Le Cap Layet

Le Cap Layet from 1904 depicts a rocky promontory on the Mediterranean coast near Cross's home at Saint-Clair, in the Var department. Cap Layet — a rugged headland between Cavalaire and Le Lavandou — offered dramatic geological structure that Cross translated into blocks of divided color. The Museum of Grenoble holds this work within its survey of Neo-Impressionism. By 1904 Cross's brushwork had grown freer and more expressive than his early scientific pointillism, and the rugged coast gave him a subject that suited this bolder touch.

The rocky forms of the cape are rendered in warm orange and sienna strokes set against a sea of deep blue and green touches, with strong complementary contrasts generating intensity. The handling is looser than Cross's earlier work — strokes longer and more varied — suggesting a move toward Fauvism that would influence Matisse and Derain.