HENRI-EDMOND CROSS | Murano, matin

Galerie Max Kaganovitch, Paris
Abraham & Nadia Jaglom, New York (acquired from the above in 1965)
Thence by descent

Paris, Galerie Druet, Exposition Henri-Edmond Cross, 1905, n.n.

The work is in very good condition. The canvas is not lined. The canvas is slightly undulating. The surface is slightly dirty. Under UV inspection, no inpainting is present.
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Murano, matin is one of a series of paintings that Henri-Edmond Cross produced following a five-week trip to Italy with his wife in July 1903. Like generations of artists before him, Cross was immediately seduced by the region's winding canals and the dancing reflections of the buildings’ façades. In a letter to fellow artist Charles Angrand dating from February 1904, Cross wrote, “The admiration and the taste that one has for the coast of Provence prepares one for the sensual joy of Venice. Their two contrasted beauties create a happy balance: one is brown and stripped bare, the other is blonde and bedecked in the most marvelous jewels. As it is in Titian’s Sacred and Profane Love, the two gaze at one another in the same water” (quoted in Françoise Baligand, Cross et le néo-impressionnisme, Musée de la Chartreuse de Douai, Douai, 1998, p. 42; translated from French).

Just as Cross had been seduced by the light and color of the Mediterranean coast following his move there in 1891, so too in Italy he found much to inspire him. While he was greatly impressed by the works of Italian masters such as Jacopo Tintoretto, Vittore Carpaccio, Paolo Veronese and Francesco Guardi, the city itself had the most profound effect on him. Cross filled notebooks with sketches and watercolors which show him delighting in not only the vibrant hues and dazzling light of the city, but also in its grandiose architecture and maze of canals. These watercolors serve as the basis for a series of oils that Cross completed upon returning home to Saint-Clair in the fall, which he would exhibit over the next few years, most notably at a show at Galerie Druet in 1905 (see fig. 1). As evidenced in the present work, Murano provided the ideal setting for Cross to continue the scientific exploration of color that he had pioneered along with his fellow Neo-Impressionists. Using the small, deft brushstrokes that characterize his later work, Cross perfectly captures the contrasts between the cool, shimmering hues of the canals and the colorful movement of the gondolas and sailing boats. 

This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Henri Edmond Cross being prepared by Patrick Offenstadt.