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SELF-GUIDED WALK AROUND L’ESTAQUE
Returning to complete the ‘Chemin des Peintres’ you need to turn left onto the Plage de l’Estaque by the Jardin Sylvain Bettini. After passing a small marina on the right you will come to a distinctive circular building and at this point take the opportunity to cross the road to the crescent of buildings. Walk along the central reservation which is also a car park and you will come to the final panel (8) which is called ‘A terrace on the sea’. This refers to the terrace of the old Grand Hôtel de la Falaise which occupies a commanding site above where you are standing. This is now a private residence with no public access but it is possible to catch a glimpse of the distinctive balustrades by walking away from the panel towards the landscaped gardens by the waterfront. The panel is illustrated with a work by Albert Marquet who was fascinated by the geometry of the terraces combined with pine trees, exotic vegetation and the Bay of Marseille beyond. Indeed he produced about thirty paintings in L’Estaque, mostly from this viewpoint. Georges Braque and Othon Friesz were also inspired to paint from this spot.
The circuit is now completed by walking back to the starting place and on the way you will pass the roadside doorway to La Palestine, previously referred to, which is one of the architectural gems of L’Estaque. And so maybe this rather ‘unlovely’ suburb of Marseille might now be seen in a more favourable light as somewhere that was pivotel in the development of painting in the twentieth century and which still retains some of its original charms, if you are prepared to look hard enough. | ||
Panel 1
This is rather poetically entitled ‘Place of Inspiration, Place of Character’ and gives a brief overview of the significant artists who found inspiration here together with a quote from Emile Zola who wrote Naïs Micoulin, a novel set in the town, while staying with his friend Paul Cézanne. The panel is illustrated with an old photograph taken from this approximate position and also with a work by Georges Braque from a similar viewpoint, painted in 1906 and called L’Estaque (Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris/
He spent some time in the town during that year, partly
motivated by a feeling of pilgrimage to visit the place where Cézanne
had found such inspiration and who had recently died. Another of
Braque’s iconic images of the waterfront is L’Estaque Harbour (Courtauld Gallery, London/
The second panel (2) is passed when retracing your steps to the Plage de l’Estaque and this is devoted to the fishing heritage of the town and is entitled ‘Fishing for tasty morsels’. Although there are still a few traditional fishing boats to be seen they are almost lost in a sea of white fibre-glass hulls and a forest of masts belonging to the hundred, if not thousands, of pleasure boats. The painting featured is Bateaux de pêches à l’Estaque (Private collection) of 1906 by André Derain.
Once back on the Plage de l’Estaque cross over the road and turn
right, walking by the row of restaurants, some serving local seafood,
facing the waterfront. You will also see a stall selling local
delicacies, chichi Freggi (fritters spinkled with sugar) and panisses
(chickpea fritters). Turn left into a narrow road called Traverse de
Port de Bouc following the signs for the church and where this joins
Montée du Cercle turn right and then left up the Impasse de l’Epargne to
reach Place Malleterre. 
With the church behind you the terrace commands
terrific views across the rooftops to the waterfront and the sea
beyond. The panel called ‘The Refuge of L’Estaque’ (3) shows two works
by Cézanne who actually lived in a house on the square for a time
(recorded by a plaque on the building) and he was obviously fascinated
by the possibilities that this place provided. Although there have been
many changes in the century that has passed there is still the same
combination of red-tiled roofs, deep blue sea and porcelaine blue sky.
Sadly the panel has been damaged but it is still possible to read the
words and admire the images. The first painting is L’Estaque, effet du soir, 1870–71 (Musée du Louvre, Paris/
Panel 5
Now turn left and walk along Chemin de la Nerthe which soon becomes Boulevard Raymond Fillat. After a while take a left into Boulevard de la Falaise and you will soon come to the Jardin de la Falaise on the right. This is a delightful spot with trees offering some welcome shade and the next panel (5) should be found here. However, at the time of writing, this panel entitled ‘In the footsteps of the master: changing views of l’Estaque’, had been removed, presumably due to vandalism.
It is difficult to comment about what the content of
this might have been but it is assumed that the ‘master’ referred to is
Cézanne and it is possible that this panel would look at images created
by him and similar views painted by artists such as Georges Braque and
Raoul Dufy who followed in his footsteps. The first picture shown here is Houses in Provence – the Riaux Valley near L’Estaque painted by Cézanne in 1879–82 (National Gallery of Art, Washington/
Exit the park at the far side and take the Avenue de la Mer downhill for a few steps until it joins the Boulevard de la Falaise and just across the road you will find an open space where the next panel (6) is located and this is called ‘Go to the motif’. The panel features one work by Cézanne and two by Braque all featuring the Riaux viaduct which still looms above the tumble of red roofs with the rocky hills beyond. And so the essential elements of the scene remain inspite of the tangle of telephone wires, satellite dishes and parked vehicles. 
Cézanne’s vision in Le Viaduc à l’Estaque, 1882–85 (Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki/ 
This move to
include features that may be hidden at first sight was
a radical departure at the time and led him, with others such as Pablo
Picasso, to create the style that has become known as Cubism. And so we see that L’Estaque provided Braque with the subject matter for his progression from Fauvism to Cubism at a critical point in his artistic development.
It is now necessary to walk down the hill for a short distance until the road joins Montée Antoine Castejon and turn sharp left here and continue downhill. Before meeting the main road (Plage de l’Estaque) you will come to some open ground on both sides of the road and this is where the bus number 35 from Marseille usually terminates. On the left the slightly untidy space is called Jardin Sylvain Bettini and here will be found the next panel (7) called ‘L’Estaque, the spirit of modern times’.
This deals with the period at the beginning of the twentieth
century when the town was being transformed by growing industrialisation
and population. The first factories had been established soon after the
railway arrived and in the beginning Cézanne seemed to embrace the
changes and the tall chimneys of the tile manufacturers feature in many
of his paintings. In Usines à l’Estaque, 1865 (Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence), shown above, he uses a rather naïve style to show the uncompromising impact of factories on the landscape. However he became unsettled by the relentless pace of
development and in his words, “I well remember the Establon and the
then so picturesque coastline of L’Estaque. Unfortunately, what is
called progress is only the invasion of bipeds, who will not rest until
they have transformed everything into horrible quays with gas lights and
– what is even worse – electric lighting. What times we live in!” 
Where Cézanne found disallusionment others, such as Braque, Derain and
Dufy continued to draw inspiration from the place and the reality of the
new industrial world seems to be more relevant to what they were trying
to do with their artistic endeavours. Shown above is L’Usine, 1908 by Raoul Dufy (Musée Cantini, Marseille) and to the right is Les Usines Rio Tinto à l’Estaque, 1910 by Georges Braque (Musée d’Art Moderne du Nord, Villeneuve-d’Ascq).
This involves quite a long walk, the first part of which is alongside the busy road with the limestone cliffs on one side and, literally, thousands of yachts and pleasure craft moored at the vast marina on the other. Eventually it is possible to get off the road and walk along the Quai de la Lave beside the beaches that are very popular in the summer months. The walk is also rewarded by spectacular views of the stone viaducts and the wild limestone cliffs which so inspired generations of artists. It must have been near here that Cézanne and Renoir set up their easels to paint their interpretations of the scene.
The painting above is Viaduc à l’Estaque by Cézanne, painted in 1882 (Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio) and to the right is Rochers à l’Estaque by Renoir (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/
Terrace à l’Estaque, 1916–17, Albert Marquet (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes). The work shown here is not the one on the panel as it has proved impossible to find an image, although both are held by the same museum.
