Cross in the light of the Var, "the most beautiful country in the world"

His name is a sparkling invitation, and yet the beach at Baigne-cul remains deserted, barely animated by three boys, or rather by a single one, depicted three times under a blazing sun. The painting remained in Chicago, but a sketch reveals how Henri-Edmond Cross prepared his paintings: the line before the dot (ill. 1).

1. Henri-Edmond Cross (1856-1910)
Study for Beach at Baigne-Cul, 1891-1892
Oil on canvas - 23 x 34 cm
Collection Christophe Karvelis-Senn
Photo: bbsg

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Even after he had fully embraced the Divisionist touch, he retained a traditional approach to his craft, working out his compositions at length using pencil and oil studies. His first thoughts already betrayed his obsession with light. In his finished compositions, he makes it felt through a multitude of dots of pure colour, while in this sketch he expresses its intensity in a more classical way: the pale skin tones, mixtures of yellows, pinks and whites, seem to melt into the sand, and the blue shadows are very short, the sun is at its zenith. "The light spread in profusion over all things attracts you, bewilders you, panics you [1]" wrote the painter, who was literally dazzled by the Var; like many others, after all, there was nothing very original in this discovery of the Mediterranean sun. Few of them, however, chose to settle permanently in the South. Cross did. He left Paris for Le Lavandou. He settled first in Cabasson, then in Saint-Clair. In his first refuge, the "Maison perdue", he delighted in the tranquillity of the area: "Here our beaches are deserted". This was near Saint-Tropez, 120 years ago. In what was for him "the most beautiful country in the world", then untouched by tourists, "the only elegance lies in the pine trees that emerge from the sand and in the delightful half-moon formed by the shore. But how eternally beautiful. And serious or frivolous depending on the observer’s mood [2]!"

2. Henri-Edmond Cross (1856-1910)
Beach at La Vignasse, c. 1891-92
Oil on canvas - 65.5 x 92.2 cm
Le Havre, André Malraux Museum of Modern Art
Photo: MuMa Le Havre - D. Fogel

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3. Henri-Edmond Cross (1856-1910)
Provençal Landscape, 1898
Oil on canvas - 60.3 x 81.2 cm
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum &
Corboud Foundation
Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln

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The Musée de l’Annonciade displays an anthology of his works painted from 1891 onwards. It was a pivotal year, marked by the death of Georges Seurat, Cross’s departure for Cabasson and his commitment to the Neo-Impressionist movement. Some thirty paintings have been brought together by museum director Séverine Berger and Marina Ferretti-Bocquillon. The chronological tour, punctuated by coloured picture rails, perfectly illustrates the evolution of brushstrokes, colours and subjects in his work up to 1910. The brushstrokes became less regular, broader and more dynamic over the years; the…