Women at the Well

Provencal women gather at a hilltop well above a glittering blue bay, their figures and the sweeping coastline broken into shimmering dots of pure color and curving, decorative arabesques. Paul Signac, who had moved south to the Mediterranean, fills the scene with brilliant light and rhythmic line. Now in the Musee d'Orsay, Women at the Well shows Neo-Impressionism turning from scientific austerity toward a more lyrical, decorative beauty - the dotted technique used to celebrate the dazzling color of the southern coast, ordinary women and their well transformed into a luminous, patterned design.