French Riviera Artists
Azure dreams Words: Anthea Gerrie From Picasso’s home village to Chagall’s favourite breakfast café, a new tourist trail on the French Riviera guides visitors in the footsteps of art’s modern masters With its brilliant light, palm-fringed beaches and exquisite villages not to mention the hedonistic atmosphere generated by 80 years’ service as a playground to international stars it’s no wonder so many [...]
Azure dreams
Words: Anthea Gerrie
src="/images/2007/jul/p034_voyager_july_07.pdf_doc_images_small_up_01.jpg"
alt="I and the Village by Marc Chagall, who lived in SaintPaul-de-Vence"
class="picright">From
Picasso’s home village to Chagall’s favourite breakfast
café, a new tourist trail on the French Riviera guides
visitors in the footsteps of art’s modern masters
With its brilliant light, palm-fringed beaches and exquisite villages
not to mention the hedonistic atmosphere generated by 80
years’ service as a playground to international stars it’s no
wonder so many great artists have been drawn to the French Riviera.
Renoir and Monet were among the early troops, followed by Picasso,
Matisse, Chagall and a whole host of others, both amateur and
professional.
Now, a Painters of the Côte d’Azur itinerary
helps art-lovers follow their trail, starting in Antibes Juan-les-Pins,
described by Graham Greene as “the only town on the Riviera that has
known how to keep its soul”. Perhaps that’s because the charming yet
frenetic little resort of Juan-les-Pins is balanced by the working town
and harbour just a stroll round the headland from the beautiful pinede
pinewood that spills onto Juan’s easternmost
beaches.
Monet stayed at the Château de la Pinede for the
first half of 1888, painting 36 canvasses in Antibes. Picasso and
Matisse followed in the Roaring Twenties, just as the resort was being
discovered by a slew of American writers such as Ernest Hemingway and F
Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Bonnard, Chagall and the surrealist Man Ray
were here, too.
Another key location is Saint-Paul de Vence, just 12
miles and less than a half-hour drive from Nice. You don’t have to be a
culture vulture to enjoy its winding, colonnaded streets lined with
cafés and galleries. This atmospheric village was home for
20 years to Chagall, among dozens of great modern artists celebrated at
the nearby Maeght Foundation, a cornucopia of 20th-century art that is
one of the region’s most important museums.
Not far away is
Cagnes-sur-Mer, with its shrine to Renoir and Biot, which, as well as
being the home of a museum dedicated to Fernand Léger,
another great master of contemporary art, is packed with glass and
jewellery workshops. Picasso-lovers will want to head west of Antibes
(where the museum dedicated to him is currently closed for renovation)
to Vallauris. Here, both the artist’s painting and pottery can be
viewed and, nearby, his home village of Mougins, where his life is
documented at an excellent museum of photography.
Several of the
Riviera’s greatest art draws are located within Nice itself
museums dedicated to Matisse and Chagall and a temple of modern art
whose collection includes Warhols and other American greats. Fans of
Old Masters are catered for in the Musée des Beaux Arts, and
there’s also a museum of naive art, packed with childish but charming
folk paintings of people, places and animals.
PABLO PICASSO
src="/images/2007/jul/p036_voyager_july_07.pdf_doc_images_small_up_03.jpg"
alt="Pablo Picasso, who discovered a passion for pottery in the Riviera"
class="picleft">After
the artist’s death, his daughter Maya (by Marie-Therese Walter, who
preceded Dora Marr) took over L’Atelier du Fournas, the ancient
perfumery that had been Picasso’s workshop, and in 2003 it was
transformed into a guest house, with each bedroom named for one of
Picasso’s women. The artist’s studio in Antibes’ Château
Grimaldi, which preceded his Vallauris days, has become a museum. It is
currently closed for renovation but houses many fine paintings,
drawings and ceramics from Picasso’s most fertile period.
Musée Magnelli
src="/images/2007/jul/p036_voyager_july_07.pdf_doc_images_small_up_01.jpg"
alt="Picasso's The Pigeons" class="picright">The
artist discovered Antibes in
1935 with Dora Marr, his muse of a decade, who was the subject of his
Weeping Woman paintings and an accomplished photographer at the heart
of the Paris avant-garde. He returned a decade later with his new
mistress, artist Françoise Gilot. Picasso’s Villa Antre de
Minotaure became the scene of great acrimony after he and Gilot parted
and their children, Paloma and Claude, were no longer so welcome after
he married his final muse, Jacqueline Rogue. There are wonderful,
intimate portraits of these years by his friend Andre Villers at
Mougins’ Photography Museum.
From 1948 to 1955, Picasso made nearby
Vallauris the base for his new passion pottery. Many of his
finest ceramics are exhibited at the town’s Magnelli Museum, while his
1943 work L’Homme au Mouton is installed in the market square facing
the museum. Vallauris is also the home of Picasso’s two giant
compositions La Guerre et la Paix (War and Peace).
Place de la Liberation,
Vallauris +33 (0)4 93 64 15 05; www.musees-nationaux-alpesmaritimes.fr
Musée National
Picasso La Guerre et la Paix, Place de la Liberation,
Vallauris +33 (0)4 93 64 71 83; www.musees-nationaux-alpesmaritimes.fr
HENRI MATISSE
src="/images/2007/jul/p036_voyager_july_07.pdf_doc_images_small_up_04.jpg"
alt="Henri Matisse, who fell in love with the region's unique light"
class="picleft">Matisse
first discovered the Riviera in 1898 and moved to Nice in 1917 to
recover from bronchitis. He was about to leave after experiencing a
month of solid rain when the mistral wind blew in and he was captivated
forever by the luminous light.
The Villa La Reve in Vence, where
Matisse lived from 1943 to 1949, is now a charming guest house. It’s
particularly popular with artists, who appreciate its exceptional view
of the sea and the hills. Picasso and Bonnard also stayed here as
Matisse’s houseguests.
src="/images/2007/jul/p037_voyager_july_07.pdf_doc_images_small_up_01.jpg"
alt="Chapelle du Rosaire, designed by Matisse" class="picright">Before
leaving the town, the artist started designs for the Chapelle du
Rosaire, complete with stainedglass windows, ceramics and sacred
furniture. Consecrated in 1951, it can be found on the fittingly named
Avenue Matisse.
Eagerly anticipated is the reopening of the Matisse
Museum, Nice, this summer, which is located close to the Hotel Regina,
the artist’s long-time home and studio, where he died in 1954.
Musée Matisse
(scheduled reopening 1
June)
164 Avenue des Arenes de Cimiez, Nice +33 (0)4 93 81 08 08;
www.musee-matisse-nice.org
MARC CHAGALL
src="/images/2007/jul/p037_voyager_july_07.pdf_doc_images_small_up_04.jpg"
alt="the prolific Marc Chagall" class="picleft">Although
he lived in
Saint-Paul de Vence, the principal Riviera showcase for Chagall’s work
is in Nice. Devoted to his sacred works, the Chagall Museum offers the
largest public showing anywhere of his fabulously colourful and
spiritual paintings.
The daily life of this whimsical Russianborn
painter in his happy final decades is well documented. He often
breakfasted in the Café de la Place in Saint-Paul-de-Vence
and lunched at the famous Colombe d’Or restaurant, the town’s other big
attraction. Too frail to take long walks through the steeply sloping
village streets, he created a mosaic of Moses being found in the
bullrushes for the cathedral in nearby Vence.
Not all the works Chagall
bequeathed to his home town are contained within its major museum, the
Maeght, which houses 9,000 significant modern artworks. You can also
see a mosaic based on his favourite theme of joyful lovers flying high
above the world, and the façade of Saint Paul’s primary
school, for which Chagall created a mosaic of a young boy with a
radiant smile.
Musée National
Message Biblique Marc Chagall
Avenue Docteur Menard, Nice
+33 (0)4 93 53 87 20; www.musee-chagall.fr
The Maeght Foundation,
Saint-Paul de Vence
Chemin des Collettes, Cagnes-sur-Mer +33 (0)4 93 20 61 07
+33 (0)4 93 32 81 63; www.fondation-maeght.com
AUGUSTE RENOIR
src="/images/2007/jul/p036_voyager_july_07.pdf_doc_images_small_up_02.jpg"
alt="Renoir's former house, now a museum" class="picright">In
1907, when the
busy crossroads of Cagnes-surMer was a little fishing
port, Renoir bought the Domaine les Collettes, enchanted by its olive
grove. He had painted the farmhouse and its grounds several times, and
saved the property from a would-be purchaser who planned to raze the
trees and set up a carnation farm instead. Renoir lived there till his
death in 1919, and it remained in the family for another 40 years
before being converted into a museum. Derain, Soutine and Modigliani
were all said to have fallen in love with Cagnes, thanks largely to its
spectacular panoramas.
src="/images/2007/jul/p037_voyager_july_07.pdf_doc_images_small_up_02.jpg"
alt="Auguste Renoir, who lived on the Riviera until his death in 1919">
Renoir
Avenue Docteur Menard, Nice +33 (0)4 93 53 87 20; www.musee-chagall.fr
FERNAND LEGER
src="/images/2007/jul/p037_voyager_july_07.pdf_doc_images_small_up_03.jpg"
alt="Fernand Léger was well known for his huge statues"
class="picright">In
July 1955, when the artist bought Le Mas St André in Biot,
with enough land to house the monumental statues for which he was
famous, he had no idea of creating a museum. Tragically, he died just a
month later, and his widow and her new husband set up the museum, which
opened in 1957, with the funds from his workshop.
The hotel-restaurant
Les Arcades is another historic address in this medieval jewel of a
village. Its owner often put up struggling artists in return for their
canvasses.
YVES KLEIN
src="/images/2007/jul/p039_voyager_july_07.pdf_doc_images_small_up_02.jpg"
alt="Yves Klein, creator of a new, vivid shade of blue"
class="picleft">Klein
is most famous for having created a blue so intense and pure that it
was named after him. The artist actually copyrighted his invention,
International Klein Blue, in the 1950s. Born in Nice in 1928, he died
young and was buried in 1962 in the beautiful little village of La
Colle-sur-Loup, which is famous for its galleries, antique and designer
shops; one of the most famous is the showroom of Jaqueline Morabito on
the rue Yves Klein.
The best place to see Klein’s work is in Nice’s
modern art museum, which has a whole room devoted to his creations.
Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain
src="/images/2007/jul/p039_voyager_july_07.pdf_doc_images_small_up_03.jpg"
alt="Abstraction artist Klein's Sponge Relief" class="picright">Promenade
des
Art, Nice +33 (0)4 97 13 42 01; www.mamac-nice.org A great place to
enjoy Pop Art and American Abstraction as well as the work of the New
French Realists and painters of the school of Nice, all housed in a
spectacular building.
ALSO FOR ART-LOVERS:
- MUSEE DES
BEAUX ARTS 33 AVENUE DES BAUMETTES, NICE +33 (0)4
92 15 28 28; www. musee-beaux-arts-nice.org Beautiful 19th-century
building housing half a millennium’s worth of painting and sculpture
dating back to the 15th century. - MUSEE
INTERNATIONAL D’ART NAIF ANATOLE JAKOVSKI
SAINTE-HELENE, AVENUE DE FABRON, NICE +33 (0)4 93 71 78
33; www.nice.fr
Naive art from the 18th century onwards. - VILLA
EPHRUSSI ST JEAN-CAP-FERRAT +33 (0)4 93 01 33 09;
www.villa-ephrussi.com Magnificent seaside palazzo on the Riviera’s
most exclusive peninsula. It has seven themed gardens decked like a
cruise liner and is packed with Old Masters, sculptures and objets
d’art. - MUSEE HONORE
FRAGONARD 23 BOULEVARD FRAGONARD, GRASSE +33
(0)4 97 05 58 00; www.museesdegrasse.com The perfect antidote to
temples of modern art, this charming and intimate museum showcases the
delicate paintings, drawings and engravings of the eponymous
18th-century artist and members of his talented family. Grasse is also
home to the French perfume industry.
Photography:
Museo Picasso, Barcelona, Spain, DACS/Giraudon/The
Bridgeman Art Library, Zintzmeyer, Getty Images, Succession
Picasso/DACS, London
Photography:
Succession H Matisse/DACS/The Bridgeman Art Library, Getty Images,
Succession H Matisse/DACS 2007
Photography:
Museum of the village of Biot Alpes Maritimes,
France/Fernand Léger Museum, Bridgestone Museum of
Art/Tokyo/The
Bridgeman Archive, ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2007, Musee Renoir,
Les Collettes, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France, Lauros/Giraudon/The Bridgeman
Art Library, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Germany, DACS/Bridgeman
Art Library, Getty Images, ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2007
