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SELF GUIDED WALK 2 – From Saint-Clair to Cavalière
There is now the opportunity to visit the beach at La Fossette by taking the pedestrian underpass below the main road. The track takes you past a field of vines on the right and you emerge onto a delightful sandy beach sheltered by headlands to left and right. Out of season the beach is likely to be deserted or at least very quiet but in high summer it will be lined with sunbeds and worshippers. In the dark days of the Second World War this tranquil cove was the setting for a daring incident in which General Giraud, led by a local fisherman, was taken aboard a British submarine and transferred to North Africa to take command of French troops. This is recorded on a plaque set in the rocks at the far end of the beach.
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The starting point for this leisurely walk is the small store with the painted murals at the end of the Avenue Van Rysselberghe where the cycle path bears to the left away from the main road. This area is known as Le Four des Maures and reference has already been made to a painting of that title by Henri Edmond Cross in the “Stroll around Saint-Clair” and it is quite possible that it was painted from close to this spot. Another painting by the same artist called La Mer clapotante (Private collection/www.the-atheneum.org) may well be from the same viewpoint. This work, from his later years, shows a stormy scene and in places is almost abstract in its use of bold strokes of pure colour resulting in a graphic depiction of waves breaking on the rocky shore.
Continue along the cycle path which follows the route of the old railway line, sometimes passing through cuttings and sometimes revealing views down to the sea on the right and up into the foothills of the Maures mountains on the left. There are now several hotels and a lot of residential development on the lower slopes and this has largely replaced the small-scale agricultural activity which would have been in evidence a century ago. At some point along this route Cross would have set up his easel to paint Les Chaîne des Maures (Fondation Bemberg, Toulouse/ www.the-athenaeum.org), another late work displaying the same lively brushwork as in the previous picture.
Just before reaching La Fossette the view opens up on the seaward side and it was probably somewhere on this rocky stretch of coast that Van Rysselberghe found the distinctively shaped pine tree that supplied the subject for several paintings including Le Pin de la Fossette (paysage du Midi) (Centraal Museum, Utrecht/
However there are still occasional views of the bay seen through a framework of pine trees and more exotic vegetation, each one a possible subject for a painting by Cross or Van Rysselberghe. The Plage de l’Éléphant and Plage de Jean-Blanc are passed on the right as the path continues towards Cavalière and eventually a point will be reached where the pathway disappears into a tunnel. It is here that a diversion can be taken along a footpath down to Pointe du Rossignol and Pointe du Layet, favourite spots for our two artists. The contorted shapes of wind-blown pines, the jagged rocks fringed with a froth of turbulent water, the sunlight dancing on the bay and the enigmatic silhouettes of the distant islands all combined to entrance the painters time after time. The picture shown here is Le Cap Layet, 1904 by Henri Edmond Cross (Musée de grenoble/
Reference has already been made to La Baie de Cavalière by Cross in the ‘Stroll around Saint-Clair’ and the viewpoint for this work is far more likey to have been hereabouts. Van Rysselberghe was possibly on a painting excursion with his friend Henri when he produced La Pointe du Rossignol (Private collection/www.the-athenaeum.org).
The footpath continues downhill to emerge onto Plage du Layet and it is possible to take other narrow paths to explore the point and get yet more captivating views such as that depicted in Van Rysselberghe’s Pins à Pointe Layet (Private collection/www.the-athenaeum.org). The beach itself is the haunt of naturists in the summer time but out of season can be practically deserted. In view of some of Van Rysselberghe’s paintings, as we shall see, the designation of this beach for the use of the unclothed is not entirely inappropriate. Now take the path uphill until it rejoins the main road at the point where the cycle path emerges from the tunnel and cross over to resume the walk into Cavalière.
Before walking into town take a diversion down to the beach by the little road (Traverse de la Plage) adjacent to a rather grand, if a little shabby, villa with blue shutters. This takes you to the western end of Cavalière beach and if you turn right and walk towards the rocks you will come to the place where Van Rysselberghe probably set up his easel to paint Baigneuses à Cavalière in 1910 (Musée de Deinze et du Pays de la Lys/www.deinze.be) . A joyful celebration of the female form in idyllic surroundings – a new arcadia populated by contemporary naïades – it is certainly an interesting point of view.
At the far end of the bay is Cap Nègre, which again supplied the subjects and settings for paintings by Cross and Van Rysselberghe but also for many others including Henri Manguin. It is unlikely they would now be able to roam freely around the promontory as the rather grand turreted villa to be found there is a summer home of Carla Bruni and Nicolas Sarkosy. The picture shown is Le Cap Nègre, 1906 by Henri Edmond Cross (Private collection/Galerie de la Présidence, Paris).
