Henri Edmond Cross

During the months of July and August 1903 Cross travelled in northern Italy, spending several weeks in Venice. On his return to France, he started working on a number of paintings depicting views of Venice, using his pointillist technique to convey the brilliant quality of the Mediterranean light. The composition of the present work is built up of small brushstrokes of pure colour, capturing the dissipation of light as a result of bright sunshine. The warm yellow, pink and white tones in the centre of the composition evoke the dazzling effect of sunlight on the water and the buildings, surrounded by the deep blue and green hues of the elements in a shadow. The picturesque Rio San Trovaso, best known for its sixteenth-century church and gondola workshop, is seen here framed by the trees and building façades lining its banks, leading our eye down the canal towards the Venetian bridge in the background.

In a letter to his friend, the pointillist artist Charles Angrand of 7^th February 1904, Cross wrote about two exhibitions held at the same time, in late February and March of that year in Paris and Brussels. Cross had sent eight recent paintings to Théo van Rysselberghe, who was in charge of sending them to these exhibitions. Rio San Trovaso, Venise was one of the two paintings shown at the Brussels exhibition.

Fascinated by the city and its canals, and inspired by the effects of light on water, Cross wrote in his diary during his stay in Italy: "Venise admirable. Venise est comme la vie, symbole d’une humanité brillante. […] Et l’architecture admirablement variée et vivante est comme le prolongement vers le ciel de cette vie intense, de ce maximum de vie donné par les canaux plus l’eau adorable et ses reflets infinis!" (quoted in I. Compin, op. cit., p. 208).