Detail of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde (La Bonne-Mère), Marseilles by Signac in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2010

Title: Notre-Dame de la Garde (La Bonne Mère), Marseille

Artist: Paul Signac (French, Paris 1863–1935 Paris)

Date: 1905–6

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 35 x 45 3/4 in. (88.9 x 116.2 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Gift of Robert Lehman, 1955

Object Number: 55.220.1

After visiting Marseille in late 1905, Signac proceeded to paint two canvases in his studio: one showing the entrance to the port and this view, facing the hill surmounted by Notre-Dame de la Garde, the church nicknamed the "Good Mother" by seamen. Bright and boldly colored, the composition reflects Signac's contact with the artists Henri-Edmond Cross and Matisse at Saint-Tropez in the summer of 1904. The rectangular strokes of unmixed pigment, arranged like tesserae in a mosaic, are Signac’s variation on the innovative painting method pioneered by Seurat.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437672