1856 -1910 · Douai, Paris and light of Saint-Clair

Divided touches, pure colors and Mediterranean shores make Henri-Edmond Cross one of the great poets of neo-impressionism.

Henri-Edmond Cross was born in Douai in 1856 under the name Henri Edmond Joseph Delacroix. He studied in Lille with Alphonse Colas then in Paris in the workshops of Émile Dupont-Zipcy and François Bonvin. To avoid confusion with Eugène Delacroix, he gradually adopted the name Cross. His beginnings at the Salon in 1881 remained naturalistic, constructed by muffled tones and precise observation. However, his friendships with Seurat, Signac, Angrand and Luce brought him closer to the group that founded the Salon des Indépendants. In 1891, the year of Seurat's death, Cross brought him closer to the group that founded the Salon des Indépendants. In 1891, the year of Seurat's death, Cross brought him closer to the group that founded the Salon des Indépendants. In 1891, the year of Seurat's death, Cross brought him closer to the group that founded the Salon des Indépendants. In 1881, his friendships with Seurat, Signac, Angrand and Luce brought him closer to the group that founded the Salon des Indépendants. In 1881, his friendships with Seurat, Signac, Angrand turning point. The same year, health problems led him to settle in Saint-Clair, near Lavandou. The Var coast becomes the laboratory of all its maturity. Pines, beaches, islands and hills are not described by mixing on the palette, but by small touches of complementary colors that the eye brings together at a distance. The Evening Air responds to Signac's invitation to create a "decorative monument" in the light of the South: figures, umbrella pines and sea become a modern pastoral. The Golden Islands, The Beach of Saint-Clair and the Cypresses in Cagnes combine divisionist rigor and the desire for a free nature, sometimes linked to the anarchist convictions of the painter. Over time, his touch widens, roses, purples, oranges and blues gain autonomy. This evolution prepares certain daring of the Fauves, notably Matisse, who visits Cross in the South. His travels to Venice in 1903 and 1908 offered him another space of reflections: lagoon, bridges and sails dissolved into luminous chords. An increasingly active watercolorist, Cross sought less to copy the motif than the balance between the science of contrasts and the pleasure of color. Died in Saint-Clair in 1910, he sought less to copy the motif than the balance between the science of contrasts and the pleasure of color. Died in Saint-Clair in 1910, he sought less to copy the motif than the balance between the science of contrasts and the pleasure of color. Died in Saint-Clair in 1910, he left a Mediterranean where light became the very architecture of the landscape. Died in Saint-Clair in 1910, he left a Mediterranean where light became the very architecture of the landscape. Died in Saint-Clair in 1910, he left less a copy of the motif than the balance between the science of contrasts and the pleasure of color. Died in Saint-Clair in 1910, he left a Mediterranean where light became the very architecture of the landscape

Cross does not break down light to cool it in a formula: it separates colors so that the sea, pines and air find their most intense vibration at a distance.