Comblat-le-Château, the Meadow (Le pré), Opus 161

A quiet meadow stretches beneath a pale sky, bordered by trees and a wooden fence, with a building set against distant mountains, rendered in small dabs of green, blue, and earthy brown. The scene is composed of tiny, distinct touches of color rather than blended brushwork, giving the whole surface a shimmering, granular texture. This piece, titled Comblat-le-Château, the Meadow (Le pré), Opus 161, was painted in 1887 in oil and now belongs to the Dallas Museum of Art, having entered its collection through the Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund in honor of Bonnie Pitman. The painter, Paul Signac (1863–1935), worked in the pointillist movement, building images from countless separate points of pigment. Looking closely, the mountains seem to dissolve into soft atmospheric color, while the fence anchors the foreground with a firmer, more defined structure.