Bild Zoom
Webclip

The critic Félix Fénéon, who was very close to Seurat and also defined the concept of neo-impressionism, commented as follows on his artistic intentions: "To the original impressionists, the appearances of sky, water or shrubbery varied from one moment to the other. It is their aim to capture one of these ephemeral moments on canvas. Hence the necessity to put down in painting a landscape in one session, and also the tendency to deform nature in order to demonstrate convincingly that this moment was unique and will never come back. It is the intention of the neo-impressionists to give an eternal, absolute aspect to a landscape. Moreover, their procedure makes haste impossible and requires work in the studio […]. The objective reality, to them, is just a starting point for a higher and sublimate reality, where they can vent their personality".

Once Cross, too, had seen Seurat's Un dimanche à la Grande Jatte (Chicago) in December 1885, and was enthusiastic about his revolutionary work, he devoted himself entirely to his theories. An example for this is Les petites Montagnes mauresques, created at a time when nobody who felt they belonged to the avant-garde dared still paint in the neo-impressionistic style. In 1909, on his way back from Italy, Cross, very ill, spent some time in Nice, where Les petites Montagnes mauresques were probably created in the present version and in a bigger one. The beautiful landscape motive shows the view over a fertile plain on parts of the 'Massif des Maures' in the hinterland of Nice. A peculiarity of this picture lies in the direction of the slightly rectangular colour mosaics. They are arranged either vertically, as in the reproduction of the mountain massif, or horizontally, as in the green and red of the plain. This simple trick enables Cross to open his picture to livelihood. If contemplated for longer, it is filled with surprising, nearly breathing dynamism.