Henri Edmond Cross was born in Douai in Northern France in 1856. His talent was first recognized by Dr. Auguste Soins (portrait above left), a cousin of his mother. At 19, he was an art student in Paris. His early work, portraits and still lifes were done in the dark colors of Realism. To distinquish himself in the art world, he changed his name from Henri Delecroix to Henri Cross, so as not to be confused with Romantic painter, Eugene Delacroix.

With this exhibition happening in Giverny, just down the street from Monet's home and gardens, Linda and I could have easily inferred that Henri Edmond Cross was a neighbor and good friend of Claude Monet. Such is not the case. Cross met Claude Monet just once in Paris in 1884. At the time, Monet was 44 and Cross was 28. Cross was influenced by Monet and changed his painting style.

Having seen this exhibition, I really like Cross. He was an open minded artist, willing to let go of what he had known and done before to explore new possibilities. After meeting Monet, he willingly abandoned the dark colors of realism. Monet opened his eyes and mind, causing Cross to explore the brighter colors of Impressionism.

And Cross didn't stop there. He continued to change and grow artistically. He was frineds with a group of Neo Impressionists, and in time, Cross began exploring Pointillism. After a while, he changing his style again, choosing to use colorful elongated dash strokes with bare canvas showing. This stylye influenced Andre Derrain and Henri Matisse who developed Fauvism, the use of strong non-natural color over the colors which would have been retained in Impressionism.

1884 was an active year for Cross. After meeting Monet, he along with his Neo-Impressionist friends including Georges Seurrat helped found the Societe des Artistes Indepndants. In time, Cross adopted a Pointillist style.

Pointillism used dots of color to create a range of tones within their paintings. The human eye, when seeing these dots in close proximity to one another, blends the colors of the dots into fields of color. Pointillism was a brief moment in the family tree of painting, but an important one, as artists took the time to study and explore the physics of color perception. At the time, they these artists believed they could use this academic form of painting in creating more perfect images.

In 1883, Cross began wintering in the South of France. While on a trip with his family to the Ales-Maritimes in the South of Frane, bordering Italy and the Mediterranean. There, he met Paul Signac who became a close friend and influence. In 1884, Cross co-founded the Societe des Artistes Independants. Maybe with Monet's advice, and like the Impressionists before them, the members of the Societi des Artistes Indepenants were dissatisfied with the practices of the official Salon and chose instead to offer their works in unjuried exhibitions without prizes.

In 1891, Henri Edmond Cross adopted a Neo-Impressionist style. He moved to the south of France full time, settling in Saint-Clair where he lived the rest of his life.

He visited Paris once a year for the annual Independants exhibitions. His friend Paul Signac lived nearby in Saint-Tropez. Frequent gatherings in Cross's garden were attended by Henri Matisse, Andre Derain and Albert Marquet.

Cross's freindship with the Neo-Impressionists consisted of more than sharing a painting technique. They also shared a political philosphy, Anarchism. In France, was a political belief that a utopian society could be achieved. Collectively, the artists who believed in anarchist principles, all hoped for a utopian society. They sought to create scenes illustrating a utopian world.

Even after becoming a Neo-Impressionist, Cross retained his Impressionistic habit of capturing his first impression of a subject. Because creating Pointillist paintings was intensive and time consuming, Cross captured his quick artistic impressions by painting watercolors or colored pencil sketches. He wrote in one of his sketchbooks, "Oh! What I saw in a split second while riding my bike tonight! I just had to jot down these fleeting things ... a rapid notation in watercolor and pencil: an informal daubing of contrasting colors, tones, and hues, all packed with information to make a lovely watercolor the next day in the quiet leisure of my studio."

In time, Cross evolved further, exchanging exacting dots of color for broad blocky brushstrokes of color with bare canvas between the strokes, resulting in painted mosaics. Pointillism used spots of color to blend colors harmoniously, but now Cross and a second-generation of Neo-Impressionists were more interested in creating harmonies of pure color. His blocky areas of color were instrumental in forming the principles of Fauvism, which emphasized strong color over representational or realistic values.

Henri Matisse and others were influenced by Cross's work. His ideas helped form the principles of Fauvism, paintings characterized by seemingly wild brush work with strident colors, while the subjects of the paintings were simplified and abstracted. Fauvism borrowed from Van Gogh, Seurat, Paul Signac, Paul Cezanne and Paul Gauguin who use of areas of saturated color. Some Fauvist painters such as Henri Matisse were impacted by new artistic ideas from Africa. At this time, Matisse and his friend from Spain, Pablo Picasso visited an exhibition of African masks, giving rise to cubism.

Cross suffered from ill health. In 1891, he moved to Saint-Claire full time due to his rheumatism. Because of his arthritis, his productivity suffered.

Although I found no source for this, I believe Cross's arthritis caused him to accomodate the pain by changing his style. Pointillism required much planning, time and patience to produce the desired color effects. Because standing too long in front of his easel caused him pain, I propose used dashes of color and leaving portions of exposed canvas as a kind of Pointillist short hand. It wouldl would have shortened the length of his painting sessions, and allow him to ease his pain by changing positions.

In his last years, Cross's creative input increased, as if driven by an sense of urgency. In 1909, he was treated in a Paris hospital for cancer. In January of 1910, he returned home. His condition continued to decline, and he died on May 16th, 1910, four days before his 54th birthday.

Although he died young, and many of his paintings no longer exist, and those which do reside in widespread private collections. That said, his remaining oeuvre still influenced others.

Bentonville, AR
Crystal Bridges
Museum of American Art

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