Henri-Edmond Cross
Cross changed his name twice. He was born Henri-Edmond-Joseph Delacroix in 1856[2] in Douai, and in 1881[2] Anglicised it to Cross to avoid confusion with Eugene Delacroix. When another French[2] artist named Henri Cros caused further confusion, he added his middle name and settled on Henri-Edmond Cross. The name was the most decisive thing about his early career.
Biography
He trained conventionally, painting in the dark realist manner of Bastien-Lepage and Manet. The conversion to Neo-Impressionism came slowly: he did not adopt the pointillist technique until 1891[2], years after Seurat and Signac had established the method. Once he committed, he moved south. Diagnosed with rheumatism, he left Paris and settled in Saint-Clair on the Mediterranean coast, where the climate was gentler and the light was entirely different.
The move changed his painting. Working alongside Signac, who had also moved south, Cross developed a second phase of Neo-Impressionism: broader, looser brushstrokes than the granular dots of Parisian pointillism, in colours heated by Mediterranean light. The palette shifted from grey and blue to orange, violet and turquoise. The brushstrokes grew from points to mosaic-like blocks of colour.
The late paintings influenced Matisse directly. When Matisse visited Saint-Tropez in 1904[2], he saw Cross's work and recognised something he could use: the liberation of colour from description. Fauvism, which Matisse would lead the following year, grew partly from what Cross and Signac were doing on the Mediterranean coast.
Cross died in 1910[2], aged fifty-three. He spent the last nineteen years of his life painting the same coastline in colours that got more intense with each passing year.
Timeline
- 1856Born Henri-Edmond-Joseph Delacroix in Douai, northern France. His cousin Dr Auguste Soins recognised his artistic talent early and financed his first drawing lessons with Carolus-Duran.
- 1878At 22, enrolled at the Ecoles Academiques de Dessin et d'Architecture in Lille under Alphonse Colas after studying briefly in Paris with Francois Bonvin. He was building a solid academic foundation.
- 1881At 25, moved to Paris and exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais for the first time. He anglicised his surname to "Cross" to avoid confusion with the Romantic master Eugene Delacroix.
- 1884At 28, co-founded the Societe des Artistes Independants in Paris alongside Paul Signac and Georges Seurat, providing a platform for artists rejected by the official Salon.
- 1891At 35, moved permanently to the south of France, settling at Saint-Clair near Le Lavandou on the Mediterranean coast. The warm climate eased his chronic rheumatism and the light transformed his palette.
- 1898At 42, hosted gatherings in his garden at Saint-Clair attended by Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, and Albert Marquet. His bold colour experiments directly influenced the emerging Fauvist movement.
- 1910Died at 53 of cancer at Saint-Clair, just four days before his fifty-fourth birthday. His late pointillist watercolours, with their loose, luminous dots of colour, anticipated abstraction.
Notable Works
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Where to See Henri-Edmond Cross
1 museum worldwide.
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1 worksMusée des Arts Décoratifs
Louvre Palace, France
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See all Henri-Edmond Cross prints →Frequently Asked Questions
Henri edmond cross art style?
Henri-Edmond Cross was powerfully drawn to Impressionism. He began experimenting with monochrome compositions, working less with colour than with line drawing. He later adopted the pointillist technique, developing a second phase of Neo-Impressionism with broader, looser brushstrokes than the granular dots of Parisian pointillism.Who is henri edmond cross?
Henri-Edmond Cross was one of the brightest artists of his group. A graduate of an excellent academic school, he was powerfully drawn to Impressionism. He was a painter of the 1880s who gravitated towards science, and he joined Seurat.
Sources
Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Henri-Edmond Cross.
- [1] museum Musée des Arts Décoratifs Used for: museum holdings.
- [2] wikipedia Wikipedia: Henri-Edmond Cross Used for: biography, birth dates, death dates, identifiers, movement attribution, nationality.
- [3] book Brodskaïa, Nathalia; , Impressionism and Post-Impressionism Used for: biography.
- [4] book Brodskaïa, Nathalia, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism (Essential) Used for: biography.
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