How the French Riviera became a summer destination

“I know now that what you said in “Tender is the Night” is true. Only the invented parts of our life – the unreal part – has had any scheme, any beauty.” Gerald Murphy to F. Scott Fitzgerald after the death of Gerald and Sara’s son, Baoth.

It was a warm July afternoon, with the intense blue Provençal sun overhead, wisps of clouds seeming to disappear as soon as they arrived! To my left was the Mediterranean Sea with fishing boats, pleasure craft and passenger cruise ships slowly moving offshore. On the beach, sun-tanned children played in the crystalline sand while parents and adults relaxed on multi-colored beach blankets.

I had finished the afternoon session in Basic French in a language college in Cannes and was slowly unwinding from the lectures and classroom interactions.

It may surprise many to know that the French Riviera as a summer destination is a relatively new creation of the 1920s, inspired by a wealthy, art-and-pleasure-loving American couple. He was the handsome Gerald Murphy and she the beautiful Sara Murphy. Both wealthy and artistically inclined, they are credited with opening the Riviera as a summer season detination. Before that, winter was the time when the wealthy of Europe and America shrugged off their woollen coats, suits and dresses as they disembarked from cruise ships or trains arriving in southern France. There they dressed in brightly colored, casual outfits of silk and cotton and revelled in the warmth and glow of the sun, and held parties in elegant pastel-painted mansions along the coastline.

In 1923, when the Murphys arrived in the south of France with their three young children, they were escaping the stress of Paris and the disapproval of their marriage by both sets of parents. Gerald’s father was a merchant who created the Mark Cross Company, still trading on New York’s 5^th Avenue. Gerald didn’t care for the business, but he did possess a sense of style, reflected in his being labeled Best Dressed Man by members of his 1911 Yale class.

Sara was a blue-blood, with a rich ancestry. John Sherman, her father, was a self-made millionaire at the age of 40, and related to General William Tecumseh Sherman of the American Civil War fame and John Sherman, a prominent US Senator. She thrived in European and East Hampton, New York societies, living in the latter in a 30-room mansion on the shore and frequently traveling throughout Europe with her mother. Vivacious and outgoing, she was 5 years older than Gerald. They married in 1915.

In 1921 Gerald convinced Sara that it was time to enjoy a warmer, and more carefree lifestyle. They moved to the French Riviera and settled into the magnificent Hôtel du Cap in Antibes. The Murphys persuaded the hotel owner to keep the elegant structure open through the summer so that friends could join them.

This seemingly simple decision resulted in the French Riviera becoming a magnet generations of sun worshippers! Prior to that, visitors walked along the pristine beaches, sailed on the clear blue waters, and spent warm evenings watching brilliant sunsets as they savored their wine and culinary delights. But they never viewed sunbathing as a socially acceptable act. Indeed, many saw a suntan as the mark of a lower, working class toiling in the outdoors.

Gerald, educated in painting in Parisian studios, became a critically respected painter. During the 1920s, he created 8 major paintings in what were labeled Realism and Abstraction genres using a Precisionist or Cubist style, including “Razer” in 1924 and “Watch” in 1925. To many, a major influence in Gerald’s style and content was Pablo Picasso, a friend and frequent guest in the Murphys’ home. As a curious fashion statement, Gerald is said to have made popular the sailor’s outfit of striped jersey, espadrilles and knitted fisherman’s cap often seen along the Mediterranean, especially in the Antibes area. Sara was also artistic. As trained singers, she and her two sisters often performed classic opera at sophisticated functions in Europe.

Many of the Murphys’ Parisian friends at Cap d’Antibes were also artists. Such talented figures included John O’Hara, the American novelist; Fernand Léger, the French painter, sculptor and filmmaker; Dorothy Parker, another American writer; Man Ray, a celebrated photographer; and Cole Porter, the composer and performer. Most prominent were F. Scott Fitzgerald, his wife Zelda and their daughter Scotty, and Ernest Hemingway. The Murphys purchased a property in Antibes, naming it Villa America, an unpretentious, solidly built place with little ornamentation. Facing the sea, the garden was the showcase, decorated with lemon, olive, date and fig trees, roses, tulips and other flowers lined the walkways. Here they lived and entertained for many years.

The Murphys became the role models for Dick and Nicole Diver in Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night and, to a lesser degree, David and Catherine Bourne in Hemingway’s The Garden of Eden. Sara Murphy modeled for Pablo Picasso and featured in his famous Woman in White. Man Ray also used the Murphys as models as he photographically recorded their lives on the Riviera.

The glamor, partying and late-night soirees personified much of the image of the Roaring Twenties. It was a carefree world where many young, attractive, wealthy and artistic elitists seemed to live in a perfect bubble.

But all was not as it seemed. Fitzgerald was described by Gerald as having “the most appalling sense of humor, sophomoric and – well – trashy.” Gerald was often the target of Fitzgerald’s drunken anger, despite helping the writer with encouragement and financial support. In a drunken fit at one of the Murphy’s gatherings, Fitzgerald threw some of Sara’s exquisite Venetian wine glasses over the Villa’s walls. Meanwhile Zelda Fitzgerald had a mental breakdown.

In his A Moveable Feast, Hemingway referred to Gerald Murphy as a spoiled dilettante, yet he often took advantage of the couple’s hospitality.

In 1935, Baoth died from meningitis. Two years later, Patrick died from tuberculosis. The Murphys never returned to the Riviera, except when Gerald attended the selling of their Villa America in 1950. But their gilded Riviera lifestyle became the stuff of legends.

Comforting to their friends when they were discouraged. Mother was warm and friendly and direct. Father was reserved and very funny. It was an exchange of minds – Honoraria Murphy Donnelly

By John Pekich producer, director, actor and writer, especially of original Sherlock Holmes and Victorian Mysteries in Cape May, New Jersey, USA