HENRI EDMOND CROSS

(1856-1910)

Lithograph

Henri-Edmond Cross was born in Douai and spent the early part of his childhood in Lille. From the age of ten he studied under E.A. Carolus-Duran, and then studied briefly at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1881 he moved to Paris, and changed his surname from Delacroix to the English translation, possibly because his mother was English and also to avoid confusion with Henri-Eugène DELACROIX.  

In 1884 he took part in the first Salon des Artistes Indépendants and in 1891 was elected vice-president of the Société des Artistes Indépendants. He was one of the leading figures in Neo-Impressionism and was friends with artists such as SIGNAC and MATISSE. In later life Cross spent much of his time in the south of France (due to rheumatism); Signac described him as ‘an impassive and consistent thinker, who is simultaneously a passionate and strange dreamer.’

Copyright © Trustees of Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.

Extract taken from Prints, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery .