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Cezanne and the Impressionists ‘ I’ve begun two small views of the ocean… It’s like a playing card, red roofs against the blue sea.’ PAUL CEZANNE, 1876
Detail of cat. 5
Paul Cezanne is a key artist for understanding the origins and development of modern art on the French Mediterranean coast. Unlike so many painters who were visiting from the north of France, Cezanne was born in the south, in Aix-en-Provence, in 1839. Yet it was not until the mid-1870s during numerous visits to L’Estaque, a small fishing village near Marseilles, that the light of the Mediterranean became central to his work. After assimilating the lessons of Impressionism, primarily from Camille Pissarro while working around Auverssur-Oise in the north, Cezanne found his true artistic self at L’Estaque. In a sustained and solitary confrontation with nature, he felt his way beyond Impressionism to an art that was more solid, more structured and that would endure ‘like the art of the museums’.1 His profound analysis of form and colour laid the foundations for all his work to come. Focusing on the way the intense light both flattened volumes and silhouetted forms, Cezanne explained in an oft-quoted letter to Pissarro: ‘I’ve begun two small views of the ocean … It’s like a playing card. Red roofs against the blue sea … The sun here is so terrific that objects appear silhouetted not only in white or black, but in blue, red, brown, brown violet, I may be wrong but it seems to me to be the opposite of modelling.’2 In a series of superb views looking down from L’Estaque across the sweep of the Bay of Marseilles, Cezanne explored the innate structure of the landscape and the colour contrasts between the sapphire blue sea, the terracotta
roofs and the sunbaked earth (cats 1–4, 7). In contrast to the shifting light of northern France, the strong, even light of the south admirably suited Cezanne’s purpose, conveying complete and utter stillness. In 1882 Pierre-Auguste Renoir joined Cezanne in L’Estaque, the two artists often painting side by side. In compositions such as Rocky Crags at L’Estaque (cat. 6), Renoir emulates Cezanne’s architectonic approach to the rugged rocks that rise behind the village. In an entirely different mode, both Cezanne and Renoir associated the Mediterranean with an imaginary Arcadia in which nude figures exist in harmony with an idealised landscape (cats 13–16). During the 1880s and 1890s Renoir visited the Riviera frequently. He bought land at Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1907 and in 1908 built a house there, hoping that the warm climate would help his rheumatoid arthritis. His study of a golden-green palm tree (cat. 8) – such an emblem of the region – is one of many works inspired by the light and vegetation of the South of France. Berthe Morisot, a founder member of the Impressionist group, made two trips to Nice with her family over the winters of 1881–82 and 1888–89. Her distinctive light touch and translucent colour perfectly capture an informal seaside scene of her young daughter Julie playing on the beach, or a quick nocturnal study of a boat in the harbour, a subject that Julie herself took up on the later trip (cats 10–12). ad
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Cezanne and the Impressionists ‘ I’ve begun two small views of the ocean… It’s like a playing card, red roofs against the blue sea.’ PAUL CEZANNE, 1876
Detail of cat. 5
Paul Cezanne is a key artist for understanding the origins and development of modern art on the French Mediterranean coast. Unlike so many painters who were visiting from the north of France, Cezanne was born in the south, in Aix-en-Provence, in 1839. Yet it was not until the mid-1870s during numerous visits to L’Estaque, a small fishing village near Marseilles, that the light of the Mediterranean became central to his work. After assimilating the lessons of Impressionism, primarily from Camille Pissarro while working around Auverssur-Oise in the north, Cezanne found his true artistic self at L’Estaque. In a sustained and solitary confrontation with nature, he felt his way beyond Impressionism to an art that was more solid, more structured and that would endure ‘like the art of the museums’.1 His profound analysis of form and colour laid the foundations for all his work to come. Focusing on the way the intense light both flattened volumes and silhouetted forms, Cezanne explained in an oft-quoted letter to Pissarro: ‘I’ve begun two small views of the ocean … It’s like a playing card. Red roofs against the blue sea … The sun here is so terrific that objects appear silhouetted not only in white or black, but in blue, red, brown, brown violet, I may be wrong but it seems to me to be the opposite of modelling.’2 In a series of superb views looking down from L’Estaque across the sweep of the Bay of Marseilles, Cezanne explored the innate structure of the landscape and the colour contrasts between the sapphire blue sea, the terracotta
roofs and the sunbaked earth (cats 1–4, 7). In contrast to the shifting light of northern France, the strong, even light of the south admirably suited Cezanne’s purpose, conveying complete and utter stillness. In 1882 Pierre-Auguste Renoir joined Cezanne in L’Estaque, the two artists often painting side by side. In compositions such as Rocky Crags at L’Estaque (cat. 6), Renoir emulates Cezanne’s architectonic approach to the rugged rocks that rise behind the village. In an entirely different mode, both Cezanne and Renoir associated the Mediterranean with an imaginary Arcadia in which nude figures exist in harmony with an idealised landscape (cats 13–16). During the 1880s and 1890s Renoir visited the Riviera frequently. He bought land at Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1907 and in 1908 built a house there, hoping that the warm climate would help his rheumatoid arthritis. His study of a golden-green palm tree (cat. 8) – such an emblem of the region – is one of many works inspired by the light and vegetation of the South of France. Berthe Morisot, a founder member of the Impressionist group, made two trips to Nice with her family over the winters of 1881–82 and 1888–89. Her distinctive light touch and translucent colour perfectly capture an informal seaside scene of her young daughter Julie playing on the beach, or a quick nocturnal study of a boat in the harbour, a subject that Julie herself took up on the later trip (cats 10–12). ad
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The Fauves: Matisse, Derain and Braque ‘The nights are radiant, the days are potent, ferocious and victorious.’ ANDRÉ DERAIN, 1905 1
Detail of cat. 50
Henri Matisse first visited the Riviera in the summer of 1904, when Paul Signac invited him to Saint-Tropez. The experience proved pivotal for his artistic development, the vibrant Mediterranean light inspiring him to adopt the saturated colours exemplified in The Gulf of SaintTropez (cat. 50). The setting of this painting reappears as the background of Matisse’s first imaginary figure composition, Luxe, calme et volupté (fig. 13) and the related study (cat. 49), the title borrowed from a line in Charles Baudelaire’s famous poem ‘L’Invitation au voyage’. Under Signac’s influence, Matisse initially worked in small pointillist dots of colour but soon rebelled against the strictures of this technique in favour of a looser, expressive style. In the summer of 1905, Matisse returned to the south, to Collioure, a remote fishing village close to the Spanish border, and invited his young friend André Derain to join him. In nine intense weeks of freewheeling experiment, the two artists redefined the role of colour while inventing a new visual language. Rejecting descriptive colour, they used it to express what they felt rather than what they saw. ‘Colour for me is a force,’ Matisse declared. ‘When I apply green, that does not mean grass. When I apply blue, that does not mean sky.’2 For him a beach could be vermilion red (cat. 53), whereas for Derain, just a few bravura strokes of the brush in dazzling yellows, reds and blues are sufficient to suggest the boats in his supremely confident views of the port (cat. 55). Turning to the landscapes behind the village,
Derain builds his compositions from small blocks of colour, often using an off-white ground to intensify their luminosity and capture the exhilaration of the moment (cat. 56). For other artists the Mediterranean was an idealised and imaginary concept, a timeless Arcadia. Aristide Maillol, who came from Banyuls-sur-Mer just down the coast from Collioure, exemplifies this classicising ideal in his sculpture La Méditerranée (cat. 60) and in his painting of the same title that features a statuesque female nude in an idyllic setting by the sea (cat. 52). Moving away from his purely Fauvist manner, Matisse echoed Maillol’s classicism in his Three Bathers (cat. 61). When Matisse and Derain showed their Collioure works at the Paris Salon of 1905, the public were outraged, and the critics shocked – one called the artists les fauves (literally ‘wild beasts’).3 The revelation of this exhibition led Georges Braque to emerge as a modernist painter; for a brief two years he adopted the Fauves’ bright colours and vigorous handling. His equal and ultimately greater admiration for Paul Cezanne led him in 1906 and again in 1907 to L’Estaque, where Cezanne had worked in the 1870s and 1880s (cats 1–5, 7). In landscapes painted at L’Estaque and La Ciotat (cats 62–67) Braque combined a Fauve palette with a latent structure that announces the growing influence that in a few years would lead him, with Pablo Picasso, to invent Cubism. ad
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The Fauves: Matisse, Derain and Braque ‘The nights are radiant, the days are potent, ferocious and victorious.’ ANDRÉ DERAIN, 1905 1
Detail of cat. 50
Henri Matisse first visited the Riviera in the summer of 1904, when Paul Signac invited him to Saint-Tropez. The experience proved pivotal for his artistic development, the vibrant Mediterranean light inspiring him to adopt the saturated colours exemplified in The Gulf of SaintTropez (cat. 50). The setting of this painting reappears as the background of Matisse’s first imaginary figure composition, Luxe, calme et volupté (fig. 13) and the related study (cat. 49), the title borrowed from a line in Charles Baudelaire’s famous poem ‘L’Invitation au voyage’. Under Signac’s influence, Matisse initially worked in small pointillist dots of colour but soon rebelled against the strictures of this technique in favour of a looser, expressive style. In the summer of 1905, Matisse returned to the south, to Collioure, a remote fishing village close to the Spanish border, and invited his young friend André Derain to join him. In nine intense weeks of freewheeling experiment, the two artists redefined the role of colour while inventing a new visual language. Rejecting descriptive colour, they used it to express what they felt rather than what they saw. ‘Colour for me is a force,’ Matisse declared. ‘When I apply green, that does not mean grass. When I apply blue, that does not mean sky.’2 For him a beach could be vermilion red (cat. 53), whereas for Derain, just a few bravura strokes of the brush in dazzling yellows, reds and blues are sufficient to suggest the boats in his supremely confident views of the port (cat. 55). Turning to the landscapes behind the village,
Derain builds his compositions from small blocks of colour, often using an off-white ground to intensify their luminosity and capture the exhilaration of the moment (cat. 56). For other artists the Mediterranean was an idealised and imaginary concept, a timeless Arcadia. Aristide Maillol, who came from Banyuls-sur-Mer just down the coast from Collioure, exemplifies this classicising ideal in his sculpture La Méditerranée (cat. 60) and in his painting of the same title that features a statuesque female nude in an idyllic setting by the sea (cat. 52). Moving away from his purely Fauvist manner, Matisse echoed Maillol’s classicism in his Three Bathers (cat. 61). When Matisse and Derain showed their Collioure works at the Paris Salon of 1905, the public were outraged, and the critics shocked – one called the artists les fauves (literally ‘wild beasts’).3 The revelation of this exhibition led Georges Braque to emerge as a modernist painter; for a brief two years he adopted the Fauves’ bright colours and vigorous handling. His equal and ultimately greater admiration for Paul Cezanne led him in 1906 and again in 1907 to L’Estaque, where Cezanne had worked in the 1870s and 1880s (cats 1–5, 7). In landscapes painted at L’Estaque and La Ciotat (cats 62–67) Braque combined a Fauve palette with a latent structure that announces the growing influence that in a few years would lead him, with Pablo Picasso, to invent Cubism. ad
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65 Georges Braque (1882–1963) Landscape at L’Estaque, 1906 Oil on canvas, 50.8 × 60 cm New Orleans Museum of Art, Bequest of Victor K. Kiam, inv. 77.284
66 Georges Braque (1882–1963) Landscape at La Ciotat, summer 1907 Oil on canvas, 71.7 × 59.4 cm The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired through the Katherine S. Dreier and Adele R. Levy Bequests, 1975
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65 Georges Braque (1882–1963) Landscape at L’Estaque, 1906 Oil on canvas, 50.8 × 60 cm New Orleans Museum of Art, Bequest of Victor K. Kiam, inv. 77.284
66 Georges Braque (1882–1963) Landscape at La Ciotat, summer 1907 Oil on canvas, 71.7 × 59.4 cm The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired through the Katherine S. Dreier and Adele R. Levy Bequests, 1975
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84 Henri Matisse (1869–1954) Interior at Nice (Room at the Beau-Rivage), 1917–18 Oil on canvas, 73.7 × 60.3 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art: A. E. Gallatin Collection, inv. 1952-61-79
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Henri Matisse (1869–1954) Interior at Nice, c. 1919 Oil on canvas, 66.7 × 54.9 cm Saint Louis Art Museum, Museum Purchase, inv. 74:1945
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) The Divan, 1921 Oil on canvas, 92 × 73 cm Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume Collection, inv. RF 1963 68
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84 Henri Matisse (1869–1954) Interior at Nice (Room at the Beau-Rivage), 1917–18 Oil on canvas, 73.7 × 60.3 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art: A. E. Gallatin Collection, inv. 1952-61-79
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Henri Matisse (1869–1954) Interior at Nice, c. 1919 Oil on canvas, 66.7 × 54.9 cm Saint Louis Art Museum, Museum Purchase, inv. 74:1945
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) The Divan, 1921 Oil on canvas, 92 × 73 cm Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume Collection, inv. RF 1963 68
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Picasso’s Return to the South ‘Picasso was a sun all on his own.’ GENEVIÈVE LAPORTE, 1975 1
Robert Capa, Pablo Picasso and Françoise Gilot, Golfe-Juan, August 1948. Gelatin silver print, 29.9 × 25.1 cm. Yale University Art Gallery. Gift of Margaret and Neale M. Albert, J. D. 1961, inv. 2015.45.3
Having spent the war in Nazi-occupied Paris, much of it confined to his studio, Picasso seized the first opportunity to escape to the South of France in 1945, returning the following year with his new young lover Françoise Gilot. The relaxed, easy-going ambience of the Riviera was a great relief to him, and stimulated his creative energy. Always excited by the prospect of trying his hand at new materials, Picasso was thrilled to discover the art of ceramics at the Madoura pottery in the small town of Vallauris to which he and Gilot moved in 1947. In his endlessly inventive creations, fish and sea urchins reappear on plates and dishes (cats 128, 129) and later a classic earthenware vase doubles up as a Riviera sunbather in a yellow bikini (cat. 131). In 1955, at the height of his fame, Picasso acquired the Villa La Californie, a grand residence in the hills behind Cannes where he moved with his companion Jacqueline Roque. The villa’s splendid views over the Bay of Cannes inspired several paintings. In a series of 1957 featuring the doves that Picasso kept in a dovecote on a balcony (cat. 122), bold, gestural brush strokes and vibrant colour link his domestic world with the luxuriant Mediterranean vegetation of the south and the bay beyond.2 A year later, Picasso again painted the Bay of Cannes in one of his most magnificent Mediterranean
subjects (cat. 124). In a superbly orchestrated composition, bands of palm trees and sailing boats rise towards the sea on the horizon. The tall buildings beginning to encroach along the coast reveal Cannes as a modern city, yet one in which Picasso captures the magic of the Côte d’Azur by flooding the whole scene in a radiant sea blue. Ultimately, he came to deplore development of the Riviera, as is more sharply expressed later in Landscape (cat. 123). In striking contrast to the upbeat mood of many of Picasso’s Mediterranean paintings, Winter Landscape (cat. 125) is a tortured, windswept scene of jagged, bare trees. This powerful painting has been variously interpreted: Gilot, for example, suggested the two trees represented competition between her and Picasso. Both the bather and the mythological themes recur throughout the 1950s. The Springboard (cat. 115) originated in an imposing group of silhouette figures in bronze3 inspired by the shadows of swimmers at Antibes entering and leaving the sea, a composition that Picasso worked out in preliminary drawings (cat. 116).4 Goats and satyrs return in a suite of linocuts, a medium in which Picasso employed a new technique combining the use of several colours on the same block: the barest essentials of earth and sky (cats 117, 118) evolve through different states to culminate in a fully fledged bacchanale (cats 120, 121). ad
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Picasso’s Return to the South ‘Picasso was a sun all on his own.’ GENEVIÈVE LAPORTE, 1975 1
Robert Capa, Pablo Picasso and Françoise Gilot, Golfe-Juan, August 1948. Gelatin silver print, 29.9 × 25.1 cm. Yale University Art Gallery. Gift of Margaret and Neale M. Albert, J. D. 1961, inv. 2015.45.3
Having spent the war in Nazi-occupied Paris, much of it confined to his studio, Picasso seized the first opportunity to escape to the South of France in 1945, returning the following year with his new young lover Françoise Gilot. The relaxed, easy-going ambience of the Riviera was a great relief to him, and stimulated his creative energy. Always excited by the prospect of trying his hand at new materials, Picasso was thrilled to discover the art of ceramics at the Madoura pottery in the small town of Vallauris to which he and Gilot moved in 1947. In his endlessly inventive creations, fish and sea urchins reappear on plates and dishes (cats 128, 129) and later a classic earthenware vase doubles up as a Riviera sunbather in a yellow bikini (cat. 131). In 1955, at the height of his fame, Picasso acquired the Villa La Californie, a grand residence in the hills behind Cannes where he moved with his companion Jacqueline Roque. The villa’s splendid views over the Bay of Cannes inspired several paintings. In a series of 1957 featuring the doves that Picasso kept in a dovecote on a balcony (cat. 122), bold, gestural brush strokes and vibrant colour link his domestic world with the luxuriant Mediterranean vegetation of the south and the bay beyond.2 A year later, Picasso again painted the Bay of Cannes in one of his most magnificent Mediterranean
subjects (cat. 124). In a superbly orchestrated composition, bands of palm trees and sailing boats rise towards the sea on the horizon. The tall buildings beginning to encroach along the coast reveal Cannes as a modern city, yet one in which Picasso captures the magic of the Côte d’Azur by flooding the whole scene in a radiant sea blue. Ultimately, he came to deplore development of the Riviera, as is more sharply expressed later in Landscape (cat. 123). In striking contrast to the upbeat mood of many of Picasso’s Mediterranean paintings, Winter Landscape (cat. 125) is a tortured, windswept scene of jagged, bare trees. This powerful painting has been variously interpreted: Gilot, for example, suggested the two trees represented competition between her and Picasso. Both the bather and the mythological themes recur throughout the 1950s. The Springboard (cat. 115) originated in an imposing group of silhouette figures in bronze3 inspired by the shadows of swimmers at Antibes entering and leaving the sea, a composition that Picasso worked out in preliminary drawings (cat. 116).4 Goats and satyrs return in a suite of linocuts, a medium in which Picasso employed a new technique combining the use of several colours on the same block: the barest essentials of earth and sky (cats 117, 118) evolve through different states to culminate in a fully fledged bacchanale (cats 120, 121). ad
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122 Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) The Doves, 6 September 1957 Oil on canvas, 100 × 80 cm Museu Picasso, Barcelona, Gift of Pablo Picasso, 1968, inv. MPB 70.451
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123 Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Landscape, 1965 Oil and Ripolin on canvas, 128.3 × 162 cm Nahmad Collection
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122 Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) The Doves, 6 September 1957 Oil on canvas, 100 × 80 cm Museu Picasso, Barcelona, Gift of Pablo Picasso, 1968, inv. MPB 70.451
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123 Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Landscape, 1965 Oil and Ripolin on canvas, 128.3 × 162 cm Nahmad Collection
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149 Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955) Le Lavandou, 1952 Oil on cardboard, 12 × 22 cm Private collection
150 Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955) Le Lavandou, 1952 Oil on cardboard, 12 × 22 cm Private collection 148
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Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955) Le Lavandou, 1952 Oil on cardboard, 23.5 × 16 cm Private collection
Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955) Le Lavandou, 1952 Oil on canvas board, 16 × 22 cm Private collection
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149 Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955) Le Lavandou, 1952 Oil on cardboard, 12 × 22 cm Private collection
150 Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955) Le Lavandou, 1952 Oil on cardboard, 12 × 22 cm Private collection 148
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Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955) Le Lavandou, 1952 Oil on cardboard, 23.5 × 16 cm Private collection
Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955) Le Lavandou, 1952 Oil on canvas board, 16 × 22 cm Private collection
152 Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955) Landscape at Le Lavandou, 1952 Oil on canvas, 37.8 × 81 cm The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift, inv. 2020.121
152 Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955) Landscape at Le Lavandou, 1952 Oil on canvas, 37.8 × 81 cm The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift, inv. 2020.121