Know Your Artist — By the Numbers: Paul Signac
BY BLOUIN ARTINFO | FEBRUARY 08, 2019
Paul Victor Jules Signac (1863-1935) was a French painter who introduced the colorist techniques and theories of Divisionism and Pointillism in collaboration with the artist Georges Seurat, which became the basis of the Neo-Impressionist movement. He was born in Paris into a middle-class family, and he was exposed to the visual arts during the development of Modernism when his family relocated to the Montmartre area of the city, which had a flourishing artistic environment.
Even though Signac received some elementary training under portraitist and history painter, Émile Bin, he was almost entirely self-taught. Signac studied architecture before deciding on a career as a painter. He was extremely influenced by Monet’s work, and subsequently he immersed himself in studying the paintings of the prominent impressionists, including Manet, Degas and Caillebotte. In 1884, he met Georges Seurat and was captivated by his systematic working methods and by his concept of colors. Under Seurat’s influence, he discontinued the rapid and varied brushstrokes of Impressionism to experiment with almost a scientific system of applying small dots of pure luminous color that did not intend to combine on the canvas but in the eyes of the viewer, which became the defining feature of Pointillism.
Signac was an avid sailor, and his paintings reflected a sense of adventure and freedom embodied by the sport. Signac traveled along the coasts of Europe, painting the landscapes and seascapes he encountered. Many of his paintings are of the French coast, and in his later years, he painted a series of watercolors of French harbor cities.
Signac experimented with various media including oil, watercolor, etchings and lithographs. His experiments with differing ways of applying paint influenced a number of schools of art, particularly Fauvism and Les Nabis, and specifically the work of Henri Matisse and André Derrain. Important art by Signac includes “The Milliner” (1885), “Les Andelys, the Riverbank” (1886), “Lady on the Terrace” (1898) and “The Pink Cloud Antibes” (1916).
The Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on February 27 at Christie’s London will be offering Signac’s masterpiece, “Le Port au soleil couchant, Opus 236 (Saint-Tropez)” (1892).
The painting of a sunset at the port of Saint Tropez accentuates his mastery of Pointillism, using intricate minute dabs of luminous blue, green, orange and yellow oil paint.
Here is a performance analysis of Paul Signac artworks in the auction market:
Here is a performance analysis of Paul Signac artworks in the auction market:
1. Sales Trend 1999 – 2018
1. Sales Trend 1999 – 2018
In 2007, Signac had registered his highest ever sale of $44.6 million for 75 lots. That was the year when his dreamy 1889 landscape “Cassis Cap Canaille” fetched $14 million at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale in New York, setting an auction high for the artist. One more work at Christie’s New York sold that year for above $10 million: “Arriere du tub” at $11.7 million.
Another good year for Signac was 2018 when sales totaled $35.6 million for 82 sold lots – bolstered by sale of the oil canvas “Portrieux. La Comtesse (Opus No. 191),” which achieved $13.8 million.
Overall, the number of lots sold for the artist in the past 20 years remained in the range of 50 to 96 lots.
The graphic below shows the price bands of various art categories in the past 20 years.
Most of the auctioned lots were works on paper — 1,076 works, or 77 percent — followed by paintings at 179 lots, or 13 percent.
There were five paintings that sold above $10 million, and 71 lots that sold over $1 million. Most of Signac’s works on paper were sold for less than $100,000.
There were five paintings that sold above $10 million, and 71 lots that sold over $1 million. Most of Signac’s works on paper were sold for less than $100,000.
2. Volume of Artworks on Offer vs. Bought-in Rate
2. Volume of Artworks on Offer vs. Bought-in Rate
The number lots offered show a growing trend, and in 2016, they reached a peak at 132 lots.
Although 2016 had the highest number of lots sold at 96 (see section-1), total sales were low at $21 million, with around 90 percent of works selling below $100,000. Overall, the bought-in rate was between 18 percent and 28 percent in the past decade. In 2012, which was one of Signac’s best years with total sales at $43.2 million, the bought-in rate hit a 10-year low at 18.4 percent, or 16 lots unsold.
3. Where Have His Works Sold the Most 1999 – 2018
3. Where Have His Works Sold the Most 1999 – 2018
Most of Signac’s sales in terms of value occurred at Christie’s, which registered 55.6 percent of the total share in the period from 1999 to 2018. Sotheby’s followed at 34.8 percent, with other auction houses accounting for the rest.
In terms of geographical share, New York led with a market share of 49.1 percent for Signac’s works sold during the same period and London came next at 39.2 percent.
4. Bought-ins by Auction Houses
4. Bought-ins by Auction Houses
The graphic below represents Signac’s lots offered and bought-in rates at the top two auction houses. In the past two years, Sotheby’s has had more of the artist’s works on offer than Christie’s, but Christie’s had zero a bought-in rate in 2017 and 22 percent in 2018, compared with Sotheby’s 19 percent in 2017 and 4 percent in 2018.
5. Trend Average and Median Sale Prices of Paintings 1999 – 2018
5. Trend Average and Median Sale Prices of Paintings 1999 – 2018
In the past decade, the average sale price of paintings by Signac reached a peak in 2016 at $3.7 million and in 2015 at $3.6 million. In 2016, the average price was bolstered by the sale of 12 out of 13 paintings for above $1 million, one of which was “Maisons Du Port, Saint-Tropez,” which was the artist’s top-selling work that year at $10.7 million.
The median price reached a peak in 2011 at $3.3 million. The second highest median was in 2015, when all of eight paintings offered sold for more than $1 million, pushing up the median of the year to $3.1 million.
6. Top Artworks
6. Top Artworks
Signac’s all top three sales occurred at Christie’s. “Cassis. Cap Canaille” was his top-selling painting, fetching $14 million at the Impressionist and Modern Art sale in New York on November 6, 2007. “La Corne d'Or, Constantinople,” a 1907 painting of what is now Istanbul, sold for $13.96 million in London on February 7, 2012. The third-highest sale occurred at the auction of Rockefeller’s collection in New York on May 8 last year when the 1888 pointillist seascape “Portrieux. La Comtesse (Opus No. 191)” fetched $13.8 million.
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