portraits and landscapes and began applying somewhat broader strokes : The hippodrome at Boulogne-sur-Mer (1900) and the group portrait Summer afternoon (1900), Young women on the beach (1901), Young girl with straw bonnet (1901), and The Reading (1903) (with the contrast between red and blue colours). After all his years as talent scout for Octave Maus, van Rysselberghe made the mistake of his life: he didn't recognize the talent of the young Pablo Picasso (who was in his Blue Period at that time). He found his works "ugly and uninteresting". Later years After 1903, his pointillist technique, which he had used for so many years, became more relaxed and after 1910 he abandoned it completely. His strokes had become longer and he used more often vivid colours and more intense contrasts, or softened hues. He had become a master in applying light and heat in his paintings. His Olive trees near Nice (1905) remind us of the technique used by Vincent van Gogh. These longer strokes in red and mauve become prominent in his Bathing ladies under the pine trees at Cavalière (1905) After some prospecting, touring on his bike, together with his friend Henri-Edmond Cross, of the Mediterranean coast between Hyères and Monaco, he found an interesting spot in Saint-Clair (where Cross already resided). His brother (and neighbour), the architect Octave van Rysselberghe, built him there a residence in 1911. He retired now to the Côte d'Azur and became more and more detached from the Brussels art scene. Here he continued painting, mostly landscapes of the Mediterranean coast, portraits (of his wife and daughter, and of his brother Octave). In 1910 he received an order for some large decorative murals and flower compositions for the residence of the family Nocard in Neuilly, France. From 1905 on, the female nude becomes prominent in his monumental paintings : "After the bath" (1910). His painting The vines in October (1912) is painted in lively colours of red, green and blue. One of his last works was Girl in a bath tub (1925). At the end of his life, he also turned to portrait sculpture, such as the Head of André Gide. He died in Saint-Clair, Var, France on 14 December 1926 and was buried in the cemetery of Lavandou, next to his friend and painter Henri-Edmond Cross. Much of the works of one of the greatest neo-impressionist painters still remain in private