Lot Essay
Cross painted Femmes liant la vigne in Chamouilley, a village in the Champagne-Ardenne area east of Paris where he stayed in 1890. Other works Cross executed during this visit include Paysanne étendue dans l'herbe (Compin, no. 23; Private Collection), Chamouilley (Compin, no. 25; Musée National des Beaux-Arts, Algiers), and Chamouilley, temps gris (Compin, no. 26; Private Collection).
That Cross considered Femmes liant la vigne to be one of his finest works of 1890 is indicated by his decision to include the painting in the exhibition that the Société des Artistes Indépendants mounted the following year in Paris. The Société was founded in 1884 by a group of artists whose works had been rejected from the official Salon, with the aim of "the suppression of juries, and allowing artists freely to present their works for the judgement of public opinion." By 1890 the exhibition had become the primary showcase for the works of artists such as Cézanne and Gauguin. In 1891 the exhibition ran from March 20th to April 27th and contained a small memorial show arranged by Paul Signac for Vincent van Gogh, who had killed himself the previous July.
Cross chose to donate the present work to a charitable auction held in Paris on May 9, 1895 in aid of the painter Lauzet. At the end of 1894 Maximilien Luce had written to Cross asking him to participate: "Je viens aussi vous demander un service. Un camarade, Lauzet, très malade en ce moment, est forcé par l'état de sa santé de séjourner dans le midi à La Garde. Comme il n'est pas bien fortuné l'on a decidé de faire une vente à son profit. Vous me seriez bien agréable si vous pouvez donner quelque chose. Vous serez en bonne compagnie: Puvis, Rodin, Pissarro, Signac, etc. Dites-moi si cela est possible" (quoted in I. Compin, op. cit., pp. 107-108).
The present work was formerly in the celebrated collection of Henri Canonne, one of the greatest patrons of the arts between the Wars. His collection contained fine examples of the work of artists such as Renoir, Monet and Cézanne. Canonne is likely to have acquired Femmes liant la vigne from Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, along with Cross's Chamouilley (Compin, no. 25; Musée National des Beaux-Arts, Algiers) as a companion piece.
That Cross considered Femmes liant la vigne to be one of his finest works of 1890 is indicated by his decision to include the painting in the exhibition that the Société des Artistes Indépendants mounted the following year in Paris. The Société was founded in 1884 by a group of artists whose works had been rejected from the official Salon, with the aim of "the suppression of juries, and allowing artists freely to present their works for the judgement of public opinion." By 1890 the exhibition had become the primary showcase for the works of artists such as Cézanne and Gauguin. In 1891 the exhibition ran from March 20th to April 27th and contained a small memorial show arranged by Paul Signac for Vincent van Gogh, who had killed himself the previous July.
Cross chose to donate the present work to a charitable auction held in Paris on May 9, 1895 in aid of the painter Lauzet. At the end of 1894 Maximilien Luce had written to Cross asking him to participate: "Je viens aussi vous demander un service. Un camarade, Lauzet, très malade en ce moment, est forcé par l'état de sa santé de séjourner dans le midi à La Garde. Comme il n'est pas bien fortuné l'on a decidé de faire une vente à son profit. Vous me seriez bien agréable si vous pouvez donner quelque chose. Vous serez en bonne compagnie: Puvis, Rodin, Pissarro, Signac, etc. Dites-moi si cela est possible" (quoted in I. Compin, op. cit., pp. 107-108).
The present work was formerly in the celebrated collection of Henri Canonne, one of the greatest patrons of the arts between the Wars. His collection contained fine examples of the work of artists such as Renoir, Monet and Cézanne. Canonne is likely to have acquired Femmes liant la vigne from Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, along with Cross's Chamouilley (Compin, no. 25; Musée National des Beaux-Arts, Algiers) as a companion piece.