Henri Edmond Cross

Private Collection, France (acquired in the 1920s or 1930s)
Thence by descent to the present owner

(probably) Paris, Société des Artistes indépendants, 1897, no. 278
Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet, Henri-Edmond Cross et le néo-impressionnisme, de Seurat à Matisse, 2011-12, no. 6

Isabelle Compin, Henri Edmond Cross, Paris, 1964, no. 58bis, p. 149

The canvas is unlined. There are two small spots of retouching at the lower framing edge, a further tiny spot of retouching towards the centre of the upper framing edge (not visible when framed), and a few very small spots of retouching in the blue trees in the upper right quadrant, visible under ultra-violet light. Apart from several areas of very minor stable craquelure, this work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although stronger and more vibrant in the original.
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Painted in 1896, La Plage de Saint-Clair is a vibrant example of Cross's pointillist technique. He had adopted the Neo-Impressionist manner of painting in 1891. Cross had been associated with the avant-garde as early as 1884 when, alongside artists such as Signac, he helped to found the Société des Artistes Indépendants. His conversion to the style was gradual, but by the time the present work was painted his mastery of colour and technique was absolute. La Plage de Saint-Clair resonates with the light and atmosphere of the South of France. The dappling shadows are contrasted against the shimmering haze of oranges, reds and turquoise colours across the sea.

In 1891 Cross and his wife settled on the Côte d'Azur in the small village of Cabasson, situated between the sea and Mediterranean pines. The vibrant, dazzling atmosphere of the coastal landscape became a major source of inspiration for the artist, which he expressed with an intense palette that prefigured the Fauve painters. Carrie Haslet notes: 'Cross, from about 1895 to 1903, painted scenes that were ever more idyllic, imaginative, and optimistic [...]. The mid-1890s brought changes in Cross's choice of subject, light and colour, and technique. As Cross's biographer Isabelle Compin has noted, Cross, now believing that the effects of light could not be rendered with accuracy in painting, chose instead to suggest light's intensity and to emphasize its ability to harmonize or unify differing compositional elements. His colors become more daring, heightened, unusual, and sumptuous' (C. Haslet, Neo-Impressionism: Artists on the Edge (exhibition catalogue), Portland Museum of Art, Portland, 2002, p. 28).