Two Women by the Shore, Mediterranean

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FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

In this iridescent canvas, two women enjoy a seaside idyll. Cross and his fellow neoimpressionists sought to "purify" the techniques and effects of impressionism through a systematic approach to form and color, informed by cutting-edge optical science. These new aesthetic values reflected a philosophical vision of a superior, self-willed humanity emerging from the ashes of the old order. Cross wrote, "I want to paint happiness, happy beings who will have become mankind in several centuries when pure anarchy will be realized."

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