The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

The Pink Cloud

The Pink Cloud

c. 1896
(French, 1856–1910)
France, 19th century
oil on canvas
Unframed: 54.6 x 61 cm (21 1/2 x 24 in.)
Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.106
Location: 222 Impressionism & Post-Impressionism

Did You Know?

Drawn to the beauty of the landscape and the climate that improved his chronic rheumatism from its state in Paris, Cross moved to the south of France where he made a home with his wife, Irma Clare, in Saint-Clair, a small village near the coast.

Description

Henri-Edmond Cross adopted the Neo-Impressionist technique of applying small dots or dashes of pure color in 1891. Around 1896, as seen in this view of a spectacular cloud, he shifted toward larger, more emphatic brushstrokes, often surrounded by areas of white to achieve greater color intensity. His daring use of pure, abstract color and decorative design significantly influenced Henri Matisse and the French Fauves (Wild Beasts). Beyond exploring scientific principles of color theory, Cross was an anarchist who associated the poetic beauty of abstract design with the values of an ideal, utopian society.
  • October 28, 1921
    (Hotel Drouot, Paris, France, posthumous Atelier Henri-Edmond Cross sale, October 28, 1921, lot 25, purchased from the artist's estate)
    November 9, 2000
    (Christie's New York, NY, November 9, 2000, lot 160, sold to Harry Krampf)
    2000-?
    (Harry Krampf Collection, Paris, France)
    (Galerie Hopkins-Custot, Paris, France, sold to Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley)
    -2020
    Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2020-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Sold as “Nuages Rouges” (Red Clouds), 60 x 54. 
    2 According to documentation provided by Galerie Hopkins-Custot in the curatorial file. 
  • Compin, Isabelle. H.E. Cross. Paris, France: Quatre Chemins, 1964. Reproduced: p. 151, no. 60
    Mettais, Valérie. Histoire vivante de l'impressionnisme. Paris : Hazan, 2021. Reproduced, P. 162
    Brown, Heather Lemonedes. “Color, Sensation, and Memory: Themes in the Keithleys’ gift and promised gift.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 62, no. 3, 2022: Cover, 4-7. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 5; Reproduced: P. 12.
    Cross, Henri Edmond. Henri-Edmond Cross. Lyon: Fage Editions, 2023. Reproduced: p. 34-35
  • Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).
    Societe des artistes independents. Paris, France (April-May 1897).
  • {{cite web|title=The Pink Cloud|url=false|author=Henri-Edmond Cross|year=c. 1896|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.106