Sun, Sea and a Painter’s Palette: How the Mediterranean Shap
The history of the Côte d’Azur and the history of Modern art are in many ways inextricable - whilst it was the avant-garde artists who were drawn to the Mediterranean that put it firmly on the cultural map of Europe, it was the timeless beauty, the radiant light and the freedom they discovered that, in turn, shaped the development of Modern art.
by Aleksandra Todorovic
The 150 miles of coastline stretching from the Italian border towards Saint-Tropez, and now the location of some of the most glamorous seaside destinations, the French Riviera was once an impoverished region of small fishing villages and olive groves, remote from the capital and from the more developed northern coast. The landscape was idyllic, largely untouched by industrialisation. In the late 18th century the region’s climate and health benefits were described by a Scottish writer and surgeon Tobias Smollett in Travels through France and Italy. Subsequently, the coast became a fashionable winter resort for the British upper class as well as European aristocrats including Tsar Alexander II of Russia, Napoleon III and Queen Victoria.
The arrival of the railway in the 1860s meant that Nice and the rest of the region became more easily accessible not only for Parisians, but also for visitors from all over Europe. In the winter of 1883, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir travelled to the Mediterranean coast by train, stopping for brief painting expeditions in various towns in Italy and France. Returning to the region a few years later, Monet wrote from Antibes: ‘It is so beautiful here, so bright, so luminous. One swims in blue air, and it is frightening.’ [1] Both artists went back to the Mediterranean several times, R
enoir eventually settling in the village of Cagnes-sur-Mer situated between Nice and Antibes.
In 1888, while living in Arles where he set up his ‘Studio of the South’, Van Gogh first saw the Mediterranean during visits to a nearby fishing village. Painting on the beach, with grains of sand captured in his paint layers, he delighted in the ever-changing colour of the sea. Along with Monet and Renoir, he paved the way for subsequent generations of artists, who were attracted by the dazzling sunshine and the unique quality of light that would revolutionise their use of colour. The history of the region and the history of Modern art thus became inextricable - whilst it was the avant-garde artists who were drawn to the Mediterranean that put it firmly on the cultural map of Europe, it was the timeless beauty, the radiant light and the freedom they discovered that, in turn, shaped the development of Modern art.
A passionate sailor as well as painter, Paul Signac discovered the South of France in 1892 when, following a sudden death of his friend Georges Seurat, he set sail on his boat Olympia in search of the southern sun. When Signac arrived in what was then a sleepy fishing village of Saint-Tropez, he wrote: ‘I am settled here since yesterday and overjoyed. [...] there is enough material to work on for the rest of my days. Happiness – that is what I have just discovered.’ [2] The Mediterranean light had a strong effect on Signac’s art, resulting in a shift from a systematic distribution of dots that followed a scientific method, towards a more liberal version of Pointillism characterised by looser application of paint.
Joining Signac in Saint-Tropez in the summer of 1904, Henri Matisse painted Luxe, calme et volupté, a ground-breaking painting that heralded the birth of Fauvism. A year later, Matisse and André Derain spent the legendary summer of 1905 painting side by side at Collioure, a coastal village situated further west near the Spanish border, and the wild, vibrant paintings they created during that summer and exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in Paris several months later, marked the official start of Fauvism. The following summer, Georges Braque painted his Fauve masterpieces in the fishing port of L’Estaque, near Marseille. Thus, the combination of tranquillity and luminescence found in the Mediterranean surroundings gave impetus to one of the most intense and influential, if short-lived movements of the 20th century. A decade later Matisse would relocate to Nice, and his ‘Nice period’ compositions are now among his most celebrated and sought after.
Braque would return to L’Estaque in 1907 and 1908, and the canvases he painted during those trips reveal the momentous shift in his art from Fauve to Cubist style. Whilst Picasso spent his Cubist years living and working primarily in his Paris studio, in the 1920s he spent several summers in Antibes and Juan-les-Pins, and the compositions he created there contain elements of Synthetic Cubism, Neo-Classicism and Surrealism. After the Second World War Picasso permanently relocated to the South of France, eventually settling at Villa La Californie just above Cannes, which offered sweeping views of the sea, before moving to the nearby hilltop town of Mougins, where he spent his final years. In addition to the painters, many prominent European and American writers either took up residence on the Riviera or made frequent visits and socialised here in the interwar period. The presence of Hemingway, Nabokov, Maugham, Colette, Huxley and others certainly added to the glamour and sophistication of the area, whilst F. Scott Fitzgerald immortalised the vibrancy and decadence of the Cȏte d’Azur in his novel Tender is the Night, published in 1934.
Following in the footsteps of his Impressionist, post-Impressionist, Fauve and Cubist predecessors, another painter drawn to the French Riviera was Pierre Bonnard. Having lived first in Paris and later in Vernonnet, north-west of the capital and not far from Monet’s beloved Giverny, in 1925 Bonnard and his companion Marthe moved to the Cȏte d’Azur. They settled in Le Cannet, a village above Cannes, where they bought Le Bosquet, the house in which they would spend the rest of their lives. Today the town of Le Cannet houses a Bonnard Museum, showing some of the artist’s masterpieces in the very surroundings that had inspired him.
Bonnard’s obsession with the French Riviera had, however, begun much earlier. He started visiting the region in the early years of the twentieth century, staying near Saint-Tropez at the house of his friend and fellow painter Henri Manguin. Not only did this area offer splendid views and a quality of light that provided a life-long source of inspiration, it also presented many opportunities to spend time with other artists who had settled nearby, most notably Matisse and Signac. Over the period of 25 years Bonnard produced hundreds of paintings depicting both the interior of the house and its surroundings. Bonnard depicted the South of France as a vision of earthly paradise, calling to mind Matisse’s ground-breaking Luxe, calme et volupté (1904, Musée d’Orsay, Paris) and Le bonheur de vivre (1905-06, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia). Instead of Matisse’s mythical nudes, however, Bonnard populated his canvases with figures from his inner circle - most frequently Marthe going about her daily activities - creating scenes that breathe with a sense of realism as well as intimacy.
One of Bonnard’s early patrons and supporters was the Russian businessman Ivan Morozov, whose collection, housed in his Moscow villa, included notable works by Cézanne, Gauguin and Picasso. In 1910 he commissioned from Bonnard a large triptych to decorate the monumental staircase of his Moscow residence. The resulting panels, titled On the Mediterranean and measuring a total of 4 by 4.5 meters, offer a beautiful view of a group of figures in the cool shadow of the trees on an otherwise sunny terrace, the viewer’s eye drawn towards the depth of the middle panel offering a glimpse of the sea. One can only imagine how this scene of a sunkissed earthly paradise warmed the soul during the cold months of Moscow winters. After the Russian Revolution Morozov left the country, while his invaluable collection was dispersed between several state-owned museums. On the Mediterranean can now be seen in The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
The appeal of sun-drenched views and bright, saturated colours of the Cȏte d’Azur landscapes has continued to the present day, and is reflected in the everlasting interest among art collectors. In April this year, Bonnard’s Midi au jardin, a view of his garden at Le Cannet, was offered at auction at Christie’s Paris as a highlight of a group of works from the collection of the artist’s brother-in-law, the composer Claude Terrasse, selling above its high estimate. A firework of luminous colours, the painting depicts orange, fig and lemon trees and bushes almost dissolving under the intense heat of the midday sun. In May 2024, a record price for one of Monet’s paintings of Antibes was achieved at Sotheby’s New York in May 2024, when his Antibes vue de la Salis sold for over $14 million. Although this view of the town seen across the water was created in the early morning of a winter day, the pure quality of light and colour invigorated him. Writing in a letter to Auguste Rodin, Monet captured the sentiment of many generations of artists who painted on the Mediterranean coast: ‘I'm working from morning to evening, brimming with energy... I'm fencing and wrestling with the sun. And what a sun it is.’ [3]
[1] Claude Monet, quoted in Monet and the Mediterranean (exhibition catalogue), Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1997, p. 44
[2] Paul Signac, quoted in Signac (exhibition catalogue), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001, p. 172
[3] Claude Monet, quoted in Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge, Monet, New York, 1983, p. 123
Cover of the first edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel Tender is the Night, 1934
Pierre Bonnard, On the Mediterranean, 1911, oil on canvas, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, formerly in the collection of Ivan Morozov, Moscow
Latest Stories
FABERGÉ IN BLOOM: GEDDINGS GRAY UNDER THE HAMMER
Art Expert - Art Advisor - Art Dealer - Art Collector
Latest Stories
WHO IS THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL?
Art Expert - Art Advisor - Art Dealer - Art Collector
Latest Stories
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — SO GOOD THEY NAILED IT THRICE
Art Expert - Art Advisor - Art Dealer - Art Collector
Latest Stories
ART BEYOND THE POLITICAL FRAME
Art Expert - Art Advisor - Art Dealer - Art Collector
Latest Stories
PEACE IN THE EYE OF THE STORM: VENICE BIENNALE 2026
Art Expert - Art Advisor - Art Dealer - Art Collector
Latest Stories
MONET AND VENICE IN SAN FRANCISCO
Art Expert - Art Advisor - Art Dealer - Art Collector
Latest Stories
WHY THE ART MARKET STILL CAN’T DEFEAT FORGERY
Art Expert - Art Advisor - Art Dealer - Art Collector
More From Vickery Art
A service tailored to you / Сервис для вас
Whether you are an individual or arts organization and need on-tap expertise, valuations and appraisals, or are seeking acquisitions, our art advisory offers a variety of different services based on your collection covering Russian art, European modernism and international contemporary art.
Независимо от того, являетесь ли вы частным лицом или художественной организацией и нуждаетесь в оперативной экспертизе, оценке и анализе или ищете возможности для приобретения, наша консалтинговая компания в области искусства предлагает широкий спектр различных услуг, основанных на вашей коллекции, охватывающей русское искусство, европейский модернизм и международное современное искусство.
Open to the world / Открыт для мира
Helping Institutions and Arts organizations achieve their Goals through our art Soviet, Ukrainian and Russian Art advisory.
Помощь учреждениям и организациям сферы искусств в достижении их целей с помощью наших консультаций по вопросам искусства.
Be inspired / Будьте вдохновлены
Our contemporary art advisory allows artists to do what they do best: create art.
Наши консультации по современному искусству позволяют художникам заниматься тем, что у них получается лучше всего: создавать искусство.
I am not sure what I need / Я не уверен, что мне нужно
The solution place for that one time Modern Art, Impressionist, Russian art advisory, Ukrainian art expert or Eastern European Art Advisory need. In addition, as a Russian Art dealer we can help you find for unique works of your interest.
Место, где на время вам понадобится эксперт по современному искусству, импрессионизму, русскому искусству, украинскому искусству или восточноевропейскому искусству.
Latest Stories
CAN A GENIUS BE SCROLLED PAST?
Art Expert - Art Advisor - Art Dealer - Art Collector
Latest Stories
THE POWER OF REPETITION IN ART
Art Expert - Art Advisor - Art Dealer - Art Collector
Latest Stories
WHEN DOCUMENTATION BECOMES THE ARTWORK
Art Expert - Art Advisor - Art Dealer - Art Collector