+ Expand

Description: Painted circa 1907-08. signed Henri Edmond Cross (lower left) oil on canvas

+ Expand

Dimensions: 65.5 by 81cm., 25 3/4 by 31 7/8 in.

+ Expand

Provenance: Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris
L'Art Moderne S.A., Lucerne
(Possibly) Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 20th June 1935, lot 27
Private Collection (purchased at the above sale; sale: Christie's, London, 27th June 2000, lot 218)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

+ Expand

Exhibited:

(Possibly) Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Nus , 1910, no. 18
Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, H. E. Cross , 1910, no. 24
Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, H. E. Cross , 1913, no. 35
(Possibly) Paris, Ligue navale française, Exposition des peintres de la mer , 1917, no. 17
Munster, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte; Grenoble, Musée de Grenoble & Weimar, Kunstsammlungen zu Weimar, Signac und die Befreiung der Farbe , 1996-97, no. 51, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

+ Expand

Published: Isabelle Compin, H. E. Cross, Paris, 1964, no. 205, illustrated p. 306

+ Expand

Notes: Henri-Edmond Cross was a co-founder of the Societé des Artistes Indépendants in 1884, and through this establishment became friends with many of the Neo-Impressionists. This relationship with the Neo-Impressionists accounts for the visible change in style in Cross?s work as he adopted their techniques and methods, concentrating specifically on landscapes and seascapes. Cross was influenced by Paul Signac and pointillism, however he abandoned the small dots in favor of the large blocky strokes as evidenced in Avant l'Orage. This revised technique added a mosaic-like feel to the world of colour Cross explored in his landscapes.