Introduction and
history 

Citywalk and
cathedral

 Picasso museum

When the market stalls start 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 that he benefited from incredible landscape views from a lot of points, like the windows and the terraces. He took the keys of the chateau that were offered to him and used it as a grand studio and atelier. He painted solidly for five months incorporating immediately the light and intense colour of the south in a series of drawings and paintings. 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”. It's a major work, which symbolises his whole stay in the chateau. It is crowded by fauns, satyrs and centaurs. A year later, Picasso’s enthusiasm was still very great and he liked to paint mythological subjects (Ulysse et les Sirenes, Faunes musiciens), fishermen provided another source of inspiration like his "Gobeur d'Oursins" (Man Gulping Sea Urchins), and cubist nudes  (" Nus couches" au lit blanc, au lit bleu and sur fond vert). It was also here that Picasso painted the "Antipolis Suite", a series depicting highly stylised, pared-down nudes, often reclining.  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. The artist, famous for his avarice and stinginess promised many things he never kept in his life but this donation was for real. 

Picasso and Fr.Gilot

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. One of the largest collections of Nicolas de Stael (who committed suicide in 1955 by jumping out of his window). An important collection of the modern Nice school of Cesar, Arman, Spoerri, Klein, but also Leger, Calder, Modigliani, Corneille, Hartung, Max Ernst, Magnelli.

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. 

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