What Do You See? The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part I

The present lot is an oil study for Signac’s Au Temps d’Harmonie (In the Time of Harmony) a Neo-Impressionist masterwork executed in 1895 in Saint-Tropez. Exhibited at the Salon des Indépendents and ultimately installed in the grand staircase of Montreuil’s Hôtel de Ville, the final, monumental version depicts an ideal rural society, a post-revolutionary utopia marked by political and social concord. Originally titled Au Temps d’Anarchie (In the Time of Anarchy), the painting was Signac’s vision of a community unburdened by class and census–a “dreamed-of age of happiness and well-being...[that shows] the actions of men, their play and their work in [an] era of general harmony.”From 1893-1894, Signac completed a series of preparatory studies for the work—primarily figures recreating, but also landscapes and small-scale renderings of irises, poppies, and oleanders. One of these, Le Joueur de Boules Assis, corresponds to a group of men playing boules (a French version of outdoor bowling) in the finished composition. Other details include women and men dancing, reading, picking fruit and, naturally, painting–meaningful pursuits in Signac's future golden age. Executed in muscular, unblended daubs–and in a palette indicative of the scene's seaside setting–the study heralds the Pointillism of the final version.In a letter to friend and fellow painter, Henri-Edmond Cross, Signac summarized his aspirations for Au Temps d'Harmonie: “Great news! On your advice, I’m going to try a large canvas!... The boules player is becoming a minor figure of: in the time of anarchy. In the foreground, a group at rest...man, woman, child...under a large pine an old man tells stories to the young kids...on a hillside...the harvest: the machines smoke, work, lessen the drudgery: and around the haystacks...a farandole of harvesters...in the center, a young couple: free love!" A significant part of the artist’s Arcadia, the boules player is both a cipher for progressive ideals and the embodiment of Signac’s belief in the power of art to effect positive social change.