Landscape

>

Close ups

Henri-Edmond CROSS
French 1856–1910
The farm, evening 1893
(La ferme, soir)
oil on canvas
65.0 x 92.0 cm
Private collection, Paris

In 1970 D. D. Egbert argued that: 'the very technique that the Neo-Impressionists employed, with its strongly accentuated individual brushstrokes, which nonetheless are brought together in harmony to form the picture as a whole, paralleled the individualistic yet communal spirit of communist-anarchism'. Henri-Edmond Cross's The farm, evening blends the silhouetting of Japanese prints and the arabesque curves of Art Nouveau into a decorative vision of rural harmony. Cross's peasant maiden – with basket perched on her shoulders, at peace with her domain – is a perfect leitmotif of anarchist bliss.