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This work is a nature study for the painting Italian Pine on the Road to Saint-Tropez of 1893 , which Signac gave at one time to his friend the Belgian artist Teo van Rijsselberghe. This pine - or one quite similar to it - also figures in the painting The Golden Age . Compared to this study, the silhouette of the pine in both paintings is far more formalized and suggests Japanese influence. Moreover, these paintings are executed in a careful pointillist manner.