In La Rochelle
Paul Signac (1863–1935) was born and died in Paris. With Georges Seurat he created pointillism, the neo-impressionist technique of small dots of pure colour. He first came to La Rochelle in 1911 — not 1910, as the former VisitLaRochelle.com said — and returned many times, for instance in the summer of 1920, painting the harbour towers into the 1920s.
The Old Port and its towers became a recurring motif, in oils and in watercolour. The largest of these views, the Entrée du port de La Rochelle of 1921, is in the Musée d’Orsay.
The La Rochelle paintings
Entrance to the Port of La Rochelle (1921)
A large canvas of 130.5 × 162 cm, painted in 1921. Signac left it to his daughter Ginette Signac, who bequeathed it to the French national museums in 1980; it entered the Musée d’Orsay (inventory RF 1982 59), where it was listed as on display (room 40, upper level) when we checked.
The Port of La Rochelle
Another view of the port of La Rochelle by Signac.
La Rochelle (1911)
One of the first canvases of his first stay, in 1911, now at the Petit Palais in Paris (bequest of Dr Girardin). No image available here.
Entrance to the Harbor of La Rochelle (c. 1920–1928)
A watercolour of the harbour entrance, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. No image available here.
The motif today
Signac’s views centre on the harbour entrance, where the Saint-Nicolas and Chain towers face each other.
The exact spot where the painter set up his easel is not documented in our sources: the map shows the monuments in the picture.
Sources: Musée d’Orsay · Sotheby’s (2005) · The Eclectic Light Company · Pubhist · The Met · former VisitLaRochelle.com (corrected; its claims about other paintings and sales were not verified and are not repeated here). Checked 14 October 2026.