The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 18, 2025

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

Due to his diagnosis of persistent rheumatism, Henri-Edmond Cross left Paris in 1891 and settled in the seaside village of Saint-Clair on the Mediterranean coast where the climate was more temperate. He expressed his enthusiasm for the French Riveria to his mother, “In the distance, the blue silhouette of the Maures and the Estérel—I have enough here to keep me busy all of life—I have just discovered happiness.” Once he had settled in the south, Cross adopted the Neo-Impressionist technique of Pointillism—applying paint in small dots or dashes of complementary colors that mix in the beholder’s eye to create an intense sensation of color and light. Here, a spectacular cloud is illuminated by the sunset. A pair of cypress trees link the garden landscape below to the vivid sky above.
  • 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.
    "Exhibitions: Transformative Gift." Art & Antiques XLV, no. 10 (November 2022): 48-53. Reproduced: p. 49; Mentioned: p. 52
    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=18 March 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

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