The Port of Rotterdam

Paul Signac was a French Neo-Impressionist painter who, working with Georges Seurat, helped develop the Pointillist style. Signac was one of the founders of the Société des Indépendants in 1884. This annual, non-jury exhibition offered admission to all artists, regardless of the style in which they worked in counterpoint to the traditional Salons of the French Academy. Here he met the pointillist painter Georges Seurat, who inspired him to apply the physical laws of light and colour in his painting. 

In Warsaw, where some members of our team lives, including me, autumn is in a full swing. Which means: it's dark, gloomy and cold. This Seurat helped me survive the last days of October :)

In 1906 Signac visited the port of Rotterdam and was greatly impressed. On a postcard with a harbour scene he wrote: 'From my window! What industriousness! I am enthusiastic, but amazed.' This painting was created the following year based on a drawing, which is also in the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The combination of the individual dabs of paint creates shimmering light effects.

Zuzanna