Laura Junger
Henri-Edmond Cross
Born 1856 in Douai
Died 1910 in Saint-Clair
Cross belonged to the circle of the Neo-Impressionists, but increasingly distanced himself from their scientifically oriented rules. The free handling of color in his Mediterranean landscapes influenced the younger generation of Fauve painters.
David von Becker
Cross received his earliest instruction in drawing already in 1866. He enrolled in the art school in Lille before moving to Paris in 1881. There, in 1884, he made the acquaintance of the future Neo-Impressionists Georges Seurat, Dubois-Pillet, and Signac, who formed the Société des Artistes Indépendants and exhibited together. Cross, however, did not embrace the Divisionist method until 1891.
He moved to the south of France, where he was fascinated by the Mediterranean landscape and light. In 1893, Cross settled permanently in Saint-Clair and freed himself from the constraints of the Divisionist technique in favor of intense color. In 1904 he met Henri Matisse, who was influenced by his painting.
Cross in the collection
Henri-Edmond Cross is represented with four works in the Hasso Plattner Collection, on view in the Museum Barberini as a permanent loan from the Hasso Plattner Foundation. With over 110 paintings of French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, including masterpieces by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Gustave Caillebotte, and Paul Signac, the museum in Potsdam is one of the most important centers of Impressionist landscape painting in the world.
