin, Lionel Nunès, a lawyer. See Anne Thorold, The Letters of Lucien to Camille Pissarro, 1883–1903 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 70n2. During Signac’s sojourn, he completed ten oil paintings of the town and its environs. The Seine features prominently in this series; only the Kansas City work omits the river from view, focusing instead on the region’s most recognizable monument, the twelfth-century Château Gaillard. This fortress appears in the distant background of just one other picture from Signac’s 1886 campaign (Fig. 1). It seems to have interested him less as a motif than did the rippling water of the Seine, the arch bridges crisscrossing the river, and the buildings lining its shores.

Fig. 1. Paul Signac, Les Andelys, The Riverbank, 1886, oil on canvas, 25 11/16 x 32 1/16 in. (65.3 x 81.5 cm), Musée d’Orsay, Paris, RF 1996 6. © 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph © Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France/Bridgeman Images
Built by King Richard I of England (1157–1199)—better known as Richard the Lionheart—between 1196 and 1198, the Château Gaillard sits atop a three-hundred-foot limestone crag. Its fascinating history has filled volumes;6See, for example, Léon Coutil, Le Château Gaillard construit par Richard cœur-de-lion en 1197–1198: Notice historique et archéologique, 3rd ed. (Paris: Dumont and Lechevalier, 1906); and Dominique Pitte and Sophie Fourny-Dargère, Château-Gaillard: “Découverte d’un patrimoine,” exh. cat. (Vernon, France: Musée Alphonse Georges Poulain, 1995). in brief, the English sovereign found his territories threatened by King Philip II of France (1165–1223) and set about constructing an impregnable stronghold that would block his rival’s entry into Rouen. Following Richard’s death in 1199, the castle underwent a prolonged siege by Phillip II’s army, which ultimately succeeded in breaching the inner baileyinner bailey: The defensive wall surrounding a medieval castle’s inner court. The keep was usually located within this enclosure. on March 6, 1204.7For a succinct account of the castle’s siege, see Dirk van Gorp, “The Fall of Château Gaillard,” Medieval Warfare 1, no. 1 (2011): 34–38. Thereafter the fortress lost its strategic importance, despite being less than a decade old. It changed hands several times during the Hundred Years’ WarHundred Years’ War: The intermittent war between England and France from 1337 to 1453, arising out of the claim of the English kings to the French crown. and occasionally housed notable prisoners, such as Charles II, King of Navarre (1332–1387), but otherwise is rarely mentioned in the annals of history.8Pitte and Fourny-Dargère, Château-Gaillard, 33–35. Charles II was imprisoned there in 1356. In the late 1500s, the Château Gaillard—like many disused castles—fell prey to armed brigands, prompting locals to call for its demolition. King Henry IV of France (1553–1610) denied this request but did grant nearby residents permission to remove rubble from the fortress and use it to repair town buildings.9Pitte and Fourny-Dargère, Château-Gaillard, 35–37. By Signac’s day, the castle was greatly altered in appearance, due both to the original damage sustained during Philip II’s attack and to seven hundred years of subsequent neglect. An early twentieth-century postcard of the Château Gaillard, seen from the northeast, highlights its ruined state (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Lévy et Neurdein Réunis, Petit Andely, Ruines du Château Gaillard (Petit Andely, Ruins of the Château Gaillard), ca. 1920–1932, postcard, 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. (14 x 8.9 cm), collection of the author
Signac chose a very similar vantage point for the Nelson-Atkins painting, setting him apart from his peers. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, numerous artists visited Les Andelys and depicted the famous Château Gaillard. Most portrayed the fortress from across the river, in what is today Les Trois Lacs, allowing them to capture the ruins in all their impressive grandeur, towering over the Church of Saint-Sauveur, the Hospital of Saint-Jacques, and other area landmarks. This predilection was the topic of the 1995 exhibition Château Gaillard: “Découverte d’un patrimoine” (Château Gaillard: “Discovering a Heritage”), organized by the Musée Alphonse Georges Poulain in Vernon, France, another Norman town. Of more than fifty paintings, drawings, prints, and book illustrations of the Château Gaillard assembled by the curators, only five works offered a view comparable to that of the Nelson-Atkins landscape.10See Pitte and Fourny-Dargère, Château-Gaillard, cats. 13, 22, 27, 45, and 56, pp. 96–97, 102–3, 106–7, 119–20, and 126–27. One of the exceptions was Félix Vallotton’s (Swiss, 1865–1925) late-career painting Square in Les Andelys with the Château Gaillard, which represents the fortress looming above some dwellings and an almost empty street (Fig. 3). Like Signac, Vallotton eschewed the more majestic sightline from the opposite bank of the Seine.

Fig. 3. Félix Vallotton, Square in Les Andelys with the Château Gaillard, 1924, oil on canvas, 39 3/8 x 28 3/4 in. (100 x 73 cm), Musée Alphonse Georges Poulain, Vernon, France, inv. 90.10.1. Photograph © Musée Alphonse Georges Poulain, Ville de Vernon
The two images differ in one important way, however. Vallotton’s scene might give the impression of replicating a specific vista, but the artist in fact painted it from memory in Honfleur. It is what the exhibition curator, Sophie Fourny-Dargère, termed a paysage recomposé (reconstructed landscape).11Pitte and Fourny-Dargère, Château Gaillard, 126. By Vallotton’s own admission, a faithful transcription of reality was not his goal.12Vanessa Lecomte, “Paul Signac and Félix Vallotton in Les Andelys,” in Marina Ferretti Bocquillon, ed., Impressionism on the Seine, exh. cat. (Giverny: Musée des Impressionnismes, 2010), 62–63. Conversely, Signac executed his picture on site. As indicated by its title—which Signac chose himself—it records a view from the artist’s window.13The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit Andely is an English translation of the original title, Le château Gaillard, vu de ma fenêtre, Petit-Andely. See Société des Artistes indépendants: Peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, dessinateurs et architectes; Catalogue des œuvres exposées, exh. cat. (Paris: Imprimerie A. Lahure, 1886), 22, reproduced in Theodore Reff, ed., Modern Art in Paris: Two-Hundred Catalogues of the Major Exhibitions Reproduced in Facsimile in Forty-Seven Volumes, vol. 9, Salons of the “Indépendants” 1884–1891 (New York: Garland, 1981), unpaginated. While it is unknown precisely where Signac stayed in the summer of 1886, his approximate whereabouts can be ascertained from the painting. In the center foreground, we glimpse a brick house with a mansard roofmansard roof: A roof with two slopes on all sides, where the lower slope is steeper than the upper one. and dormer windows, partly obscured by trees. Its chimney forms a contrasting vertical with the castle’s latrine tower, which stands to the right of its inner bailey and keepkeep: The strongest and innermost tower of a medieval castle, serving as its last defense; also known as a donjon.. Still extant today, this residence is identifiable as 7 rue Philippe Auguste, a three-story home less than half a mile northwest of the fortress. Signac must have found accommodations in its immediate vicinity, possibly renting a room next door at 9 rue Philippe Auguste or at an adjacent mill (Fig. 4).14I am grateful to Françoise Baron, director of the Musée Nicolas Poussin, Les Andelys, for this information. The mill in question is no longer in service; today it is owned by Nicolas Blier, Maçons de tradition, a building company specializing in restoration projects. From either location, Signac would have enjoyed an enviable view of the Château Gaillard.

Fig. 4. Map of Petit Andely
Before Signac’s holiday in Petit Andely was over, the second exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants opened on August 21, 1886. Signac, who attended the public debut, showed ten paintings, four of them from his campaign in Les Andelys, including The Château Gaillard. Critics responded favorably to Signac’s Norman landscapes. Félix Fénéon pronounced them “the most luminous” of Signac’s contributions. “The colors rejoice, proclaim themselves, prompt wild chromatic escalations,” he wrote.15Felix Fénéon, “Correspondance particulière de L’Art moderne: L’Impressionnisme aux Tuileries,” L’Art moderne, no. 38 (September 19, 1886): 301. Fénéon described the Les Andelys paintings as “les plus lumineuses” and then added: “Les couleurs s’y provoquent à d’éperdues escalades chromatiques, exultent, clament.“ Another commentator, Robert Bernier, singled out the Kansas City work for particular praise:

The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit Andely is very good. Amid a jumble of greenery appears a large square roof, which undoubtedly crowns some old financier’s house, constructed under Louis XIV. On the sides, some traditional and more modern gables. And on the hill, dominant and still proud, the ruins of the feudal eyrie.16Robert Bernier, “Salon de la Société des Indépendants: 2me Exposition,” La Revue moderne littéraire, politique et artistique 2, no. 33 (September 20, 1886): 617. “Le Château Gaillard vu de ma fenêtre au Petit Andely est très bien. Dans un fouillis de verdure, apparaît un toit carré, massif, qui doit couronner sans doute quelque vieille maison de traitant, édifié sous Louis XIV. Sur les côtés, quelques pignons rustiques et plus récentes. Et sur la hauteur, dominantes et encore orgueilleuses, les ruines du vieux nid féodal.”

Bernier’s description proceeds from foreground to background, from eye level to mountaintop, and from the ordinary to the exceptional, effectively mapping out the scene for viewers. Despite the castle’s dilapidation, he contends, it retains something of its former splendor, imperiously overlooking the homes in its shadow.

Fig. 5. Paul Signac, Les Andelys, Château Gaillard, 1921, oil on canvas, 25 3/8 x 36 in. (64.5 x 91.5 cm), private collection. © 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph courtesy of Sotheby’s, Inc. © 2011
After the exhibition opening, Signac returned to Les Andelys for another month and then spent the autumn of 1886 in Paris. Peripatetic by nature, he traveled often and widely, especially to the French Riviera. However, a full thirty-five years would elapse before he ventured back to Poussin’s hometown. From July to October 1921, Signac retreated to Les Andelys, producing two oil paintings and countless watercolors of the commune during his stay.17After 1910, Signac’s output in watercolor greatly exceeded his output in oil. See Ferretti-Bocquillon et al., Signac, 20, 225. One of the oils features the Château Gaillard, and this time Signac opted for a quintessential view of the castle from across the Seine (Fig. 5).18This painting last appeared on the market in 2011. See Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale (New York: Sotheby’s, November 2, 2011), lot 49. Flanked on either side by a copse of trees, the fortress gazes down on its own reflection in the placid river. A pinkish cloud forms an aureoleaureole: Light encircling the head or body of a sacred figure. around the keep, giving the monument an ethereal air.19When Signac returned to Les Andelys in 1923 for what would be his final visit, he adopted the same formula for another painting of the fortress. See Impressionist/Modern: Evening Sale (London: Christie’s, June 23, 2010), lot 3, Les Andelys, matin, été. Nothing could be further removed from the Nelson-Atkins picture, whose naturalistic palette and more mundane sightline ground it firmly in this world. Still a fledgling artist grappling with color theory and pointillism when he painted The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit Andely, Signac would eventually become the movement’s standard-bearer and scribe, bringing myriad artists into the fold and pushing Neo-Impressionism to new heights.

Brigid M. Boyle
September 2022

Notes

  1. The exhibition in question was Le peintre Claude Monet at the Galerie du journal illustré La Vie Moderne, 7 boulevard des Italiens, Paris, which opened June 7, 1880. For the impact of this show on Signac’s career choice, see Marina Ferretti-Bocquillon et al., Signac: 1863–1935, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001), 69.

  2. For the nuances between pointillism and divisionism, see Floyd Ratcliff, Paul Signac and Color in Neo-Impressionism (New York: Rockefeller University Press, 1992), 37–38.

  3. Paul Signac to Camille Pissarro, summer 1886, Archives de Camille Pissarro (Paris: Hotel Drouot, November 21, 1975), unpaginated, lot 166.
    “Avez-vous trouvé le moyen pratique de diviser? Moi je barbotte, perds mon temps, travaillant beaucoup sans aucun résultat. Je crois cependant avoir fait de progrès.” All translations are by Brigid M. Boyle.

  4. Ferretti-Bocquillon et al., Signac, 121. Signac was a member of the hanging committee.

  5. Lucien Pissarro stayed with his cousin, Lionel Nunès, a lawyer. See Anne Thorold, The Letters of Lucien to Camille Pissarro, 1883–1903 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 70n2.

  6. See, for example, Léon Coutil, Le Château Gaillard construit par Richard cœur-de-lion en 1197–1198: Notice historique et archéologique, 3rd ed. (Paris: Dumont and Lechevalier, 1906); and Dominique Pitte and Sophie Fourny-Dargère, Château-Gaillard: “Découverte d’un patrimoine,” exh. cat. (Vernon, France: Musée Alphonse Georges Poulain, 1995).

  7. For a succinct account of the castle’s siege, see Dirk van Gorp, “The Fall of Château Gaillard,” Medieval Warfare 1, no. 1 (2011): 34–38.

  8. Pitte and Fourny-Dargère, Château-Gaillard, 33–35. Charles II was imprisoned there in 1356.

  9. Pitte and Fourny-Dargère, Château-Gaillard, 35–37.

  10. See Pitte and Fourny-Dargère, Château-Gaillard, cats. 13, 22, 27, 45, and 56, pp. 96–97, 102–3, 106–7, 119–20, and 126–27.

  11. Pitte and Fourny-Dargère, Château Gaillard, 126.

  12. Vanessa Lecomte, “Paul Signac and Félix Vallotton in Les Andelys,” in Marina Ferretti Bocquillon, ed., Impressionism on the Seine, exh. cat. (Giverny: Musée des Impressionnismes, 2010), 62–63.

  13. The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit Andely is an English translation of the original title, Le château Gaillard, vu de ma fenêtre, Petit-Andely. See Société des Artistes indépendants: Peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, dessinateurs et architectes; Catalogue des œuvres exposées, exh. cat. (Paris: Imprimerie A. Lahure, 1886), 22, reproduced in Theodore Reff, ed., Modern Art in Paris: Two-Hundred Catalogues of the Major Exhibitions Reproduced in Facsimile in Forty-Seven Volumes, vol. 9, Salons of the “Indépendants” 1884–1891 (New York: Garland, 1981), unpaginated.

  14. I am grateful to Françoise Baron, director of the Musée Nicolas Poussin, Les Andelys, for this information. The mill in question is no longer in service; today it is owned by Nicolas Blier, Maçons de tradition, a building company specializing in restoration projects.

  15. Felix Fénéon, “Correspondance particulière de L’Art moderne: L’Impressionnisme aux Tuileries,” L’Art moderne, no. 38 (September 19, 1886): 301. Fénéon described the Les Andelys paintings as “les plus lumineuses” and then added: “Les couleurs s’y provoquent à d’éperdues escalades chromatiques, exultent, clament.”

  16. Robert Bernier, “Salon de la Société des Indépendants: 2me Exposition,” La Revue moderne littéraire, politique et artistique 2, no. 33 (September 20, 1886): 617. “Le Château Gaillard vu de ma fenêtre au Petit Andely est très bien. Dans un fouillis de verdure, apparaît un toit carré, massif, qui doit couronner sans doute quelque vieille maison de traitant, édifié sous Louis XIV. Sur les côtés, quelques pignons rustiques et plus récentes. Et sur la hauteur, dominantes et encore orgueilleuses, les ruines du vieux nid féodal.” 

  17. After 1910, Signac’s output in watercolor greatly exceeded his output in oil. See Ferretti-Bocquillon et al., Signac, 20, 225.

  18. This painting last appeared on the market in 2011. See Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale (New York: Sotheby’s, November 2, 2011), lot 49.

  19. When Signac returned to Les Andelys in 1923 for what would be his final visit, he adopted the same formula for another painting of the fortress. See Impressionist/Modern: Evening Sale (London: Christie’s, June 23, 2010), lot 3, Les Andelys, matin, été.

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Technical Entry
Technical entry forthcoming.

Documentation
Citation

Chicago:

Brigid M. Boyle, “Paul Signac, The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely, 1886,” documentation in French Paintings, 1600–1945: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.728.4033.

MLA:

Boyle, Brigid M. “Paul Signac, The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely, 1886,” documentation . French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023. doi: 10.37764/78973.5.728.4033.

Provenance
Citation

Chicago:

Brigid M. Boyle, “Paul Signac, The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely, 1886,” documentation in French Paintings, 1600–1945: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.728.4033.

MLA:

Boyle, Brigid M. “Paul Signac, The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely, 1886,” documentation . French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023. doi: 10.37764/78973.5.728.4033.

provenance

Paul Signac (1863–1935), Paris, 1886–1920s;

Purchased from Signac by Galerie M. Goldschmidt, Frankfurt, 1920s [1];

Räthe Richter, Berlin;

With Moderne Galerie Thannhauser, Munich, stock no. 6920 [2];

Purchased from Moderne Galerie Thannhauser by Leopold Samuel (1891–1970) and Karen Eva (neé Rosin, 1905–2000) Gutmann, Berlin and New York, ca. 1927–October 6, 1970 [3];

Inherited by Karen Eva Gutmann, New York, 1970–May 23, 1978 [4];

Purchased from Gutmann, through Zargar, Inc., New York, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1978 [5].

Notes

[1] During Signac’s lifetime, he created three chronological lists of his paintings: the cahier d’opus (compiled 1887–1902); the cahier manuscript (compiled 1902–1909); and the pré-catalogue (compiled 1929–1932). The first two inventories contain no provenance information for the Nelson-Atkins painting, but the pré-catalogue lists two owners, “Goldschmidt” and “Räthe Richter Berlin,” in that order. See Archives Paul Signac, Paris.

Françoise Cachin, in her catalogue raisonné of the artist, identified Goldschmidt as Galerie M. Goldschmidt, Frankfurt, a gallery with which Signac entered into contract in 1920. The gallery purchased roughly two dozen works directly from Signac during the 1920s. See Françoise Cachin, Signac: Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2000), no. 120, p. 174; email from Marina Ferretti-Bocquillon, independent art historian, to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, September 13, 2022, NAMA curatorial files; and email from Charlotte Hellman, great-granddaughter of Signac, to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, October 11, 2022, NAMA curatorial files.

The archives of Galerie M. Goldschmidt are presumed lost. A few years after the passing of the gallery’s founder, Marcel Goldschmidt (né Mayer Goldschmidt, 1860–1928), his wife and children scattered to other countries to escape Nazi persecution. Goldschmidt’s living relatives are unsure what became of his business records. See emails from Jennifer Jacobson, great-great-granddaughter of Goldschmidt, to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, September 12, 2022 and October 6, 2022, NAMA curatorial files; and email from Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, to Naomi Goodman, great-granddaughter of Goldschmidt, October 10, 2022, NAMA curatorial files.

[2] A partial label on the painting’s verso was confirmed to be a Moderne Galerie Thannhauser label by Brigitte Jacobs van Renswou, Zentralarchiv des internationalen kunsthandels E.V., in an email to MacKenzie Mallon, NAMA, September 21, 2015, NAMA curatorial files.

[3] See letter from Dara Zargar, agent for Karen Gutmann, to Ralph T. Coe, NAMA, March 29, 1978, NAMA curatorial files, which states that “it was bought from the Galerie Thannhauser in Munich.” This chain of ownership is further corroborated by a typed addendum to the Nelson-Atkins accessioning worksheet, which indicates that Justin K. Thannhauser sold the painting to Karen Gutmann “per tel. call to Gutmann Frames, NY, 2/17/87.” No further notes concerning this phone call have been found.

According to Françoise Cachin’s handwritten notes in her research dossier on The Château Gaillard (compiled as she prepared the Signac catalogue raisonné), the painting belonged to the Gutmanns “depuis 1927” (since 1927). See Archives Paul Signac, Paris. The couple may have purchased the work to celebrate their recent nuptials since they were married on January 8, 1927.

The Gutmanns emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1935 to escape Nazi persecution. They returned to Europe one more time in 1937, and then moved to New York permanently that same year, bringing their art collection with them. The Signac painting remained in their joint possession until Leopold’s death in 1970, after which Karen inherited it. See letter from Leopold S. Gutmann to Françoise Cachin, September 24, 1969, Archives Paul Signac, Paris; and emails from Mark Jacob Sussman, grandson of the Gutmanns, to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, October 7 and 12, 2022, NAMA curatorial files.

[4] Gutmann consigned The Château Gaillard to Wildenstein and Co., New York, from February 1975 to January 1977. During this period, Wildenstein included the painting in two exhibitions, Nature as Scene: French Landscape Painting from Poussin to Bonnard (October 29–December 6, 1975) and Scenes of France: 19th and 20th Century Paintings and Drawings from the Gallery’s Collection (September 7–October 2, 1976). See letter from Ay-Whang Hsia, Wildenstein and Co., to Eliot Rowlands, NAMA, February 23, 1987, NAMA curatorial files.

[5] Zargar, Inc., was owned by Dara Zargar (b. 1941), an Iranian art agent with residences in Manhattan and Miami.

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Related Works

related

Citation

Chicago:

Brigid M. Boyle, “Paul Signac, The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely, 1886,” documentation in French Paintings, 1600–1945: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.728.4033.

MLA:

Boyle, Brigid M. “Paul Signac, The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely, 1886,” documentation. French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023. doi: 10.37764/78973.5.728.4033.

Paul Signac, Les Andelys, Lucas Island, 1886, oil on canvas, 26 x 17 3/8 in. (66 x 44.1 cm), Minnesota Marine Art Museum, Winona, MN, on loan from Mary Burrichter and Robert Kierlin.

Paul Signac, Les Andelys, Setting Sun, 1886, oil on canvas, 12 15/16 x 18 1/8 in. (32.8 x 46.1 cm), whereabouts unknown, illustrated in Art moderne (Paris: Christie’s, October 18, 2019), 145.

Paul Signac, Les Andelys, Port Morin, 1886, 13 x 18 1/8 in. (33 x 46 cm), whereabouts unknown, illustrated in Françoise Cachin, Signac: Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2000), no. 122, p. 175.

Paul Signac, Les Andelys, The Baths, 1886, 13 x 18 1/8 in. (33 x 46 cm), whereabouts unknown, illustrated in Impressionist and Modern Paintings and Sculpture (London: Christie, Manson, and Woods, December 2, 1975), unpaginated.

Paul Signac, Les Andelys, The Washerwomen, 1886, oil on canvas, 23 5/8 x 36 1/4 in. (60 x 92 cm), whereabouts unknown, illustrated in Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale (London: Sotheby’s, June 20, 2005), 15.

Paul Signac, Les Andelys, Côte d’Aval, 1886, oil on canvas, 23 5/8 x 36 1/4 in. (60 x 92 cm), Art Institute of Chicago, 1993.208.

Paul Signac, The Seine at Les Andelys, 1886, oil on canvas, 18 x 25 1/2 in. (45.7 x 64.8 cm), Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA, M.1968.27.P.

Paul Signac, Les Andelys, The Bridge, 1886, oil on canvas, 13 x 18 1/8 in. (33 x 46 cm), Ise Cultural Foundation, Tokyo.

Paul Signac, Les Andelys, The Riverbank, 1886, oil on canvas, 25 11/16 x 32 1/16 in. (65.3 x 81.5 cm), Musée d’Orsay, Paris, RF 1996 6.

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Exhibitions
Citation

Chicago:

Brigid M. Boyle, “Paul Signac, The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely, 1886,” documentation in French Paintings, 1600–1945: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.728.4033.

MLA:

Boyle, Brigid M. “Paul Signac, The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely, 1886,” documentation. French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023. doi: 10.37764/78973.5.728.4033.

Deuxième exposition de la Société des Artistes indépendants, Bâtiment B, rue des Tuileries, Paris, August 21–September 21, 1886, no. 367, as Le château Gaillard, vu de ma fenêtre.—Petit-Andely.—Juin-juillet 1886.

Nature as Scene: French Landscape Painting from Poussin to Bonnard, Wildenstein, New York, October 29–December 6, 1975, no. 60, as Petit-Andely: Château Gaillard, Seen from the Artist’s Window.

Scenes of France: 19th and 20th Century Paintings and Drawings from the Gallery’s Collection, Wildenstein, New York, September 7–October 2, 1976, no cat.

New Acquisitions, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, July 28–August 19, 1979, no cat.

A Bountiful Decade: Selected Acquisitions, 1977–1987, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 14–December 6, 1987, no. 44, as Le Château Gaillard, Les Andelys.

Impressionism: Selections from Five American Museums, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, November 4–December 31, 1989; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, January 27–March 25, 1990; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 21–June 17, 1990; The Saint Louis Art Museum, July 14–September 9, 1990; The Toledo Museum of Art, September 30–November 25, 1990, no. 79, as Château Gaillard, Seen from the Artist’s Window, Petit Andely.

Seurat and the Making of “La Grande Jatte”, The Art Institute of Chicago, June 16–September 19, 2004, no. 115, as Les Andelys, Château Gaillard.

References
Citation

Chicago:

Brigid M. Boyle, “Paul Signac, The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely, 1886,” documentation in French Paintings, 1600–1945: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.728.4033.

MLA:

Boyle, Brigid M. “Paul Signac, The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit-Andely, 1886,” documentation. French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023. doi: 10.37764/78973.5.728.4033.

references

Société des Artistes indépendants: Peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, dessinateurs et architectes; Catalogue des œuvres exposées, exh. cat. (Paris: Imprimerie A. Lahure, 1886), 22 [repr., in Theodore Reff, ed., Modern Art in Paris: Two-Hundred Catalogues of the Major Exhibitions Reproduced in Facsimile in Forty-Seven Volumes, vol. 9, Salons of the “Indépendants” 1884–1891 (New York: Garland, 1981), unpaginated], as Le château Gaillard, vu de ma fenêtre.—Petit-Andely.—Juin-juillet 1886.

Gustave Geffroy, “Chronique: Artistes indépendants,” La Justice, no. 2411 (August 21, 1886): 2.

Charles Vignier, “L’Exposition des Indépendants,” La Vie Moderne et Tout Paris, no. 38 (September 18, 1886): 604, as Le château Gaillard.

Felix Fénéon, “Correspondance particulière de ‘L’Art moderne:’ L’Impressionnisme aux Tuileries,” L’Art moderne 6, no. 38 (September 19, 1886): 301, as le Château-Gaillard de ma fenêtre.

Robert Bernier, “Salon de la Société des Indépendants: 2me Exposition,” La Revue moderne littéraire, politique et artistique 2, no. 33 (September 20, 1886): 617, as Château Gaillard vu de ma fenêtre au Petit Andely.

Felix Fénéon, Les Impressionnistes en 1886 (Paris: Publications de “La vogue,” 1886), 40.

Marie-Thérèse Lemoyne de Forges, Signac, exh. cat. (Paris: Ministère d’état, Affaires culturelles, 1963), 15.

Felix Fénéon, Au-delà de l’impressionnisme, ed. Françoise Cachin (Paris: Hermann, 1966), 71, 78, as Le Château-Gaillard de ma fenêtre.

Félix Fénéon, Œuvres plus que complètes, ed. Joan U. Halperin (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1970), 1:43, 56, as le Château-Gaillard de ma fenêtre.

Françoise Cachin, Paul Signac, trans. Michael Bullock (Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1971), 26.

Nature as Scene: French Landscape Painting from Poussin to Bonnard, exh. cat. (New York: Wildenstein, 1975), unpaginated, as Petit-Andely: Château Gaillard, Seen from the Artist’s Window.

Donald Hoffmann, “New Artworks Go On Exhibit at Nelson,” Kansas City Times 110, no. 225 (May 27, 1978): 11C, as Chateau [sic] Gaillard.

“Gallery Attraction,” Kansas City Star 98, no. 238 (June 4, 1978): 1F, (repro.), as Chateau [sic] Gaillard.

“Principales acquisitions des musées en 1978,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 93, no. 1323 (April 1979): 49, (repro.), as Château-Gaillard.

Donald Hoffmann, “Gallery Visitors, Revenues Down,” Kansas City Star 99, no. 270 (July 29, 1979): 28A.

Donald Hoffmann, “Intensity and nuance: the Nelson’s new pastels,” Kansas City Star 100, no. 77 (December 16, 1979): 27.

Sophie Monneret, L’impressionnisme et son époque: Dictionnaire international illustré (Paris: Editions Denoël, 1979–1980), 2:255, 3:245.

Donald Hoffmann, “The fine art of contributing to the gallery,” Kansas City Star 101, no. 225 (June 7, 1981): 1F.

Roger Ward, ed., A Bountiful Decade: Selected Acquisitions, 1977–1987, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1987), 108–09, (repro.), as Le Château Gaillard, Les Andelys.

Marc S. Gerstein, Impressionism: Selections from Five American Museums, exh. cat. (New York: Hudson Hills, 1989), 12, 15, 21, 90, 180–81, (repro.), as Château Gaillard, Seen from the Artist’s Window, Petit Andely.

David Lewis, “Museum Impressions,” Carnegie Magazine 59, no. 12 (November–December 1989): 46.

Alice Thorson, “The Nelson Celebrates its 60th,” Kansas City Star 113, no. 304 (July 18, 1993): J-5.

Michael Churchman and Scott Erbes, High Ideals and Aspirations: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1933–1993 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 99, as Château Gaillard, Seen from the Artist’s Window, Petit Andely.

Importants tableaux et sculptures modernes: Succession Palazzolo, succession Michel Guy, et à divers amateurs (Paris: Hotel Drouot, June 21, 1993), unpaginated.

Roger B. Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 210, (repro.), as Château Gaillard, Seen from the Artist’s Window, Petit Andely.

Gloria Groom, “Acquisitions in Focus: The Art Institute of Chicago,” Apollo 142, no. 406 (December 1995): 59, 61n4.

Françoise Cachin, Signac: Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2000), no. 120, pp. 174, 352, (repro.), as Les Andelys. Château-Gaillard.

Marina Ferretti-Bocquillon et al., Signac: 1863–1935, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001), 107, 121, 301.

Anne Distel, Signac: Au temps d’harmonie, exh. cat. (Paris: Gallimard / Réunion des musées nationaux, 2001), 33.

Françoise Cachin and Marina Ferretti-Bocquillon, P. Signac, exh. cat. (Paris: A.D.A.G.P., 2003), 32, 178, 232, 261.

Robert L. Herbert, Seurat and the Making of “La Grande Jatte”, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2004), 134, 138–39, 277, 281, 287, (repro.), as Les Andelys, Château Gaillard.

Robyn Roslak, “Symphonic Seas, Oceans of Liberty: Paul Signac’s La Mer: Les Barques (Concarneau),” Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 4, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 39n11, https://19thc-artworldwide.org/index.php/component/content/article/64-spring05article/302-symphonic-seas-oceans-of-liberty-paul-signacs-la-mer-les-barques-concarneau.

Kunst des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts (Berlin: Villa Grisebach Auktionen, November 26, 2005), unpaginated.

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 122–23, (repro.), as Les Andelys, Château Gaillard.

Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick, The Age of Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2008), 115 [repr., Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick, The Age of French Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2010), 129].

Guy Cogeval et al., Masterpieces from Paris: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionism from the Musée d’Orsay, exh. cat. (Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 2009), 108.

Marina Ferretti Bocquillon, ed., Impressionism on the Seine (Giverny, France: Musée des impressionnismes, 2010), 57–58, 65n14, as The Château-Gaillard from my window and Les Andelys, Château-Gaillard, June-July.

Moderne und Zeitgennössische Kunst: Moderne Graphik (Zurich: Koller Zürich, December 7, 2012), 34, 36, (repro.), as Les Andelys, Château Gaillard.

Annette Blaugrund, ed., Charting New Waters: Redefining Marine Painting; Masterworks from the Burrichter/Kierlin Collection, exh. cat. (Winona, MN: Minnesota Marine Art Museum, 2013), 86, 86n3, as Les Andelys, Château Gaillard.

Catherine Futter et al., Bloch Galleries: Highlights from the Collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2016), 99, (repro.), as The Château Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit Andely.

Art moderne (Paris: Christie’s, October 18, 2019), 146.

European Art and Old Masters (Philadelphia: Freeman’s, February 18, 2020), unpaginated.

Kristie C. Wolferman, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A History (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2020), 264, as Chateau [sic] Gaillard, View from My Window, Petit Andely.

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