Clearing in Provence (study for The Clearing)

Henri Edmond Cross

1901/1911

Oil on paper laid down on canvas

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

A vibrant, impressionistic painting depicts a sun-dappled forest clearing with a dense canopy of trees and a colorful undergrowth of foliage. The scene is rendered with bold brushstrokes and a rich palette. Henri-Edmond Cross was born on May 20, 1856 in Douai, a small town close to the Belgian border in northern France. He spent his youth in Lille and there, at the age of ten, took drawing and painting lessons with Emile-Auguste Carolus-Duran, a friend of Manet and the Impressionists. In 1878, Henri enrolled at Lille’s Ecoles Académiques de Dessin et d’Architecture, and a few years later moved to Paris, where he pursued his studies in the studio of Emile Dupont-Zipcy and, more importantly, with François Bonvin whose somber palette became an early influence. In 1881, the twenty-five year old painter anglicized his paternal family name,