Paul SIGNAC
Gasometers at Clichy 1886
(Les Gazomètres. Clichy)
oil on canvas
65.0 x 81.0 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1948
1817-4

Signac's first foray into Divisionist painting was Gasometers at Clichy, painted in March and April of 1886. In this work he sought to embrace Seurat's scientific theory of colour division, abandoning the wet-on-wet application of harmonious tones favoured by Impressionism in favour of placing strong, opposing blocks of colour side by side. Signac had lived in Asnières, a residential district in the west of Paris, since his teens. On the opposite side of the Seine, at a stone's throw from his home, were to be found the large gas storage tanks, factories, cranes and chimney stacks of industrial Clichy.