Pablo Picasso and the French Riviera

‘The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away’ – Pablo Picasso

Ray Bradbury, the extraordinary writer of science fiction, fantasy and psychological horror wrote an insightful story entitled “Season of Calm Weather” in which a visitor to the French Riviera encounters a man looking much like an older Picasso. It is a warm afternoon on the beach as the visitor watches the man draw images in the sand, then in minutes sees that work erased by an incoming tide.

Imagine you are the observer. In a fascinating way, you preserve the washed-away work in your memories, as filtered through your imagination. In those short moments on the beach, the artist also manages to reveal his view of art to you: It is highly personal, unaffected by others’ opinions, yet also allowing you to capture and preserve your responses to his art in the sand. This is a view that Picasso often shared.

With his thousands of works of art, Picasso certainly gave the world a great deal of work to accept, reject or wonder why? After his death, some 50,000 pieces of his art were found in his estate. Born in Spain, he was a gifted painter, sculptor, ceramicist, printmaker, theatrical set designer, iconoclast, and creative force for other artists. Today, he is an artistic magnate drawing millions to the various museums and homes on the Riviera which display his work and continue his myth as an artist and influential genius.

The French Riviera

Picasso found peace in the French Riviera after the bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War (memorialized in his intense painting Guernica, 1937) and the end of the brutal World War II. He seemed to revel in the brilliant sun, the intense and unique Provençal blue skies and water along with his wives, mistresses, absinthe, and the companionship of neighbors who treated him as Pablo. In many ways he became the symbol of a carefree sybaritic lifestyle that drew many to him and his art and expanded the reputation of the Riviera as an almost mythical place to experience.

Picasso on the Riviera

Picasso and his first wife, ballerina Olga Khokhlova, spent time on the French Riviera in the hot summer months of the late 1920s and early 1930s, living for several weeks in the popular Hotel-du-Cap-Eden Roc in Antibes. They also sought out and enjoyed Cannes, Nice, Mougins and many other towns along the Côte d’Azur. Picasso came to love that world so far removed from the often-frantic life of Paris.

Picasso and Olga enjoyed not only the natural settings of the Riviera, but also the company of many celebrities including Coco Chanel and playwright/poet Jean Cocteau, also the filmmaker of Les Enfant Terribles (1930). Hel also hung out with F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Such celebrities were often guests of Gerald and Sara Murphy a young, dynamic, wealthy American couple who are generally credited with making the Riviera a desirable vacation spot during summer. Until then, winter was the season for enjoying the sights and sounds of the Côte d’Azur. Gerald Murphy is also credited with inventing the casual uniform of striped sailor jersey, espadrilles and knitted fisherman’s cap which Picasso often wore!

After the end of World War II – and his divorce from Olga – Picasso permanently moved to the Riviera where he took artistic energy, inspiration and calm from absinthe, an alcoholic drink known as the ‘green fairy.’

Major Places Where Picasso Lived in France

Antibes 1946

In 1946 Picasso moved to the quiet, isolated town of Antibes for several months. Through the help of a friend, he was able to rent living space in the Grimaldi Château, formerly a castle; he turned the upstairs into his studio. While in Antibes, he fulfilled a promise to cover the walls of the Chateau with his paintings. He donated most of that artwork to the town of Antibes, when he left a few months later.

Vallauris (1948-1955)

Picasso lived and worked in Vallauris. The town has a history of fine ceramic art, and while there, he mastered that art.

Picasso and his 21-year-old mistress Françoise Gilot – he was 60 at the time – with their son Claude, settled in a cramped house named la Galloise. Seeking more room, they bought a rundown deserted parfumerie (perfume factory), le Furnas, which Picasso converted into a studio for Gilot, a budding artist, and himself.

In 1953, Françoise Gilot left Picasso, taking their two children with her and created her own life in the art world. After Picasso’s death, she emerged as a critically respected artist in both ceramics and water colors; one of her works, Paloma a la Guitare, a portrait of her daughter painted in 1965, sold for $1.3 million at auction in London’s Sotheby’s. She is generally remembered for her bestselling memoir Life with Picasso (1964) written with Carlton Lake, a respected art critic. Later in her life, she married Doctor Jonas Salk, who created the polio vaccine named after him.

With Gilot gone, Picasso, now a bachelor with willing mistresses for companions, divided his time between Paris and his home at La Californie, near Cannes. In 1953, he met Jacqueline Roque, who had worked in the pottery shop in Vallauris. From 1954 (they married in 1961) she not only became his steadfast companion, but also his muse, and a major image and source of inspiration for much of his latter work.

Vauvenargues (1959)

Picasso and Jacqueline briefly lived here, before settling into the chateau he purchased in the foothills of nearby Mont Sainte-Victoire. Picasso was a fan of Paul Cézanne who painted the area obsessively. Picasso’s painting Le Déjeuner sur L’Herbe was created there.

Mougins (1961-1973)

Picasso lived his final years in Mougins on a gorgeous estate, enhanced by magnificent gardens. It was during this period that he created many of his most famous artworks including Mougins Landscape. He died on April 8, 1973 in his home in Mougins but his body was interred in Vauvenargues on the family’s property. It was a small private funeral, a seeming contradiction to his flamboyant and outgoing life. His grave on the family’s private property remains closed to the public.

Sites to Visit:

Musée National Picasso, Paris

Located in a former 12^th. century priory, the museum honors Picasso’s association with the pottery town of Vallauris where he learned to create exquisite ceramic art pieces. This museum includes the Musée Magnelli / Musée de la céramique which displays over 3,000 pieces of Picasso’s ceramic artwork. The museum also exhibits graphic art by Picasso and photographs he took when he lived in Vallauris. And there is an impressive large work called La Guerre et la Paix (War and Peace (1952 – 1954) dominating the Chapel.

Musée Picasso Antibes

Located in a former Grimaldi family castle this was the first museum dedicated to Picasso’s work (opened 1966). The collection includes paintings, sculptures and ceramics.

Musée de la Photographie, Mougins

This small museum, created by photographer Andre Villers in 1986 has a collection of images of Picasso taken by several well-known photographers including Villers and David Douglas Duncan. There are also photos of other artists such as such as Le Corbusier, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro and Fernand Leger, plus a small collection of cameras.

Musée d’Art Classique de Mougins (MACM)

Once a medieval prison, the three-story building opened in 2011. The museum displays a variety of art from antique through neoclassical, modern to contemporary pieces. Among the modern works are pieces by Picasso, Cezanne, Dali, Warhol and others.

Mougins

Wake up early as the Provençal sun begins to rise and wander around the hillside town that inspired, enriched and help to define Picasso. Mougins may very well inspire you, too!

‘Why do you try to understand art? Do you try to understand the song of a bird?’ – Pablo Picasso

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