Henri Edmond Cross

Galerie Druet, Paris (acquired from the artist)
Mme H. E. Cross
Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris
Henri Canonne, Paris (sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Vente Canonne, 28th May 1930, lot 19)
Galerie Paul Pétridès, Paris (by 1964)
Acquired by the present owner in Switzerland in February 1989

Paris, Société des Artistes indépendants, 1906, no. 1182
Munich, Kunstverein; Frankfurt, Kunstverein; Dresden, Galerie Arnold; Karlsruhe, Kunstverein & Stuttgart, Kunstverein, Französische Künstler, 1906-07, no. 20
Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Nus, 1910, no. 10
Brussels, La Libre Esthétique, Rétrospective H. E. Cross, 1911, no. 34
Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, H. E. Cross, 1913, no. 7
Copenhagen, Musée Royal, Exposition d'Art français du XIXe siècle, 1914, no. 50

Edouard Joseph, Dictionnaire biographique des artistes contemporains, Paris, 1930, illustrated
Isabelle Compin, H. E. Cross, Paris, 1964, no. 144, illustrated p. 244

The canvas is not lined. There is a fine intermittent 10cm. scratch running vertically from the extreme right of the lower edge. There is a line of retouching running along the top edge from the centre to the top right corner, a small spot of retouching to the left of the upper edge and some small retouchings to the edges of the lower right corner, all visible under UV light and probably applied to cover previous frame-rubbing. Apart from some light surface dirt, this work is in good condition. Colours: The yellows are stronger and more vibrant in the original.
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Henri-Edmond Cross relished depicting sensual female bathers in idealised settings. The Mediterranean light provided him with the inspiration to use a brighter palette and flatter forms to create luminosity in his compositions. The particular style of these paintings is known as Divisionism, which is characterised by the juxtaposition of small applications of pure colour. The present work epitomises the Divisionist style, with its use of opposing colours to capture the intensity of the Mediterranean sunlight.

Cross's method generally involved working outside with small drawings and watercolours, which he would later finish in his studio. These finished compositions often featured bathing women and evoked a mood of measured idealism rather than an immediate response to nature. The artist once explained to Théo van Rysselberghe in 1905 that "...On the rocks, on the sand of the beaches, nymphs and naiads appear to me, a whole world born of beautiful light" (quoted in Neo-Impressionism (exhibition catalogue), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1968, p. 47).

Maurice Denis, commenting on his fellow artist's work in 1907, explained Cross was "more and more substituting the play of colour for the play of light...He does his utmost to imagine harmonies equivalent to sunlight, and to institute a style of pure colour... Cross has resolved to represent the sun, not by bleaching his colours, but by exalting them, and by the boldness of his colour contrasts... The sun is not for him a phenomenon which makes everything white, but is a source of harmony which hots up nature's colours, authorises the most heightened colour-scale, and provides the subject for all sorts of colour fantasies" (quoted in Post Impressionism (exhibition catalogue), Royal Academy of Art, London, 1979, p. 61).