SERIES | Museum Loans, Spring-Summer 2023
Current museum exhibition programming gives us the opportunity to highlight works presently on loan through our gallery.
We invite you to discover and visit these exhibitions over the course of a weekend or during your next summer vacation!
The exhibition
Henri-Edmond Cross.
In the light of the Var,
“The most beautiful country in the world”.
Henri-Edmond Cross, a painter from the North
in love with the light of the Var
This double exhibition focuses on the works of Henri-Edmond Cross directly inspired by the landscapes of the Var.
The exhibition at the Musée de l’Annonciade, which brings together some thirty painted works, is complemented by a presentation of drawings at the Villa Théo, an art center set up in the house of the painter Théo Van Rysselberghe (1862-1926) in Lavandou.
In 1891, Henri-Edmond Cross was one of the first painters from the North to settle in the Var. He became the champion of light and color.
In Lavandou, it was in the Saint-Clair district, located 1.5 km from the city center, that Henri-Edmond Cross and Théo Van Rysselberghe found their inspiration, both on the beach and on the hills.
Their friend Paul Signac, who lived in Saint-Tropez, visited them regularly to discuss art.
The exhibition at the Musée de l’Annonciade brings together some thirty painted works by Henri-Edmond Cross, exclusively from the Neo-Impressionist period.
It shows his stylistic evolution, from 1891 to 1910, the progression of his technique, which became freer and more colorful, and highlights the thematic enrichment of his work, from pure landscape to the exaltation of the nude in nature.
At the same time, the Villa Théo brings together eighty works on paper, some of which are preparatory to major paintings.
A beautiful tribute to Henri-Edmond Cross on the land that inspired him so much.
Among the works we are lending for this double exhibition, you will be able to admire at the Musée de l’Annonciade a double-sided oil on panel: Paysage de la Côte d’Azur (matin) & Paysage de la Côte d’Azur (soir).
Henri-Edmond CROSS (1856-1910)
Paysage de la Côte d’Azur (matin)
C.1891-93
Oil on panel
30,5 x 22,5 cm
Private collection
Henri-Edmond CROSS (1856-1910)
Paysage de la Côte d’Azur (soir)
C.1891-93
Oil on panel
30,5 x 22,5 cm
Private collection
At Villa Theo, you will see among others the watercolor “Woman in the red dunes – Bay of Cavalière”.
Henri-Edmond CROSS (1856-1910)
Femme dans les dunes rouges – Baie de Cavalière
Circa 1906
Watercolor on paper
17 x 25 cm
Private collection
For three days, the Mistral has been blowing like a storm under a relentlessly blue sky. {…}
The light is of a lovely quality.
I still believe that this country is the most beautiful in the world.
Henri-Edmond Cross
to his friend and biographee Lucie Cousturier
Henri-Edmond Cross,
major artist of neo-impressionism
In 1884, Cross participated in the founding of the Salon des Indépendants. There he met the painters Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Charles Angrand and Albert Dubois-Pillet.
Following Seurat, most of them adopted the technique of divided colors in 1886 and 1887. But it was not until five years later, in 1891, that Cross completely adopted the divided brushstroke and exhibited his first Neo-Impressionist painting, Portrait of Madame Hector France (Paris, Musée d’Orsay).
He relied on the optical treatises of Eugène Chevreul and Ogden Rood, as did his colleagues Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. He juxtaposes small touches of pure color on his canvas, allowing the viewer’s eye to merge the pigments. This is what the Neo-Impressionists call “optical mixing”.
In order to obtain more vivid tones, Henri-Edmond Cross only used the colors of the prism. He stopped mixing the colors on his palette, except for white, which allowed him to nuance their intensity.
Henri-Edmond Cross
Self-portrait
Private collection
At this time, Cross left Paris for the south of France and settled in the Var with his partner Irma Clare, in Cabasson, a hamlet near the sea. Other artists from the north would soon follow him to settle on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Here he painted his first Neo-Impressionist seascapes, a series of landscapes which, from the beginning, constituted one of the peaks of his work. In 1893, he built a house in Saint-Clair, which he left only for brief stays in Paris and trips to Italy. From then on, the history of Neo-Impressionism was no longer written on the banks of the Seine, but on the shores of the Mediterranean.
With Signac, whom he saw regularly since he spent the summer in Saint-Tropez, Cross developed the neo-impressionist technique from 1895 onwards. His touch became broader and more dynamic. He grouped his colors in masses, to reinforce the contrast of warm and cold tones.
In 1904, his art caught the attention of Henri Matisse: the liberation of color was underway…
After having exhibited at numerous salons and participated in events dedicated to neo-impressionism, the first monographic exhibition of Henri-Edmond Cross took place in 1905 at the Druet gallery in Paris. His success was followed by a second solo exhibition at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in 1907.
Carried away by cancer, he died in 1910, in Saint-Clair where he rests today.
To go further
Go for a walk on “the painters’ path” !
This cultural circuit was created by the city of Lavandou in 2006 to honor the memory of artists and intellectuals who stayed in Lavandou between 1892 and 1926.
This 2.5km route (1h30 walk) is punctuated with color reproductions of paintings done in Lavandou.
On this “path”, you will walk in the footsteps of neo-impressionist painters Théo Van Rysselberghe, Henri-Edmond Cross, Paul Signac, Maurice Denis, Maximilien Luce, and writers André Gide and Emile Vehaeren.
Practical Information
Henri-Edmond Cross. In the light of the Var, “The most beautiful country in the world
From July 10 to November 14, 2023
Musée de l’Annonciade
2, Place Grammont
83 990 Saint-Tropez
www.saint-tropez.fr
&
Henri-Edmond Cross. In the light of the Var, “The most beautiful country in the world
Works on paper
From July 8 to September 30, 2023
Villa Théo – Centre d’art
265 av. Van Rysselberghe, Saint-Clair
83980 Le Lavandou
www.villa-theo.fr
Loans to museums, spring-summer 2023
Check out the other articles in this series:
Marquet in Normandy : at the André Malraux Museum of Modern Art – MuMa, Le Havre Read the article
Suzanne Valadon. A world of one’s own : at the Pompidou Center Metz Read the article
From Matisse to Chagall. The adventure of the painters witnesses of their times: in the Jean Couty museum, in Lyon Read the article
Georges Grosz. The Stick Men: at the Grosz Museum, Berlin Read the article
