JACK-COTE D'AZUR-Antibes-Picasso in chateau Grimaldi
Jack
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COTE AZUR-Antibes-Picasso in chateau Grimaldi
When the market stalls starts to disappear around noon it's the moment
to --after a simple but agreeable lunch on one of the terraces -go and
visit the famous Picasso Museum in the chateau de Grimaldi.
This chateau used to be the property of the Grimaldi family of Monaco.
The honourable edifice, like we see it today, is from the 16th century
and the tower of the 12th. In 1928 it turned into an archaeological
museum thanks to a certain Dor de la Souchere, a teacher in ancient
languages at the Carnot high school in Cannes. His glorious day will
be in 1946 when he was introduced to Pablo Picasso and his new girl
friend Françoise Gilot. Dor proposed Picasso to organize an atelier at
the second floor of the enormous chateau. Picasso visited the chateau
and discovered through the windows the old city with his tiled roofs,
the port, the bay and the mountains in the far range. He didn't
hesitate one second to accept the offer of who proposed him to use the
large spaces in the chateau as his atelier and worked day and night as
a "mad man" during the summer of 1946.Above all that Picasso was in a
stage of his life where he was very much in love with Françoise. (see
Françoise Gilot book "Life with Picasso).
"With much pleasure because at least I know now I work for the
people," said the painter in his peace dove-communist period. The
largest panel that we would paint is "La Joie de Vivre-Antipolis". It
is crowded by fauns, satyrs and centaurs. A year later, Picasso's
enthusiasm was still very great and painted a gigantic "Ulysse et les
Sirènes". Dor de le Souchére changes the name of the chateau into
Picasso Museum. The miracle is that Picasso offers what he realized
during his stay to the city of Antibes. 175 paintings, sketches,
drawings and examples of his art of pottery making like the 80
ceramics realized in Vallauris and other donations like this "Buste
d'homme au chapeau". This ensemble is dominated by the famous "Joie de
vivre", a pastoral glorification of everything that Antibes
represented for Picasso). He liked to paint mythological subjects
(Ulysse et les Sirenes, Faunes musiciens), daily scenes of naturalist
inspiration about fishermen, fishes.... the "Gobeur d'Oursins" is the
best example, and the nudes directly inherited from cubism ("' Nus
couches" au lit blanc, au lit bleu and sur fond vert).
The artist, famous for his avarice and stinginess promised many things
he never kept in his life but this donation was for real. All the
works offered to the museum reflect his present humour and are
impregnated of joy and gaiety. An atmosphere you find back in the
superb exposed photographs where you sense he brute energy of Picasso,
and you can see his ateliers and sunny exteriors.
The chateau Grimaldi is in my opinion one of the MUSTS of the Cote
d'Azur. We can discuss about the intrinsical valour of Picasso's work
after WWII but we must admit that the chateau became one of the most
sympathetic smaller museums of France, not even talking of it's
enchanting terrace, packed like in a fairy tale with beautiful
sculptures and nice odorant plants and a free magnificent view on the
Mediterranean sea. The sculptures of Germaine Richier stand out,
reminding Giacometti. Also " La deesse de la mer" by Miro, "Hommage a
Picasso" by Arman and "Jupiter and Encelade" by Patrick and Anne
Poirier, made out of 10 tons of white marble and Roman vestiges.
Astonishing !!
The museum possesses also a quite impressive contemporary art
collection outside Picasso, luckily. It was build up over the years by
different donations: Leger, Calder, Modigliani, Corneille, Hartung,
Max Ernst, Nicolas de Stael (who committed suicide in 1955 by jumping
out of his window), Miro, Calder, Magnelli, only big shots
Bibliography
Mary Blume, "Cote d'Azur. Inventing the French Riviera" (Thames and
Hudson, London 1982) Stephen Liegeard, "La Cote d'Azur (Ed.Serre, Nice
1988), Guide du Routard 1998-99, Patrick Howarth, "When the Riviera
was ours" (Century, London 1977, "Greek Settlements on the
Medterranean", essay by J.Moss, "Antibes la belle " , by Jean
Centurion (ed. Nice publ. 1991), "Picasso après le guerre",
by.J.Bornet (ed.Litard, Paris 1996), "Life with Picasso", by.Fr.Gilot.
Jack
My Paris,daytrips from Paris, Provence, Cote d'Azur, valley of the
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