IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PICASSO ON THE CÔTE D'AZUR!

A child of the Mediterranean, Pablo Picasso chose the Côte d’Azur to spend his last and most productive years. In the land of his inspiration, numerous events celebrate the death, 50 years ago, of the man whose work spans the 20th century.

Ode to joy on the ramparts of Antibes

The collections of the world’s first museum dedicated to Picasso dominate the Mediterranean.

Picasso, one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, enjoyed the jazz clubs of Juan-les-Pins and the galleries of the Safranier district in old Antibes. Before the war, his Hispano Suiza often parked in front of the Garoupe beach at Cap d’Antibes.

Picasso moved to Antibes in 1946, when he rented the Château Grimaldi, which today houses the Musée Picasso. He worked intensively here, producing numerous drawings, paintings and sculptures that have been exhibited in the world’s leading museums. The works he created in Antibes reflect the influence of the surrounding light and nature, as well as the cultural richness of the region. Happily married to Françoise Gilot, he experimented with unexpected supports, cardboard and driftwood, and painted walls. His signature even graces the foundations of the ancient Roman castrum.

Today, the Musée Picasso in Antibes is a must-see for art lovers, who can admire the artist’s works in magnificent surroundings. The rooms of the museum are filled with paintings, sculptures and drawings by Picasso, as well as works by other artists who worked in the region, such as Nicolas de Staël and Hans Hartung.

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In Vallauris, Picasso reinvents ceramics

Statues, museums, workshops: Picasso has left his mark on Vallauris, the city of potters.
Vallauris, scented with orange blossom, is the capital of the earthen arts on the Riviera. It was here that Picasso discovered ceramics and began working in this art form. He set up his own pottery workshop in his Vallaurienne home called La Galloise.
Fascinated by ceramics, he began working with local artisans. Pablo Picasso was introduced to the Madoura workshop: shaping, molding, firing, forming and deforming. He quickly mastered the technique, creating numerous pieces. Owls and mythological figures adorn plates, jugs and stewpots, in all some 4,000 unique works. The Musée Magnelli displays some of these works in the priory of the abbots of Lérins. The nave of its chapel, a National Museum, houses the powerful “War and Peace”.

On the heights of Cannes, the dream of California

Perched high in the hills, the Minotaur’s lair is home to a wealth of creativity.

When Pablo Picasso visited Cannes in the 1940s, he left an indelible mark.
Picasso was attracted by the beauty and light of the Côte d’Azur and decided to spend part of his time there. In the 1950s, he lived in the Villa Californie, in the Costebelle district, with Jacqueline Roque. Nicknamed l’antre du Minotaure (the Minotaur’s lair), his studio overflowed with portraits and landscapes as if seen from a window, with the sea and lush vegetation running through them.

Picasso’s presence in Cannes was much appreciated by the local artistic community. He was often invited to events and exhibitions, and forged friendships with other local artists and personalities.

A frequent stroller on the Croisette, he regularly visited exhibitions at the Palais Miramar or the Palais des Festivals. At one of these exhibitions, critics applauded Henri Clouzot’s 1955 film Le Mystère Picasso.

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Mougins, the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end

Having come to Mougins with Dora Maar, Picasso died there on April 8, 1973, near Jacqueline Roque.

Pablo Picasso finally settled in Mougins in 1961. This peaceful, picturesque town was his place of inspiration. Until his death in 1973, at the age of 91, he spent the last years of his life in his large stone house called “Notre-Dame-de-Vie”, creating some of his most innovative and revolutionary works.

Although Picasso continued to create works in his characteristic style, he also explored new techniques and materials in Mougins, such as objects found in nature, such as pebbles, twigs, pieces of driftwood… Inspired by the narrow streets of Mougins, he developed a new technique: lithography, a printing method that involves drawing directly onto a limestone or metal plate and using ink to transfer the image onto paper. Notably, a series of portraits of women.

Overall, Picasso’s years in Mougins were a prolific and experimental period for the artist, during which he continued to push boundaries. Mougins has become a place of pilgrimage for art lovers seeking to discover Picasso’s legacy. The Maison Notre-Dame-de-Vie is now a museum dedicated to the artist’s memory, and houses a collection of Picasso’s paintings, sculptures and drawings.

In the footsteps of Côte d’Azur friends

Matisse, Chagall, Cocteau and Léger also settled on the Côte d’Azur in the mid-20th century.

The Côte d’Azur was a veritable paradise for 20th-century artists.
The year 2023 celebrates not only the fiftieth anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s death in Mougins, but also the anniversaries of two Nice landmarks dedicated to his friends. The Chagall and Matisse Museums celebrate 50 and 60 years of existence respectively. Henri Matisse’s Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence and Jean Cocteau’s Chapelle du Rosaire in Villefranche-sur-Mer bear witness to the cultural importance of a Côte d’Azur frequented at mid-century by artists and patrons alike.

Henri Matisse was attracted by the bright colors of the Côte d’Azur. He painted many canvases, including the famous “La Danse”.
Marc Chagall, painted numerous pictures depicting biblical scenes, as well as landscapes of the Côte d’Azur. Chagall also created mosaics for the Sainte-Marie chapel in Villefranche-sur-Mer.
Jean Cocteau wrote poems, plays and films about the Côte d’Azur.
Fernand Léger was a cubist and modernist artist. A teacher at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Nice, he influenced many local artists with the bright colors and geometric shapes of the Côte d’Azur, reflected in his abstract art.

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1973-2023: 50 YEARS SINCE PICASSO’S DEATH
AN EVENT-PROGRAMME ON THE CÔTE d’AZUR!

On the Côte d’Azur, a flurry of events introduces us to the intimate life of Pablo Picasso.

On April 8, “Picasso 1969 – 1972. The end of the beginning” opens the fiftieth anniversary year at the Musée National Picasso in Antibes (until July 2, 2023).
To mark the 50ᵉ anniversary of Picasso’s death, the town of Vallauris Golfe-Juan pays tribute to him throughout the weekend of May 6 to 7. The Musée Magnelli exhibits ceramics in Formes et Métamorphoses (May 6 – October 30, 2023), followed by Picasso et l’orfèvrerie (June 24 – September 25, 2023).
Exceptional: in Mougins, the opening of the artist’s bedroom and Picasso vu par les autres at the Musée d’Art Classique de Mougins (April 6 – September 30, 2023).
Exhibition “Monaco Modernité et Classicisme” Palais princier de Monaco, September 16 to October 15, 2023.