Henri Edmond Cross (1856-1910)

This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Henri Edmond Cross being prepared by Patrick Offenstadt.

This picture is a preliminary study for the large oil painting Paysage avec Le Cap Nègre, which Cross worked on between June and November 1906 (Compin, no. 151). Depicting the narrow headland about thirty miles south of Saint-Tropez. It is likely a plein-air study, and reveals Cross' method of composing his pictures. With a fine brush he drew in the essential landscape contours in thin broken lines, and then proceeded to fill in the dominant landscape motifs, concentrating first on areas with pronounced contrasts of light and shade. He avoided the use of underpainting and worked directly on the primed canvas with small brushstrokes of premixed pigments.