Garden of the Painter at Saint-Clair

• Henri-Edmond Cross (1856–1910)
• 1908
• Watercolor over graphite
• Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
• (1975.1.590)

This landscape depicts the backyard of Henri-Edmond Cross's home on the Mediterranean coast. Slender, elongated fronds of a cycad, painted in vibrant colors, frame the space, within which a table, chairs, and a bench are surrounded by flowers and trees. The contrast between neatly tended plants and tangled wild growth is accentuated by the presence of furniture, traces of human life. The static composition, where the natural and the man-made coexist, invites a quiet moment of contemplation.