Explore the Description of this artwork.
The painting depicts an afternoon on a lagoon in Venice, and is a testament to Signac's skill with seascape imagery. The work is constructed with brilliant hues of blues and greens juxtaposing one another. When standing close to the painting, the only discernible features are the brush strokes; this technique of painting was labeled, Pointillism, by Seurat. Artists using this technique along with Seurat became known as Neo-Impressionists.The Lagoon of Saint Mark, Venice, is in the background, gondolas in the middle ground, and docks can be seen in the foreground. The sky is awash with pastel purple and blue and large clouds appear throughout the top half of the canvas. The bottom half of the canvas depicts a series of steps leading down to the docks where gondolas are haphazardly tied to posts in the water. The water slowly ebbs in from the wake of the slow-moving gondola in the middle of the painting. The mirroring effect that the steps and water have on one another makes the painting come alive as this movement extends out of the canvas towards the viewer.
Pointillism Neo-Impressionists