As with many ports and harbours around the coast of France, one of the earliest depictions of Antibes was at the behest of Louis XV when he commissioned Jospeh Vernet to compile a series of paintings for the monumental publication Ports de France. Since then it has been a source of inspiration for succeeding generations of artists down to the present day. Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714–1789) was born in Avignon, the son of a decorative painter and by the age of fourteen he was assisting in the studio. However his ambitions were aimed higher than the ephemeral work of his father and he sought to further his career in Rome. Here he established himself as a leading landscape painter, producing work with qualities reminiscent of Claude Lorraine. After living in Rome for twenty years he was recalled to Paris by the King to work on a series of paintings of ports and harbours which confirmed his international reputation as a master of landscape and seascape painting. He died at his apartments in the Louvre in 1789 just as the world of royal patronage of which he been a part came crashing down in the Revolution. The painting shown is Le Port d’Antibes en Provence, vu du côte de la terre, 1756 (Paris, dépôt du Musée du Louvre au Musée de la Marine).
During the early years of the nineteenth century when France and, indeed, the whole of Europe was engulfed in the turmoil of war and revolution, there is little evidence of artistic endeavour in the area. In the years that followed there was a resurgence of interest in documenting the landscape and topography, especially in the form of engravings for publication. One the most significant artists involved in this enterprise was the British artist, and inveterate traveller, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) who visited the area in the 1820’s and 30’s. By the 1840’s landscape painting had become a popular subject for painters, championed by the likes of Camille Corot and members of the Barbizon school. Artists of this generation who found inspiration in the area include Léon François Fleury (1804–1858), Paul Huet (1803–1869) and Émile Loubon (1809–1863). The painting shown is La Route d’Antibes à Nice, 1861 by Loubon (Musée des Beaux Arts, Marseille). His work is also to be seen in the entry for Marseille.
In mid-nineteenth century Paris the undoubted hero of the official Salon was Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier (1815–1891) with his academic style and traditional history paintings glorifying the achievements of Napoleon. Originally from Lyon, he showed great aptitude for painting from an early age and was soon studying in Paris and Rome. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1831 and from then on his career went from strength to strength becoming very collectable and hugely wealthy in the process. In June 1868 Meissonier and his family arrived in Antibes and his impression of the place is summed up when he wrote, “It is delightful to sun oneself in the brilliant light of the South instead of wandering about like gnomes in the fog. The view at Antibes is one of the fairest sights in nature.” Although he is generally regarded as being the epitome of an establishment painter, his canvases from this time show a rather more spontaneous approach and there are even hints of a style that would not be unfamiliar to the impressionists. The painting shown is Les blanchisseuses à Antibes, 1869 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris).
Felix Ziem (1821–1911) was another pillar of the art establishment who enjoyed a long and successful career. As a young man he travelled widely including visits to Venice, the Near East, North Africa and Russia and found a lucrative market for his work amongst the wealthy denizens of Nice. He lived and worked in Martigues for a time (examined elsewhere on this site) and in the second half of his life he settled in Nice and the coastal landscape became a favoured subject. His early watercolours are reminiscent of Turner and in his maturity he was certainly a respected figure in the eyes of the impressionists and post-impressionists. The painting shown is Vue de la rade de Nice et d’Antibes (Private collection).
Meissonier and Ziem were, at the time, rare visitors from the capital of the European art scene but there was already an established school of Provençal artists whose work is now more appreciated as being integral to the development of painting in the second half of the nineteenth century. Amongst these are Vincent Courdouan (1810–1893), Emmanuel Costa (1833–1921), and Jean Maxime (Max) Monier de la Sizeranne (1825–1906). The latter, a diletanté aristocrat, travelled widely and was captivated by the southern coast of France. Inspite of a rather frivolous reputation, he is regarded by some as a precursor of the impressionists. The painting shown is Vue d’Antibes, c.1887(Mairie de la ville de Tain-l’Hermitage, France).
As access to the South of France improved during the second half of the nineteenth century so the number of artists visiting the area increased, all attracted by the quality of light, vibrancy of colour and clarity of atmosphere. Amongst them were Louis Français (1814–1897) and Henri-Joseph Harpignies (1819–1916). Both were respected members of the art establishment in Paris and discovered the delights of the Côte d’Azur later in their careers. In 1888 Harpignies was enjoying a sojourn in Antibes at the same time as Claude Monet and it is fascinating to speculate what the conversations might have been between the two artists. The painting shown is Vue d’Antibes, 1904 (Musée de Guézireh, Cairo).
Eugène Boudin (1824–1898) is undoubtedly one of the leading figures in French painting in the nineteenth century and he had an enduring influence on many other artists, not least Claude Monet who he befriended as a teenager and guided him on his way to greatness. The two remained lifelong friends. Born the son of a harbour pilot in Honfleur his early life was spent in a stationery and picture framing store where he met several notable painters who encouraged him to abandon commerce for the life of an artist. He trained in Paris but was to retain his ties with Normandy and Brittany and the sea would be an enduring fascination throughout his life. He was one of the early proponants of plein air painting and was a master of capturing the transient qualities of sea and sky, be that by the Channel coast or later the Côte d’Azur. He first travelled south in 1885 in the hope that the milder weather would benefit his sick wife. They visited Antibes as well as Nice, Villefranche and Bealieu and although his wife died in 1889 he would regularly spend the winter months in this more agreeable climate. The work of his former protége, Monet, in 1888 was inspirational for him and with renewed enthusiasm he embarked on a series of marine paintings over the next decade that effortlessly capture the ‘spirit of place’. Although the south had provided him with a new lease of artistic life, when he realised that ill-health was taking its unavoidable toll it was to his home at Deauville that he returned to spend his last days under the rather more subdued Normandy skies in sight of the waters of La Manche that had been his original inspiration. The painting shown is Antibes, le fort Carré, 1893 (Private collection).
And so we come to Claude Monet (1840–1926), one of the most recogniseable names of all time in the world of painting. Although he was born in Paris, the family moved to Le Havre in Normandy when he was five years old and it was there that he spent his childhood. His artistic talents soon manifested themselves and as previously observed he was taken under the wing of Eugène Boudin who encouraged him to pursue a painter’s life. This inevitably led him back to Paris and with the support of his widowed aunt he was soon rubbing shoulders with other young painters. After a brief spell in the army he returned to the ateliers of Paris and became a key figure in the group of ‘young Turks’ who later became known as the impressionists. Together with Renoir, Bazille and Sisley he championed plein air painting and strove to capture the fleeting effects of sunlight and atmosphere with spontaneous brushstrokes and broken touches of colour. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 saw him exiled to London for a time but he was soon back in Paris at the centre of this new movement, painting controversial pictures and arranging provocative exhibitions. Out of ridicule and rejection, success and recognition slowly evolved and by the 1880’s he was reaping the rewards and becoming the monumental figure we know of today. He moved to Giverny and embarked on the project to create and paint this private world that would occupy him for many years, especially towards the end of his life. But it was also at this time that he first travelled to the South of France. For someone obsessed with the effects of light and atmosphere, what a revelation that must have been. A seed had been sown and he would return many times and in 1888 there was a veritable explosion of creativity in Antibes when he painted an incredible sequence of canvases capturing the fugitive effects of sunlight, shadow, wind and water. The artist would work on several canvases at the same time, moving from one to the another as the effects of light changed during the course of the day. These remain some of the most important works in the artists long and prolific career. The painting shown is Cap d’Antibes, mistral, 1888 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).
Another principal player in the impressionist movement was Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) who shared hard times and rejection with Monet early in his career. As with his friend, success was slow in coming but by the 1880’s his fortunes were on the rise and he set of on travels around Europe and North Africa. It was while visiting Paul Cézanne in L’Éstaque in 1882 (see entry elsewhere on this site) that Renoir first succumb to the lure of the south and the following year he was in the company of Monet on the Riviera. The year 1888 was truely a golden one for Antibes with Monet painting a succession of masterpieces and Renoir keeping him company and doing the same. When Cézanne finally abandoned Paris and returned to his family home in Aix-en-Provence and Monet was dividing his time between Giverny and the south, Renoir had less reason to remain in the capital. He was also beginning to suffer from arthritis in his hands and he thought the warmer climate would be beneficial and so he started to spend more time in Provence including Grasse, Le Cannet, Antibes and Cagnes. In 1907 he finally purchased a farm at Cagnes called Les Collettes and had a purpose-built house and studio constructed. Set amidst ancient olive trees and with stunning views of the old town of Cagnes and the coast to Cap d’Antibes and beyond, this was where he spent his remaining years. Although his arthritis became much worse, to the extent that he was confined to a wheelchair and barely able to hold a paintbrush, he continued to work and his door was ever-open to fellow-artists of all ages. The painting shown is Vue pres d’Antibes (Private collection).
Before we move on from Impressionism it is perhaps worth mentioning another exponent of this style from an unlikely part of the world and that is John Russell (1858–1930). He was born and raised in Sydney, Australia but moved to Europe to continue his art education, initially at the Slade School in London and then in Paris. Here he met and befriended many of the young painters who were challenging the art establishment including Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh. In 1886 he made a visit to the island of Belle-Île-en-Mer off the coast of Brittany and there he met Claude Monet and was much influenced by ‘The prince of the impressionists’ as he called him. The two artists were captivated by the wild landscapes and authentic lifestyle of the inhabitants, such a contrast to the hothouse of the Paris art scene, and this led Russell to move permanently to the island in 1888. The work of Monet continued to be a stimulus and in the winter of 1890–1 he followed in his footsteps to Antibes where he painted a series of pictures often with similar viewpoints as those chosen by his friend and mentor. However his canvases were not slavish copies and his later works became more non-naturalistic and expressive. Back on Belle-Île he met and became an influence on Henri Matisse and it was partly Russell’s use of a heightened colour palette and expressive brushstrokes that contributed to his own groundbreaking experiments with pure colour culminating in Fauvism. The painting shown is In the Morning, Alpes Maritimes from Antibes, 1890–1 (National Gallery of Australia, Canberra).
At the end of the nineteenth century schools of painting and ‘isms’ followed one another in quick succession but the attraction to painters of the Côte d’Azur was a constant to most of them. Hard on the heels of impressionism came neo-impressionism, divisionism and pointalism and two of the standard bearers for this movement were Paul Signac (1863–1935) and Henri-Edmond Cross. Signac had taken on the mantle of leader after the untimely death of Georges Seurat and as can be seen on the Saint-Tropez entry he discovered the area while indulging his other passion for sailing. He settled in Saint-Tropez and became another focus for artistic endeavour, entertaining and working with many painters at the cutting edge including Matisse, Bonnard, Vuillard and Marquet as well as his close friend Henri Cross. He made numerous trips to Antibes and in 1913 after the breakdown of his marriage he moved into a rented villa on the Cap d’Antibes with his mistress, Jeanne Selmersheim-Desgrange, where their daughter, Ginette, was born. Signac was depressed by the events of the First World War and this affected his painting output but in 1915 he was appointed as official painter to the navy and this allowed him access to ports and harbours which had been sources of inspiration throughout his career. He continued to be based in the town until 1920 when he returned to Paris although the lure of the south attracted him back many times in his long life with sojourns in Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence. The painting shown is Le Nuage rose, Antibes, 1916 (Scott M. Black Collection).
Henri-Edmond Cross (1856–1910), friend and colleague of Signac, was another artists drawn to the Riviera, not only by the unique light and atmosphere but also by the warmth to alleviate chronic rheumatism. His story is more comprehensively covered in the entry for Le Lavandou and Saint-Clair where he lived and worked from 1891 until his death. It was in 1908 that he made a trip to Antibes and the resultant paintings epitomise the divisionist approach to landscape. The painting shown is Antibes, matin, 1908 (Private collection).
A lifelong experimenter, Henri Matisse (1869–1954) hailed from northern climes but eventually fell under the spell that is cast by this enchanting part of the world and which was to be a catalyst in his meteoric progress as an artist. For a time he was influenced by Signac and visited him in Saint Tropez in 1904 but he was such an innovative character that no manifesto could hold him for long. Having dabbled with divisionism he went on to push the boundaries of what painting could be by developing Fauvism with his friend and fellow-artist André Derain in a ‘summer of colour’ at Collioure in 1905. It was in 1917 that Matisse first settled in Nice, again partly for health reasons, and by then his style had moved on in its indefineable and unique way. The painting shown is Route du cap d’Antibes, le grand pin, 1926 (Private collection).
For a time Albert Marquet (1875–1947) and Charles Camoin (1879–1965) were adherents of Fauvism and great friends of Matisse. They were often to be found travelling and painting in one another’s company and also visiting fellow artists in what had now become a veritable academy of brilliance on the Côte d’Azur. Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) was another member of this charmed circle who, from 1911, divided his time between his home near Giverny and the South. For all of them the unique qualities of the Mediterranean coast were the catalyst in their painterly experiments with colour and form. The painting shown is Marine, les Barques, Antibes (Private collection) by Marquet.
During the 1920’s John Duncan Fergusson (1874–1961), a leading member of the Scottish Colourists, lived and worked mainly in Paris but from there he made frequent trips to the South of France including Cassis (see entry elsewhere on this site) and Antibes. In particular, he and his partner Margaret Morris spent carefree times at Château des Enfants near Eden Roc on Cap d’Antibes and his paintings from this period conjure up the sophisticated world of hedonistic pleasure seekers enjoying the sun, sea and other charms of the area. The painting shown is Bather, Cap d’Antibes, 1924 (Private collection).
Raoul Dufy (1877–1953) is sometimes referred to as the ‘painter of joy’ and as such he found a wealth of subject matter in the South of France, to which he was a frequent visitor. After brief flirtations with Fauvism and Cubism he went on to develop a style that became
quintessentially his own. His animated paintings
have become iconic images that capture the ‘joie de vivre’ of
the Mediterranean coast during the inter-war years. The work shown is Railway in Antibes, 1926 (Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow).
Although it wasn’t until 1946 when Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) spent several months working in Antibes, he was no stranger to the delights of the Riviera, having been a frequent visitor and sometime resident from 1919 up until the outbreak of the Second World War. Like Matisse, his lifelong rival, he was a restless genius who is impossible to pigeon-hole and in the course of his career he is seen as being influential in, if not the leader of, many of the developments in the arts of painting, sculpture, ceramics and printmaking throughout the twentieth century. The mythological dimension of Antibes with its connections to ancient Greece and Rome as well as its physical ambience were possibly attractions that led Picasso to take up the offer of studio space at the Château Grimaldi in 1946. At the time he was living with his mistress Françoise Gilot at nearby Golf-Juan. If his reaction to the realities of war are best exemplified by the uncompromising Geurnica, perhaps the more optimistic frame of mind that relates to his sunny interlude in Antibes is best illustrated by La joie de vivre (shown here). With its references to the classical past, it is a joyful celebration of earthly and erotic pleasures in the heat of a Mediterranean summer’s day. Picasso was 65 years old when he painted this but his brief sojourn in the town had given him a new lease of life and the work he created at this time is often referred to as his Antibes period. When he left at the end of the year he donated all of this work to the town and that now forms the basis of collection at the Musée Picasso.
There are many more artists who have found inspiration in the environs of Antibes over the decades but it is not possible to mention them all here. The final and rather tragic figure to be considered here is Nicolas de Staël (1913–1955), examples of whose work are also housed in the Musée Picasso. He was the son of aristocratic parents in St Petersburg but the comfortable world into which he was born was soon in ruins after the Bolshevik Revolution and the family had to flee to Poland. By the age of nine he was an orphan in the care of a Russian family in Brussels and the rest of his life was one of restless travelling. In the Second World War he joined the Foreign Legion for a time and later struggled to support his wife and child while all the while trying to pursue his ambition to be an artist. His wife died in childbirth in 1946 and thereafter he continued his nomadic existence until settling in Antibes in 1953. From his apartment window he had panoramic views of the old town, the distant mountains and the ever-present sea. He was now at the height of his creative powers and elements of landscape, architecture and marine activity are all woven into his abstract compositions. In March 1955 he attended a concert in Paris and was so inspired by the music that he felt compelled to return to Antibes and commit his thoughts to canvas. He immediately started work on a monumental painting and worked feverishly until failing light made it impossible to continue. His state of mind was such at this stage that he destroyed his sketchbooks relating to future projects and commited suicide by jumping from the window of his apartment. A tragic end to a gifted life. Le concert, can be seen in the Musée Picasso. The painting shown is Le Fort d’Antibes, 1955 (Private collection).
SELECTED WORKS AND WHERE THEY MAY BE SEEN
If works mentioned in the text do not appear on the list they are in private collections.
Claude-Joseph Vernet Le Port d’Antibes en Provence, vu du côte de la terre, 1756 (Paris, dépôt du Musée du Louvre au Musée de la Marine)
Émile Loubon La Route d’Antibes à Nice, 1861 (Musée des Beaux Arts, Marseille)
Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier Les blanchisseuses à Antibes, 1869 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris)
As with many ports and harbours around the coast of France, one of the earliest depictions of Antibes was at the behest of Louis XV when he commissioned Jospeh Vernet to compile a series of paintings for the monumental publication Ports de France. Since then it has been a source of inspiration for succeeding generations of artists down to the present day. Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714–1789) was born in Avignon, the son of a decorative painter and by the age of fourteen he was assisting in the studio. However his ambitions were aimed higher than the ephemeral work of his father and he sought to further his career in Rome. Here he established himself as a leading landscape painter, producing work with qualities reminiscent of Claude Lorraine. After living in Rome for twenty years he was recalled to Paris by the King to work on a series of paintings of ports and harbours which confirmed his international reputation as a master of landscape and seascape painting. He died at his apartments in the Louvre in 1789 just as the world of royal patronage of which he been a part came crashing down in the Revolution. The painting shown is Le Port d’Antibes en Provence, vu du côte de la terre, 1756 (Paris, dépôt du Musée du Louvre au Musée de la Marine).
During the early years of the nineteenth century when France and, indeed, the whole of Europe was engulfed in the turmoil of war and revolution, there is little evidence of artistic endeavour in the area. In the years that followed there was a resurgence of interest in documenting the landscape and topography, especially in the form of engravings for publication. One the most significant artists involved in this enterprise was the British artist, and inveterate traveller, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) who visited the area in the 1820’s and 30’s. By the 1840’s landscape painting had become a popular subject for painters, championed by the likes of Camille Corot and members of the Barbizon school. Artists of this generation who found inspiration in the area include Léon François Fleury (1804–1858), Paul Huet (1803–1869) and Émile Loubon (1809–1863). The painting shown is La Route d’Antibes à Nice, 1861 by Loubon (Musée des Beaux Arts, Marseille). His work is also to be seen in the entry for Marseille.
In mid-nineteenth century Paris the undoubted hero of the official Salon was Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier (1815–1891) with his academic style and traditional history paintings glorifying the achievements of Napoleon. Originally from Lyon, he showed great aptitude for painting from an early age and was soon studying in Paris and Rome. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1831 and from then on his career went from strength to strength becoming very collectable and hugely wealthy in the process. In June 1868 Meissonier and his family arrived in Antibes and his impression of the place is summed up when he wrote, “It is delightful to sun oneself in the brilliant light of the South instead of wandering about like gnomes in the fog. The view at Antibes is one of the fairest sights in nature.” Although he is generally regarded as being the epitome of an establishment painter, his canvases from this time show a rather more spontaneous approach and there are even hints of a style that would not be unfamiliar to the impressionists. The painting shown is Les blanchisseuses à Antibes, 1869 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris).
Felix Ziem (1821–1911) was another pillar of the art establishment who enjoyed a long and successful career. As a young man he travelled widely including visits to Venice, the Near East, North Africa and Russia and found a lucrative market for his work amongst the wealthy denizens of Nice. He lived and worked in Martigues for a time (examined elsewhere on this site) and in the second half of his life he settled in Nice and the coastal landscape became a favoured subject. His early watercolours are reminiscent of Turner and in his maturity he was certainly a respected figure in the eyes of the impressionists and post-impressionists. The painting shown is Vue de la rade de Nice et d’Antibes (Private collection).
Meissonier and Ziem were, at the time, rare visitors from the capital of the European art scene but there was already an established school of Provençal artists whose work is now more appreciated as being integral to the development of painting in the second half of the nineteenth century. Amongst these are Vincent Courdouan (1810–1893), Emmanuel Costa (1833–1921), and Jean Maxime (Max) Monier de la Sizeranne (1825–1906). The latter, a diletanté aristocrat, travelled widely and was captivated by the southern coast of France. Inspite of a rather frivolous reputation, he is regarded by some as a precursor of the impressionists. The painting shown is Vue d’Antibes, c.1887(Mairie de la ville de Tain-l’Hermitage, France).
As access to the South of France improved during the second half of the nineteenth century so the number of artists visiting the area increased, all attracted by the quality of light, vibrancy of colour and clarity of atmosphere. Amongst them were Louis Français (1814–1897) and Henri-Joseph Harpignies (1819–1916). Both were respected members of the art establishment in Paris and discovered the delights of the Côte d’Azur later in their careers. In 1888 Harpignies was enjoying a sojourn in Antibes at the same time as Claude Monet and it is fascinating to speculate what the conversations might have been between the two artists. The painting shown is Vue d’Antibes, 1904 (Musée de Guézireh, Cairo).
Eugène Boudin (1824–1898) is undoubtedly one of the leading figures in French painting in the nineteenth century and he had an enduring influence on many other artists, not least Claude Monet who he befriended as a teenager and guided him on his way to greatness. The two remained lifelong friends. Born the son of a harbour pilot in Honfleur his early life was spent in a stationery and picture framing store where he met several notable painters who encouraged him to abandon commerce for the life of an artist. He trained in Paris but was to retain his ties with Normandy and Brittany and the sea would be an enduring fascination throughout his life. He was one of the early proponants of plein air painting and was a master of capturing the transient qualities of sea and sky, be that by the Channel coast or later the Côte d’Azur. He first travelled south in 1885 in the hope that the milder weather would benefit his sick wife. They visited Antibes as well as Nice, Villefranche and Bealieu and although his wife died in 1889 he would regularly spend the winter months in this more agreeable climate. The work of his former protége, Monet, in 1888 was inspirational for him and with renewed enthusiasm he embarked on a series of marine paintings over the next decade that effortlessly capture the ‘spirit of place’. Although the south had provided him with a new lease of artistic life, when he realised that ill-health was taking its unavoidable toll it was to his home at Deauville that he returned to spend his last days under the rather more subdued Normandy skies in sight of the waters of La Manche that had been his original inspiration. The painting shown is Antibes, le fort Carré, 1893 (Private collection). 
And so we come to Claude Monet (1840–1926), one of the most recogniseable names of all time in the world of painting. Although he was born in Paris, the family moved to Le Havre in Normandy when he was five years old and it was there that he spent his childhood. His artistic talents soon manifested themselves and as previously observed he was taken under the wing of Eugène Boudin who encouraged him to pursue a painter’s life. This inevitably led him back to Paris and with the support of his widowed aunt he was soon rubbing shoulders with other young painters. After a brief spell in the army he returned to the ateliers of Paris and became a key figure in the group of ‘young Turks’ who later became known as the impressionists. Together with Renoir, Bazille and Sisley he championed plein air painting and strove to capture the fleeting effects of sunlight and atmosphere with spontaneous brushstrokes and broken touches of colour. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 saw him exiled to London for a time but he was soon back in Paris at the centre of this new movement, painting controversial pictures and arranging provocative exhibitions. Out of ridicule and rejection, success and recognition slowly evolved and by the 1880’s he was reaping the rewards and becoming the monumental figure we know of today. He moved to Giverny and embarked on the project to create and paint this private world that would occupy him for many years, especially towards the end of his life. But it was also at this time that he first travelled to the South of France. For someone obsessed with the effects of light and atmosphere, what a revelation that must have been. A seed had been sown and he would return many times and in 1888 there was a veritable explosion of creativity in Antibes when he painted an incredible sequence of canvases capturing the fugitive effects of sunlight, shadow, wind and water. The artist would work on several canvases at the same time, moving from one to the another as the effects of light changed during the course of the day. These remain some of the most important works in the artists long and prolific career. The painting shown is Cap d’Antibes, mistral, 1888 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).
Another principal player in the impressionist movement was Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) who shared hard times and rejection with Monet early in his career. As with his friend, success was slow in coming but by the 1880’s his fortunes were on the rise and he set of on travels around Europe and North Africa. It was while visiting Paul Cézanne in L’Éstaque in 1882 (see entry elsewhere on this site) that Renoir first succumb to the lure of the south and the following year he was in the company of Monet on the Riviera. The year 1888 was truely a golden one for Antibes with Monet painting a succession of masterpieces and Renoir keeping him company and doing the same. When Cézanne finally abandoned Paris and returned to his family home in Aix-en-Provence and Monet was dividing his time between Giverny and the south, Renoir had less reason to remain in the capital. He was also beginning to suffer from arthritis in his hands and he thought the warmer climate would be beneficial and so he started to spend more time in Provence including Grasse, Le Cannet, Antibes and Cagnes. In 1907 he finally purchased a farm at Cagnes called Les Collettes and had a purpose-built house and studio constructed. Set amidst ancient olive trees and with stunning views of the old town of Cagnes and the coast to Cap d’Antibes and beyond, this was where he spent his remaining years. Although his arthritis became much worse, to the extent that he was confined to a wheelchair and barely able to hold a paintbrush, he continued to work and his door was ever-open to fellow-artists of all ages. The painting shown is Vue pres d’Antibes (Private collection).
Before we move on from Impressionism it is perhaps worth mentioning another exponent of this style from an unlikely part of the world and that is John Russell (1858–1930). He was born and raised in Sydney, Australia but moved to Europe to continue his art education, initially at the Slade School in London and then in Paris. Here he met and befriended many of the young painters who were challenging the art establishment including Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh. In 1886 he made a visit to the island of Belle-Île-en-Mer off the coast of Brittany and there he met Claude Monet and was much influenced by ‘The prince of the impressionists’ as he called him. The two artists were captivated by the wild landscapes and authentic lifestyle of the inhabitants, such a contrast to the hothouse of the Paris art scene, and this led Russell to move permanently to the island in 1888. The work of Monet continued to be a stimulus and in the winter of 1890–1 he followed in his footsteps to Antibes where he painted a series of pictures often with similar viewpoints as those chosen by his friend and mentor. However his canvases were not slavish copies and his later works became more non-naturalistic and expressive. Back on Belle-Île he met and became an influence on Henri Matisse and it was partly Russell’s use of a heightened colour palette and expressive brushstrokes that contributed to his own groundbreaking experiments with pure colour culminating in Fauvism. The painting shown is In the Morning, Alpes Maritimes from Antibes, 1890–1 (National Gallery of Australia, Canberra). 
At the end of the nineteenth century schools of painting and ‘isms’ followed one another in quick succession but the attraction to painters of the Côte d’Azur was a constant to most of them. Hard on the heels of impressionism came neo-impressionism, divisionism and pointalism and two of the standard bearers for this movement were Paul Signac (1863–1935) and Henri-Edmond Cross. Signac had taken on the mantle of leader after the untimely death of Georges Seurat and as can be seen on the Saint-Tropez entry he discovered the area while indulging his other passion for sailing. He settled in Saint-Tropez and became another focus for artistic endeavour, entertaining and working with many painters at the cutting edge including Matisse, Bonnard, Vuillard and Marquet as well as his close friend Henri Cross. He made numerous trips to Antibes and in 1913 after the breakdown of his marriage he moved into a rented villa on the Cap d’Antibes with his mistress, Jeanne Selmersheim-Desgrange, where their daughter, Ginette, was born. Signac was depressed by the events of the First World War and this affected his painting output but in 1915 he was appointed as official painter to the navy and this allowed him access to ports and harbours which had been sources of inspiration throughout his career. He continued to be based in the town until 1920 when he returned to Paris although the lure of the south attracted him back many times in his long life with sojourns in Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence. The painting shown is Le Nuage rose, Antibes, 1916 (Scott M. Black Collection).
Henri-Edmond Cross (1856–1910), friend and colleague of Signac, was another artists drawn to the Riviera, not only by the unique light and atmosphere but also by the warmth to alleviate chronic rheumatism. His story is more comprehensively covered in the entry for Le Lavandou and Saint-Clair where he lived and worked from 1891 until his death. It was in 1908 that he made a trip to Antibes and the resultant paintings epitomise the divisionist approach to landscape. The painting shown is Antibes, matin, 1908 (Private collection).
A lifelong experimenter, Henri Matisse (1869–1954) hailed from northern climes but eventually fell under the spell that is cast by this enchanting part of the world and which was to be a catalyst in his meteoric progress as an artist. For a time he was influenced by Signac and visited him in Saint Tropez in 1904 but he was such an innovative character that no manifesto could hold him for long. Having dabbled with divisionism he went on to push the boundaries of what painting could be by developing Fauvism with his friend and fellow-artist André Derain in a ‘summer of colour’ at Collioure in 1905. It was in 1917 that Matisse first settled in Nice, again partly for health reasons, and by then his style had moved on in its indefineable and unique way. The painting shown is Route du cap d’Antibes, le grand pin, 1926 (Private collection).
For a time Albert Marquet (1875–1947) and Charles Camoin (1879–1965) were adherents of Fauvism and great friends of Matisse. They were often to be found travelling and painting in one another’s company and also visiting fellow artists in what had now become a veritable academy of brilliance on the Côte d’Azur. Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) was another member of this charmed circle who, from 1911, divided his time between his home near Giverny and the South. For all of them the unique qualities of the Mediterranean coast were the catalyst in their painterly experiments with colour and form. The painting shown is Marine, les Barques, Antibes (Private collection) by Marquet.
During the 1920’s John Duncan Fergusson (1874–1961), a leading member of the Scottish Colourists, lived and worked mainly in Paris but from there he made frequent trips to the South of France including Cassis (see entry elsewhere on this site) and Antibes. In particular, he and his partner Margaret Morris spent carefree times at Château des Enfants near Eden Roc on Cap d’Antibes and his paintings from this period conjure up the sophisticated world of hedonistic pleasure seekers enjoying the sun, sea and other charms of the area. The painting shown is Bather, Cap d’Antibes, 1924 (Private collection).
Raoul Dufy (1877–1953) is sometimes referred to as the ‘painter of joy’ and as such he found a wealth of subject matter in the South of France, to which he was a frequent visitor. After brief flirtations with Fauvism and Cubism he went on to develop a style that became
quintessentially his own. His animated paintings
have become iconic images that capture the ‘joie de vivre’ of
the Mediterranean coast during the inter-war years. The work shown is Railway in Antibes, 1926 (Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow).
Although it wasn’t until 1946 when Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) spent several months working in Antibes, he was no stranger to the delights of the Riviera, having been a frequent visitor and sometime resident from 1919 up until the outbreak of the Second World War. Like Matisse, his lifelong rival, he was a restless genius who is impossible to pigeon-hole and in the course of his career he is seen as being influential in, if not the leader of, many of the developments in the arts of painting, sculpture, ceramics and printmaking throughout the twentieth century. The mythological dimension of Antibes with its connections to ancient Greece and Rome as well as its physical ambience were possibly attractions that led Picasso to take up the offer of studio space at the Château Grimaldi in 1946. At the time he was living with his mistress Françoise Gilot at nearby Golf-Juan. If his reaction to the realities of war are best exemplified by the uncompromising Geurnica, perhaps the more optimistic frame of mind that relates to his sunny interlude in Antibes is best illustrated by La joie de vivre (shown here). With its references to the classical past, it is a joyful celebration of earthly and erotic pleasures in the heat of a Mediterranean summer’s day. Picasso was 65 years old when he painted this but his brief sojourn in the town had given him a new lease of life and the work he created at this time is often referred to as his Antibes period. When he left at the end of the year he donated all of this work to the town and that now forms the basis of collection at the Musée Picasso. 
There are many more artists who have found inspiration in the environs of Antibes over the decades but it is not possible to mention them all here. The final and rather tragic figure to be considered here is Nicolas de Staël (1913–1955), examples of whose work are also housed in the Musée Picasso. He was the son of aristocratic parents in St Petersburg but the comfortable world into which he was born was soon in ruins after the Bolshevik Revolution and the family had to flee to Poland. By the age of nine he was an orphan in the care of a Russian family in Brussels and the rest of his life was one of restless travelling. In the Second World War he joined the Foreign Legion for a time and later struggled to support his wife and child while all the while trying to pursue his ambition to be an artist. His wife died in childbirth in 1946 and thereafter he continued his nomadic existence until settling in Antibes in 1953. From his apartment window he had panoramic views of the old town, the distant mountains and the ever-present sea. He was now at the height of his creative powers and elements of landscape, architecture and marine activity are all woven into his abstract compositions. In March 1955 he attended a concert in Paris and was so inspired by the music that he felt compelled to return to Antibes and commit his thoughts to canvas. He immediately started work on a monumental painting and worked feverishly until failing light made it impossible to continue. His state of mind was such at this stage that he destroyed his sketchbooks relating to future projects and commited suicide by jumping from the window of his apartment. A tragic end to a gifted life. Le concert, can be seen in the Musée Picasso. The painting shown is Le Fort d’Antibes, 1955 (Private collection).
