Marking Out the Maures: Henri-Edmond Cross on the Cote d'Azur
2011; Edinburgh University Press; Volume: 50; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.3366/nfs.2011.006
ISSN2047-7236
Autores Tópico(s)Historical Art and Culture Studies
ResumoThe coastline of the province of the Var is sheltered by a chain of mountains known as the Maures, extending from Hyeres to Saint-Raphael. The aim of this article is to dispel myths surrounding the history of the region, a place commonly perceived to be remote and inaccessible until the 1920s. To do so, I offer a case study on the life and oeuvre of the Neo-Impressionist artist and chronic arthritic, Henri-Edmond Cross (1856-1910), who lived for almost two decades in the town of Saint-Clair (1892-1910). The article is devoted to exploring contemporary tourist literature on the Maures in order to contextualise Cross's choice to settle there, since art-historical analyses by biographers have never adequately explained that choice. There is far more evidence in primary sources of medical and touristic activity in the Maures than has been identified in literature by art, tourist, and social historians, and consideration of this gives a very different reading of Cross's move to the region and, through it, the path of other tourists. As such, the article is intended to complement the other contributions in this special issue on the historical 'invention' of the Midi in the popular imagination. Through texts and images, the article deconstructs the myth of the Maures as remote and inaccessible. It is only by first comprehending that it was, in fact, neither of these things that we can understand why Cross would come here.
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