In the 1890s, as Signac turned away from painting canvases out of doors, the watercolor assumed increased importance in his art. Still moved by the power of nature, he used watercolors to record his spontaneous reactions to the landscape. Signac was especially fond of painting the bridges of Paris, and this view presents the Pont St. Michel.

Not rendered in the dotted pointillist technique, Signac's watercolors have a sense of the artist's handwriting, as short strokes capture his fluid expression. The pencil lines are not underdrawings meant to be covered by pigment; they complement the daubs of color and give structure to the composition.