Henri Edmond Cross, Bords méditerranéens, 1895 – Oil on Canvas Signed and dated below and left : Henri Edmond Cross 95 – 65 x 92 cm Collection particulière – © Steven Tucker

Culture and Fashion

At the beginning of the 20th century, Henri-Edmond Cross painted the Lavandou region with thousands of brushstrokes, rendering in oil and watercolor its unique palette. His work can be discovered until February 18 in Paris.

By Marine Normand - Photos DR - February 9, 2012

When he presented his first paintings at the 1881 Salon, Henri-Edmond Cross was a disciple of the Neo-impressionist Georges Seurat. His enchantingly colored landscapes, one of his favorite subjects, and sketches grew from a system of dividing color into millions of spots. The eyes of the concentrated spectator finish by blending the shades, and the tones used for the painting become more precise, more vibrant and more luminous than ever, much more than if they had been mixed on the artist’s palette.

Henri-Edmond Cross is the painter who made the link between the Neo-impressionists and the Fauvists, between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.

Having just settled in 1900, like his friend Paul Signac living in Saint-Tropez, in Saint-Clair in the Var region – that he would never leave – the painter built a cabin on the beach there where he welcomed his friends and began to paint Provence in the colors that suited him. On his canvases one finds the azure blue of the sky and the calm Mediterranean Sea, the limpid white of the sails of the boats in port, and the oranges which link the sand on the beaches to the valleys. The artist’s palette is modeled on that of the region, and they form one big color chart, Henri-Edmond Cross finishes by perfectly transcribing through his oils and watercolors the heat of the Provençal days, and the light of a sun always hotter and more mesmerizing.

The dots melt and become fuller and more personal brushstrokes, giving character and life to the artist’s works, while his use of wilder colors heralded Fauvists like Henri Matisse.

These works can be discovered in Paris. An exhibition is currently dedicated to him at the Marmottan Museum, assembling about one hundred paintings sourced from museums and private collections, and retracing the evolution of his career. It also presents in parallel works by his painter friends like Signac, Luce and Camoin, so one perceives a dialog, an underlying theme between these artists of the same generation. It’s a good opportunity to discover the paintings of this artist still too little-known, who portrays Provence in a distant and dreamed of time, almost unblemished, when the Var region’s empty autumnl beaches left the artist alone confronted with a silent sea and an enchanting landscape.

Discover

Henri-Edmond Cross and Neo-Impressionism

2 rue Louis Boilly

75016 PARIS

Henri Edmond Cross, Le Bois [ou Nu sous bois], 1906-1907 Oil on Canvas – Signed below and left : Henri Edmond Cross – 46 x 55 cm L’Annonciade, Musée de Saint-Tropez © Jean-Louis Chaix, ville de Saint-Tropez

r

Theo Van Rysselberghe, Portrait of Henri Edmond Cross, 1906 – Oil on pannel 23 x 18 cm – Monogrammed, dated high and left : VR 1906 St Clair Private Collection – © D.R

r

Henri Edmond Cross, Les Vendanges, 1891-1892 – Oil on Canavs – 94.9 x 140 cm Signed and dated : Henri Edmond Cross 1892 – Collection particulière – © D.R.

r

Détail of Paul Signac, Tartanes pavoisées à Saint-Tropez, 1893 – Oil on Canvas 56 x 46, 5 cm – Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal – © D.R.