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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Henri Edmond Cross being prepared by Patrick Offenstadt.
During the 1880s, scientists Odgen Rood, Michel-Eugène Chevreul and Charles Henry each published theories of light and color in which they analyzed the differentiation between color-light and color-pigment and suggested the connection between musical theory and emotive line. Their findings provoked the interest of young artists who were frustrated by the Impressionists' approach to painting the effects of light and atmosphere. These artists in turn experimented with the scientific notion of optical mixing by creating forms out of small dots of pure pigment. Though Cross was friendly with many of the painters who comprised what came to be called the Neo-Impressionist group, he did not start painting divisionist pictures until after Georges Seurat's death in 1891 and, when he did, he quickly developed his own variant of their technique. He abandoned their use of the dot in favor of separated rectangular strokes of pure pigment, which he applied not unlike the tessera in mosaics. Cross constructed his compositions with interlocking planes and careful juxtaposition of complementary colors. A letter from Cross to Paul Signac from September 1895 explained that his ultimate aim was to have "technique cede its place to sensation" (quoted in I. Compin, op. cit., p. 42).
In July 1903, Cross and his wife left Paris and travelled to Venice, executing the present work several months into his stay. Enthralled by his surroundings, Cross explored the city extensively. The artist's journal records his enthusiasm for the art of the Bellinis, Vittore Carpaccio and Francesco Guardi (although Jacopo Bassano and Canaletto receive shorter shrift), and his notebooks quickly filled with drawings and watercolors of the canals and the lagoon. Writing to fellow Neo-Impressionist Charles Angrand, Cross, an established resident of the South of France, 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 F. Baligand et al., Cross et le néo-impressionnisme, exh. cat., Chartreuse de Douai, 1998, p. 42).
(fig. 1) Henri Edmond Cross, Rio san Trovaso, Venise, September 1903-January 1904. Sold, Christie's, New York, 6 May 2009, lot 21.
During the 1880s, scientists Odgen Rood, Michel-Eugène Chevreul and Charles Henry each published theories of light and color in which they analyzed the differentiation between color-light and color-pigment and suggested the connection between musical theory and emotive line. Their findings provoked the interest of young artists who were frustrated by the Impressionists' approach to painting the effects of light and atmosphere. These artists in turn experimented with the scientific notion of optical mixing by creating forms out of small dots of pure pigment. Though Cross was friendly with many of the painters who comprised what came to be called the Neo-Impressionist group, he did not start painting divisionist pictures until after Georges Seurat's death in 1891 and, when he did, he quickly developed his own variant of their technique. He abandoned their use of the dot in favor of separated rectangular strokes of pure pigment, which he applied not unlike the tessera in mosaics. Cross constructed his compositions with interlocking planes and careful juxtaposition of complementary colors. A letter from Cross to Paul Signac from September 1895 explained that his ultimate aim was to have "technique cede its place to sensation" (quoted in I. Compin, op. cit., p. 42).
In July 1903, Cross and his wife left Paris and travelled to Venice, executing the present work several months into his stay. Enthralled by his surroundings, Cross explored the city extensively. The artist's journal records his enthusiasm for the art of the Bellinis, Vittore Carpaccio and Francesco Guardi (although Jacopo Bassano and Canaletto receive shorter shrift), and his notebooks quickly filled with drawings and watercolors of the canals and the lagoon. Writing to fellow Neo-Impressionist Charles Angrand, Cross, an established resident of the South of France, 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 F. Baligand et al., Cross et le néo-impressionnisme, exh. cat., Chartreuse de Douai, 1998, p. 42).
(fig. 1) Henri Edmond Cross, Rio san Trovaso, Venise, September 1903-January 1904. Sold, Christie's, New York, 6 May 2009, lot 21.