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Painting of three swans sitting on water

Three white swans sit on blue water. The left swan stretches out its wings, the center swan faces away from the viewer, and the right swan bends its head back against its body. Each of their bodies reflects on the water, most visibly the brightly lit center swan. The water is painted in wide stripes of turquoise and periwinkle. The painting technique consists of concentrated dots of color that are abstract up close but form a clear scene from a distance. The medium-brown color of the wooden panel often peeks through the paint, especially around the edges of the painting.

Gallery Text

In the early 1890s, Cross adopted the distinctive “pointillist” style of the neo-impressionist movement, producing brilliantly colored views of the landscape along the Mediterranean in the south of France. Sketches like these, roughly painted on thin, unprimed wood, allowed him to experiment with composition and color arrangements in preparation for his canvases. Easily portable, the lightweight panels were designed to fit into standard paint boxes.

These small studies are related to finished paintings, each offering an intimate detail of what would become a much larger work. Cross’s pointillist technique can best be seen in "Seascape," in which the regularized strokes create the striated colors and reflections of the evening sky. Dappled white and blue dots delineate the interlaced trees and glittering water. Cross was enraptured with the Mediterranean light, which he described as “bathing all things in its radiance.”

[1937.9, 1937.10, 1937.11]

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1973.9
People
Henri-Edmond Cross, French (Douai, France 1856 - 1910 Saint-Clair, France)
Title
Three Swans
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1899-1900
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/227932

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2100, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, Centuries of Tradition, Changing Times: Art for an Uncertain Age
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
13.65 x 22.86 cm (5 3/8 x 9 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.l.: H.E.C. [estate stamp]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Sold [through the artist's estate sale, 1910]; to Mme. Theo van Rysselberge; to Marie Closset (pen name Jean Dominique); to May Sarton, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1973

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of May Sarton
Accession Year
1973
Object Number
1973.9
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 104; repr. as no. 397

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2100 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/31/2019 - 01/01/2050

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu