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Lot Essay
In the wake of the untimely death of Georges Seurat in 1891, Henri Edmond Cross and Paul Signac were the primary proponents of Seurat's Pointillist style. Their paintings of the 1890s, like Cross's L'Epave, bear the hallmarks of Seurat's enduring influence—particularly in their initial adherence to methodical application of paint in dots and dabs of complementary colors. Eventually, however, the two Pointillist champions began to evolve beyond Seurat, and to adopt even more brilliant, luminous color in their dotted compositions. As written by Heinz Widauer, “Cross and Signac gradually departed from the strict system of Pointillism, increasingly placing their focus on decorative aspects. Light, in conjunction with colour and colour contrasts, now illuminated every nook and cranny of their canvases" (Ways of Pointillism: Seurat, Signac, Van Gogh, Albertina Museum, Vienna, exh. cat., 2016-17, p. 99).
L'Epave exemplifies Cross's own chromatic innovations in the late 1890s. The depiction of a beached sailboat, with a singular sailor trudging away from it, is energized by the vibrant pops of color that comprise the composition. A confetti of warm tones (hot pink, tangerine orange and sunny yellow) saturate the shore in the foreground, contrasting with the dots of jade, turquoise, and sky blue that give form to the water and mountains in the background. This composition likely depicts the beach near Saint-Clair, a small town near Saint-Tropez on the Côte d’Azur, where Cross moved with his wife in 1893. The artist was completely seduced by the landscape there; as he once described it to a friend, "The light which bathes all things in its radiance is enticing, dazzling, and overwhelming. Our beaches here are deserted. Elegance can be found only in the pines that rise out of the sand and in the delightful half-moon of the shoreline. But what never-ending beauty!” (quoted in Color and Light: The Neo-Impressionist Henri-Edmond Cross, exh. cat., Museum Barberini, Potsdam, 2018, p. 233).
Cross highly valued L'Epave, so much so that he submitted it to the Société des artistes indépendants exhibition in spring 1902. The painting was acquired from the artist by Galerie Druet and subsequently belonged to Félix Fénéon (1861–1944), the famed Parisian art critic, dealer, and collector who befriended and directly supported many young modern artists. Fénéon organized the first retrospective of Seurat's work in 1900 and served as the director of the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris from 1906 to 1925. He also collected the work of the most important fin-de-siècle artists, including Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, Cubists and Fauvists; he owned a great number of paintings and drawings by Cross, Seurat and Signac as well as Matisse. Fénéon sold the most important works from his collection, including the present work, in a 1941 sale at Hôtel Drouot, three years before his death.
L'Epave exemplifies Cross's own chromatic innovations in the late 1890s. The depiction of a beached sailboat, with a singular sailor trudging away from it, is energized by the vibrant pops of color that comprise the composition. A confetti of warm tones (hot pink, tangerine orange and sunny yellow) saturate the shore in the foreground, contrasting with the dots of jade, turquoise, and sky blue that give form to the water and mountains in the background. This composition likely depicts the beach near Saint-Clair, a small town near Saint-Tropez on the Côte d’Azur, where Cross moved with his wife in 1893. The artist was completely seduced by the landscape there; as he once described it to a friend, "The light which bathes all things in its radiance is enticing, dazzling, and overwhelming. Our beaches here are deserted. Elegance can be found only in the pines that rise out of the sand and in the delightful half-moon of the shoreline. But what never-ending beauty!” (quoted in Color and Light: The Neo-Impressionist Henri-Edmond Cross, exh. cat., Museum Barberini, Potsdam, 2018, p. 233).
Cross highly valued L'Epave, so much so that he submitted it to the Société des artistes indépendants exhibition in spring 1902. The painting was acquired from the artist by Galerie Druet and subsequently belonged to Félix Fénéon (1861–1944), the famed Parisian art critic, dealer, and collector who befriended and directly supported many young modern artists. Fénéon organized the first retrospective of Seurat's work in 1900 and served as the director of the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris from 1906 to 1925. He also collected the work of the most important fin-de-siècle artists, including Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, Cubists and Fauvists; he owned a great number of paintings and drawings by Cross, Seurat and Signac as well as Matisse. Fénéon sold the most important works from his collection, including the present work, in a 1941 sale at Hôtel Drouot, three years before his death.