Raoul Dufy — A Passion for Color

Raoul Dufy — A Passion for Color

3 June 2022 | Europe, France, Places | 1 comment

One of my favorite museums in the south of France, the Hôtel de Caumont – Art Center recently opened a new exhibit focusing on the work of the French painter Raoul Dufy (1877 – 1953). Held in conjunction with the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, which owns one of the largest collection of the artist’s works, the exhibition ‘Raoul Dufy: a Passion for Color’ explores the artist’s entire career, with particular attention to Dufy’s close link with Provence and the work of Paul Cezanne.

From Normandy to Provence

Yacht in Le Havre (1904). Oil on canvas, 69 x 81 cm. Le Havre Musée d’Art Moderne-André Malraux.

Born in Le Havre, a major port city on the English Channel, Dufy takes his first step as an artist at the city’s Municipal Art School before being awarded a scholarship to the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (National School of Fine Arts) in Paris in 1900. His early works, mainly landscapes of the Normandy coast, are Impressionist in style, until 1905 when he encounters the work of Henri Matisse and Fauvism at the famous Salon des Independents — and is briefly attracted by the power of color and the strength of drawing of the Fauvist mouvement.

Fishing Boats in Martigues (circa 1910). Oil on canvas, 46 x 55 cm. Private Collection.

Then, in 1908, during a trip to the south of France with Georges Braque, Dufy discovers the work of Cezanne. He goes to paint at l’Estaque, a small fishing port close to Marseille, in homage to the Provencal master. While Braque turns to cubism a year later, Dufy continues to study Cezanne’s work until 1914. The blues of the sea and sky remain at the heart of his on-going exploration of his favorite motifs: coastal landscapes, boats, regattas and bathers. But he now adds the ochres, greens and reds hues of Provence to his palette. Warm orange tones also make their way into his indoor scenes, showing the extent to which the southern climate is influencing his appreciation of color.

The Cezanne Legacy

Nice Pier and Promenade (circa 1926). Oil on Canvas, 38 x 46 cm. Paris Museum of Modern Art

This newfound “Cezannism” endures in the work of  Dufy to the end of the decade. He applies it to his own places of residence,  Paris and Le Havre. After the First World War, Dufy returns to Vence. Now, while still inspired by Cezanne, he also has a short flirtation with Cubism even as his own distinctive style emerges in the early 1920’s: skeletal structures, arranged with foreshortened perspective, and the use of thin washes of color applied quickly, in a manner that comes to be known as stenographic. Dufy’s cheerful oils and watercolors depict events of the time, including yachting scenes, sparkling views of the French Riviera, regattas and musical events.

A Multifaceted Talent

The Large Bather (1913). Oil on canvas 182 x 245 cm. On deposit at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Burssels. Private Collection.

In addition to his coastal landscapes, the exhibition presents other Dufy favorite themes, among them interiors of his successive workshops, flowers and bathers. The later is a subject of infinite variations as Dufy associates the bather motif with mythological evocations of nymphs and goddesses of Greek and Roman Antiquity, such as Amphitrite or Venus. 

 

 

 

Bouquets of wild flowers, circa 1948. Watercolor and gouache on Arches vellum, 50 x 65.7cm.

He also nurtures a strong interest in flowers, to the point of specializing in the field. From 1910 to 1930, he produces a number of highly successful floral patterns for the French couturier Paul Poiret’s textile company and the Bianchini-Férier silk factory in Lyon. He excels in this area, in which ornaments, scrolls and ellipses are matched by a subtly infinite palette of colors. Then in the 1940’s, he turns to watercolor to represent wildflowers such as poppies, cornflowers, daisies, irises and anemones in seemingly careless bouquets and garden still lifes.

Dufy transferred his mythologicaldesigns onto ceramics.

Throughout his career, he also acquires a reputation as an illustrator and as a commercial artist. His engraving plates appear in books by Guillaume Apollinaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, and André Gide among others. He produced a huge number of tapestry and ceramic designs. And he paints murals for public buildings.

 

 

 

The Electricity Fairy

The exhibition ends with an immersive installation of the Electricy Fairy mural.

In 1937, for the International Exposition of Arts and Technology in Paris, Dufy completes one of the most ambitious paintings ever undertaken: a monumental work of 600 square meters (6500 square feet), composed of 250 panels illustrating the social role of light, to decorated the inside façade of the Pavilion of Light and Electricity. To represent the history of electricity from its first observations to its most recent applications, the composition is organized as a liberated, lively drawing of bright blocks of color, depicting many of the artist’s favorite subjects, including yachts, flocks of birds, festive scenes and allegorical and mythological figures. The work can now be admired in its dedicated permanent hall at the Paris Museum of Modern Art. But the creators of the current exhibition found a way to bring it to their visitors: the last room of the itinerary features an immersive installation of La Fée Électricité which allow the viewer to appreciate the work in greater detail than the original display.

Dufy’s Workshop in Perpignan (1942). Oil on canvas, 65 X 85 cm. Paris Museum of Modern Art.

Dufy’s artistic legacy languished for a number of decades after his death in 1953. Critics seemed to consider that the optimistic, fashionably decorative nature of his work trivialized it. Featuring more than ninety works from French and international public and private collections to prove them wrong, the exhibition, which runs until September 18, 2022, is well worth a visit if you happen to be anywhere this summer within detour distance from Aix-en-Provence and the Hôtel de Caumont – Art Center.

The original of La Fée Electricité resides at the Paris Museum of Modern Art.

Good to Know

  • Getting There –By train: there are frequent TVG (high speed train) connections throughout the day from Paris (3 hours) and Lyon (1 hour) as well as Geneva (3 hours) and Brussels (5 hours) to Aix-en-Provence. The TGV train station is located 15 kilometers (9.5 miles) southwest of town, with a bus shuttle running every 15 minutes between the station and the bus terminal in the center of town. By plane: Marseille–Provence airport is 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) southwest of Aix, with numerous flights from Paris, London and other major European cities. It is served by the same shuttle as the TGV station.
  • Visiting – Caumont Art Center, 3, rue Joseph Cabassol, 13100, Aix-en-Provence, France.Is open daily from May 6 to September 18 from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, and from September 19 to May 5 from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. Contact: e-mail, or Tel: +33 (0) 4 42 20 70 01.

A Few Souvenirs

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Hotel de Caumont - Art Center

The Night Never Falls – Zao Wou-Ki in Aix-en-Provence

The Night Never Falls – Zao Wou-Ki in Aix-en-Provence

26 June 2021 | Europe, France, Places | 3 comments

After the endless Covid “Winter of our Confinement”, spring has finally come to Europe. Everywhere, monuments, museums and galleries are reopening, and long-awaited temporary exhibits can finally be enjoyed, such as the brilliant, recently inaugurated exhibit at the Hotel de Caumont Art Center in Aix-en-Provence: Zao Wou-Ki – Night Never Falls.

Who is Zao Wou-Ki?

Hangzhou Landscape (1946). Oil on canvas, 38,2 x 46.3 cm. Private collection,

Sunken city (1955). Oil on canvas, 89 x 146 cm. Private collection.

Wou-Ki means “no limits” in Chinese – a prescient name for an artist who was to become a prominent figure of the mid-twentieth century European Lyrical Abstraction movement for his ability to unite multiple artistic traditions within a single abstract work. Born in Peking  (Beijing) in 1920 and raised in Shanghai where his father was a banker, he began learning calligraphy from his  grandfather at an early age. Then, at fifteen, his precaution talent earned him admission to the prestigious Hangzhou National College of Art (now the China Academy of Art). There, in addition to traditional Chinese drawing, painting and calligraphy, he discovered Western art and oil painting, and developed an enthusiastic interest in Post-Impressionism.

In 1946, the Cultural Attaché of the French Embassy in China and an early champion of Zao’s work, Vadime Elisseeff, arranged for twenty of Zao’s works to be shown at the Cernuschi Museum in Paris, in a major Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese paintings. He also  encouraged him to relocate in France. Zao subsequently obtained French citizenship in 1964.

A Master of Contrasts

Still Life with Apples (1935-1936). Oil on canvas, 46 x 61 cm,. Private collection.

The current exhibition at the Caumont Art Center highlights the various stages of his career and life, from his youthful, still figurative works, to the exceptional mastery of colors, dynamic lines and expressive freedom of his later works. Central to his artistic journey is his on-going quest for light, which is not only reflected in the construction of luminous spaces and the use of vibrant colors, but above all in his exploration of contrasts made visible by his study of light.

Night Never Falls – Diptych (2005). Oil on canvas, 195 x 260 cm. Private collection.

The scenography of the entrance to the exhibition is a striking metaphor for Zao’s artistic journey . The very Cézannian “Still Life with Apples” reflects the influence that the Master from Aix had on the fifteen-year-old Chinese painter. Seventy years of painting, relentless work, various influences and experimentation separate this work from the 2005 monumental diptych Il ne fait jamais nuit (Night never falls). Exhibited together, these two works show the evolution of the artist and the development of his work with light.

 

An Artist’s Journey

Sketchbook sheet painted at Saint-Jeoire-en-Faucigny (July–August 1950). Watercolor on paper, 23.5 x 31.3 cm. Private collection.

A Tribute to Cézanne – 06.11.2005 (2005). Oil on canvas, 162 x 260 cm. Private collection.

The contrasts between day and night are first evoked in his watercolors of the 1950’s. Inspired by the style of Paul Klee (himself influenced by Chinese landscape painting), Zao develops his unique style marked by contrasting colors, that views Chinese art through the lens of Western abstraction. Next come the contrast between empty and full spaces, which begins to gain dominance in this canvases and India ink works of the 1970’s.

Then there here are the contrasts between the happy and the difficult periods of this life, his travels, his experience of exile, romantic relationships, relation with his family, bereavement, all are represented on his canvasses through a complex relationship between light and shadow. Zao Wou Ki’s never-ending exploration of light thus enabled him to produce  throughout his long career remarkably harmonious works that straddled the line between figurative and abstract, and East and West, to bring forth his own complex inner world.

This exhibition, which can be seen until October 10, 2021, is organized in collaboration between the Caumont Center for the Arts and the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation. It regroups almost eighty works by Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013), dating from 1935 to 2009, a majority of them on loan from private collections and rarely shown in public. It spectacularly highlights the evolution of the artist’s major creative themes: the invention of new forms of spacial representation through his experimentation with color and the representation of light.

A Tribute to A Tribute to José Luís Sert – 14.07.88 (1988). Oil on canvas, 100 x 300 cm. Private collection.

Good to Know

  • Getting There –By train: there are frequent TVG (high speed train) connections throughout the day from Paris (3 hours) and Lyon (1 hour) as well as Geneva (3 hours) and Brussels (5 hours) to Aix-en-Provence. The TGV station is located 15 kilometers (9.5 miles) southwest of town, with a shuttle running every 15 minutes between the station and the bus terminal in the center of town. By plane: Marseille–Provence airport is 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) southwest of Aix, with numerous flights from Paris, London and other major European cities. It is served by the same shuttle bus as the TGV station.
  • Visiting – Caumont Art Center, 3, rue Joseph Cabassol, 13100, Aix-en-Provence, France.Is open daily from May 1 to October 10 from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm. Contact: e-mail. Tel: +33 (0) 4 42 20 70 01.

A Few Souvenirs

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Hotel de Caumont Art Center

Joaquin Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light

Joaquin Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light

7 August 2020 | Europe, France, Places | 2 comments

After being shuttered for several months, like all art venues in France, by the global health emergency, the Hôtel de Caumont, one of the Baroque Jewels of Aix-en-Provence, and one of my favorite art exhibition spaces anywhere, reopened recently. Its long delayed new exhibit: Joaquin Sorolla – Spanish Master of Light, proved well worth the wait.

Joaquín Sorolla, Autoportrait, 1900. Oil on canvas,      91,5 x 72,5 cm. Museo Sorolla, Madrid

Although inexplicably little known outside of Europe these days, Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923) is considered one of the greatest Spanish painters of the 20th  century. And along with Velàsquez and Goya, it is one of the most popular painters in Spain. 

Born into a modest family in Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast, Sorolla began his artistic training at a young age but didn’t discover the classic masters of Spanish painting until he traveled to Madrid at the age of 18 and ardently began studying the great works at the Prado Museum. Then, in 1885, he obtained a four-year grant that enabled him to complete his studies in Rome, making him the only Spanish artist of his generation to move in international art circles and associate with artists as varied as Bonnat, Degas, Monet, Rodin and Sargent. Soon, the spontaneous, impressionistic brushstrokes of his images of Spain and his incandescent capture of the Mediterranean light were recognized in major European artistic competitions, such as the Salon of Paris, the Venice Biennial, and the Secession exhibits in Berlin, Munich and Vienna. 

The current exhibit introduces visitors to Sorolla’s creative process and the main themes his work.

Grandson of Velàsquez

Joaquín Sorolla, My Family. 1901. Oil on canvas,          185 x 159 cm, Museo de la Ciudad. Ayuntamiento de Valencia.

Although formal portraiture was not Sorolla’s preferred genre, as it restricted his creative impulses, he was an avid portraitist of his family – and he couldn’t overlook the profitable aspect of portrait commissions. The exhibit begins with some of his most notable portraits, the part of his works where the influence of Velásquez  is most remarkable, as in My Family (1901). Here, he has grouped his wife and children in the foreground, with the painter reflected at work in a distant mirror, in clear tribute to The Bridesmaids (Velàsquez, 1665). 

Again, for the Portrait of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, an eminent neurologist and winner of the 1906 Nobel Prize for Medicine, he used the traditional palette of subdued colors from the Spanish Baroque School, and the posture again shows the influence of Velàsquez.

Joaquín Sorolla, Portrait of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, 1906. Oil on canvas, 107 x 144.5, Museo de Zaragoza.

Yet, as in all the other portraits shown here, Sorolla’s most remarkable achievement as a portraitist was that while he strongly leaned on Classical elements, he subtilely modernized them with references to the likes of Manet, Degas, Whistler, and Sargent. This is as noticeable in the large hats worn by his daughters María and Elena, and the gray dress of his wife, Clotilde, as in the background detail of books in the Ramón y Cajal portrait.

Daily Life of the Seashore

Joaquín Sorolla, The End of the Day, 1900. Oil on canvas                86 x 128 cm. Private collection.

Like his Impressionist contemporaries, Sorolla favored painting outdoors, which allowed him to capture instantaneous impressions and luminosity. With his native Mediterranean coastline offering a rich ground for inspiration, he created brilliant and varied representations of people engaged at seaside activities. 

His painting of fisherman on the beaches of Valencia, achieved the most success in international exhibitions, such as with his very modern The End of the Day, Jávea, presented at the Salon de Paris in 1901. Here, fisherman pulling the boat are viewed diagonally from behind giving an impression of depth to the composition. In the background, the rocky Cape San Antonio is tinged with the orange hues of sunset and the reflections of the water are composed of infinite colors.

Joaquín Sorolla, Beach in Valencia, Morning Sun, 1901. Oil on canvas 81 x 128 cm. Private collection.

In Beach in Valencia, Morning Sun, which he presented at the Salon the following year, he displays an other aspect of his mastery: capturing immediate, fleeting impressions, such as the wind catching the bonnet of the woman and the swelling the sail of the returning boat.“Nothing around us is immobile,” he wrote. “One must paint quickly because so much is lost in an instant and one never finds it again.” 

Joaquín Sorolla, Sail, 1894. Oil on canvas, 16.6 x 25.4 cm, Museo Sorolla, Madrid.

He was especially fascinated by the speed with which a sail swelled with the wind.  He strove to paint it just as one might see it at first glance. In order to convey it, he made endless drawings of sails swollen by the wind, or furled, or partly folded back, exploring all the plastic possibilities of the motif. His sketches subsequently enabled him to represent sails with the same spontaneity as these small studies.

Children in the Waves

Joaquín Sorolla, Swimmers, Jávea, 1905. Oil on canvas,               90 x 126 cm. Museo Sorolla, Madrid.

Figures in the sea were a key theme in Sorolla’s paintings, emblematic of his style. Playful children bathing or running on a beach were some of his favorite subjects. Swimmers, Jávea, is an especially fine example of how these scenes enabled him to fully display his skills as a painter. The challenge here was to capture the way in which the light interacted with the reflection of the sand and the glow of the wet skin, dissolving the children’s bodies under the crystalline water in motion.

Joaquín Sorolla, Bathing on the Beach, 1908, oil on canvas, 77 x 105 cm. Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid.

Bathing on the Beach, is another of these remarkable works, a bold painting that shows an overhead view of a baby playing with the foam on the shoreline. Here, Sorolla fully demonstrates his talent for working with light in combining the bright appearance of the baby’s skin, the girl’s white dress, the warmth of the light, and the coolness of the sea foam. 

 

The exhibition, which can be seen until November 1st, 2020, showcase around eighty paintings, drawings, and studies, including a substantial number of rarely, if ever seen before, on loan from private collections. It offers a unique opportunity to discover a vibrant, optimistic vision of modern Spain, by a  brilliant artist little known outside of his native country,

Joaquín Sorolla, María with Hat, 1910. Oil on canvas, 40 x 80 cm. Private collection.

Good to Know

  • Getting There –By train: there are frequent TVG (high speed train) connections throughout the day from Paris (3 hours) and Lyon (1 hour) as well as Geneva (3 hours) and Brussels (5 hours) to Aix-en-Provence. The TGV station is located 15 kilometers (9.5 miles) southwest of town, with a shuttle running every 15 minutes between the station and the bus terminal in the center of town. By plane: Marseille–Provence airport is 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) southwest of Aix, with numerous flights from Paris, London and other major European cities. It is served by the same shuttle bus as the TVG station.
  • Visiting – Caumont Art Center, 3, rue Joseph Cabassol, 13100, Aix-en-Provence, France.Is open daily from May 1 to September 30 from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, with late opening hours on Friday until 9:30 pm, and from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm the remainder of the year. Contact: e-mail. Tel: +33 (0) 4 42 20 70 01.

A Few Souvenirs

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Aix-en-Provence

Masterpieces from the Guggenheim Foundation – in Aix-en-Provence, France

Masterpieces from the Guggenheim Foundation – in Aix-en-Provence, France

7 June 2019 | Europe, France, Places | 5 comments

What happens when an exquisite Aix-en-Provence Baroque mansion and one of the leading Modern Art foundations in the world join forces to present a prestigious collection of late 19th and early 20th century European avant-garde art? A exceptional exhibition at the Hôtel de Caumont-Art Center: Masterpieces from the Guggenheim Foundation – From Manet to Picasso: The Thannhauser Collection.

Who were the Thannhausers?

To honor Aix’s native son, the exposition begins with The Man with Crossed Arms, Paul Cezanne. 1899, Post-Impressionist oil on canvas (Guggenheim Museum, New York).

Heinrich Thannhauser (1859-1935) and his son, Justin K. Thannhauser (1892-1976) were German gallerists and collectors, originally from Munich, where Heinrich opened his first gallery in 1909. More were to follow, opened by Justin in Lucerne, Switzerland (1919), Berlin (1927), and Paris (1937), making the Thannhausers important patrons, friends and promoters of the innovative artists who shaped Western art in the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

As a result of persecution by the Nazis, Justin and his family, who were Jewish, emigrated from Berlin to Paris in 1937. Then, after the fall of France and the German occupation of Paris, the family settled in New York in December 1940. Justin subsequently established himself as a prominent art dealer in the United States.

 

The Palazzo Ducale, seen from San Giorgio Maggiore, Claude Monet, 1908. Impressionist oil on canvas. (Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection)

After the tragic death of his two sons, Heinz, killed in combat in 1944 while serving with the U.S. Air Force, and Michel, deceased in 1952, followed by his wife Käthe in 1960, Justin decided to bequeath the major works of his prestigious collection to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Since 1965, these emblematic works have been one of the core elements of the illustrious Modern Art institution. And now, for the first time, the collection is leaving its permanent home, the famous Frank Lloyd Wright building on New York’s 5th Avenue, to travel back to Europe – returning, albeit very temporarily, a number of Provencal masterpieces to the region where they were painted more than a century ago.

Beyond the exceptional ensemble displayed throughout the intimate gallery space of the Hôtel de Caumont, the exhibition traces the history of the Thannhauser Collection and men who created, through archival documents illustrating their relationship with the artists, as well as other collectors and art dealers.

Justin and his Friends

Le Moulin de la Galette, Pablo Picasso, 1900. Post-Impressionsit oil on canvas. (Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection).

Having assisted his father in the Moderne Galerie since his teens, Justin then continued his education in Berlin, Florence and Paris, where he came to know key Parisian art dealers as well as the thriving artist community. Here he developped his taste for modern art and began demonstrating his support of the new generation of vanguard painters.  

As early as 1913, the Munich gallery helds one of the first retrospective of Picasso’s oeuvre in Germany. Justin wrote the catalogue’s preface. This exhibition marked the beginning of a lasting friendship between the two men, as reflected throughout the current show, starting with Le Moulin de la Galette. This is the most important work executed by Picasso during his first stay in Paris, where the nineteen year-old artist had come to visit the 1900 Universal Exhibition. This painting reflects young Picasso’s fascination with the Bohemian atmosphere of Parisian nightlife and the influence of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.

Lobster and Cat, Pablo Picasso, 1965. Oil on canvas. (Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection).

Subsequent works illustrate the artist’s evolution to his melancholic Blue Period, followed by his Pink Period, and then to the phase when working in conjunction with Georges Braque, he develops the geometric lines, flat areas and deconstruction of forms that characterize cubism. Especially notable is Le Homard et le Chat (Lobster and Cat).

After the death of his first wife, Justin married Hilde Breitwisch in 1965. On this occasion, Picasso presented the couple with the painting. A dedication in red in the upper left corner of the canvas reads: “Pour Justin Thannhauser, votre ami, Picasso.”

This uncharacteristically humorous work depicts a lively eye-to-eye conflict between the feline and the crustaceous: the bristling cat is glaring at the blue lobster, who appears determined to hold its ground on its many spindly legs. 

Champions of the Avant-Garde

Haere Mai, Paul Gauguin, 1891. Post Impressionist Primitive Symbolist oil on jute canvas. (Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection).

In the years preceding Word War One, the Thannhausers support of emerging artists extended to those based in Munich as well as abroad. They provided a venue to allow Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group, a movement founded by Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Jawlensky and others who drew inspiration from sources as diverse as French Fauvism, Art Nouveau, Bavarian popular culture and Russian folklore to develop an art that was free of figurative constrains.

 

 

Yellow Cow, Franz Marc, 1911. Expressionist oil on canvas. (Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection).

 

While most conventional critics reacted to their works by calling them “absurdities of incurable madmen,” the Thannhausers demonstrated their open-mindedness by holding their first exhibition of the group’s founders in 1911-1912, followed in 1914 by the first major exhibition in Germany focused on Paul Klee, a Swiss artist also associated with The Blue Rider.

 

 

Montains at St. Remy, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889. Post-Impressionsit oil on canvas. (Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection).

 

In addition to the works from the Thannhauser Collection, the current exhibition is complemented by other pictures from the Guggenheim Museum, which although they are not part of the Thannhauser bequest, have been part of the history of of gallery or the collection and shed further light on it. Overall this spectacular exhibition offers the visitor a unique illustration of the evolution of European from Impressionism to Cubism.

 

 

If you are planning to be in Provence or even within detour distance of the area this summer, make sure to make to include Aix-en-Provence and the Hôtel de Caumont-Art Center to your itinerary. The exhibition can be seen until September 29th, 2019.

 

Good to Know

  • Getting There –By train: there are frequent TVG (high speed train) connections throughout the day from Paris (3 hours) and Lyon (1 hour) as well as Geneva (3 hours) and Brussels (5 hours) to Aix-en-Provence. The TGV station is located 15 kilometers (9.5 miles) southwest of town, with a shuttle running every 15 minutes between the station and the bus terminal in the center of town. By plane: Marseille–Provence airport is 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) southwest of Aix, with numerous flights from Paris, London and other major European cities. It is served by the same shuttle bus as the TVG station.
  • Visiting –Caumont Art Center, 3, rue Joseph Cabassol, 13100, Aix-en-Provence, France.Is open daily from May 1 to September 30 from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, with late opening hours on Friday until 9:30 pm, and from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm for the remainder of the year. Contact: message@caumont-centredart.com. Tel: +33 (0) 4 42 20 70 01.
  • If you miss this landmark exhibition, don’t despair. After Aix-en-Provence, the exposition will be on view at the Royal Palace cultural center in Milan, Italy, from October 2019 to February 2020.

 

A Few Souvenirs

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Hotel de Caumont -Art Center

Aix-en-Provence Baroque Landmark Reborn as Art Center

Aix-en-Provence Baroque Landmark Reborn as Art Center

9 June 2016 | Europe, France, Places | 4 comments

In Aix-en-Provence, where a stroll along the narrow streets of the historic center reveals a gem of French Baroque architecture at every turn, the Hôtel de Caumont still stands out as a unique treasure.

France-Aix Caumont Garden

A classic Jardin à la Française welcomes visitors of the Caumont Art Center.

That was exactly what François Rolland de Réauville, Marquis de Cabanes, had in mind when he commissioned Robert de Cotte, the principal architect of King Louis XIV (think the Royal Chapel of the Versailles Palace and Grand Trianon) to design a mansion that would befit his position as President at the Court of Auditors of Aix-en-Provence. The first stone was laid on April 4, 1715, in the center of the fashionable new Mazarin district.

 

A Baroque Masterpiece Reborn

France-Aix Caumont Foyer

The entrance foyer

Construction was to span three decades and ownership change a couple of times until the end of the century when the superb mansion became the property of Pauline de Bruny, Marquise de Caumont. Born in 1767, during the reign of Louix XV, she had grown up at the court of Versailles and acquired its taste for luxury. The mansion, by now known at Hôtel de Caumont became the setting for lavish receptions, plays and concerts. Then the aftermath of the French revolution extinguished high society life.

France-Aix Caumont Facade.

The sober stonework of the facade and the elaborate gilded ironworks are prime exemples of Aix-style Baroque.

Fast-forward a century and a half during which the property experienced varied fortunes, including serving as a sanctuary for members of the French Resistance during the Second World War. It was then purchased from its last private owner by the city of Aix in 1964 to house the Darius Milhaud National Conservatory of Music and Dance. Finally in 2010 the mansion, by now a historic monument since 1987, was acquired by Culturespaces, a foremost private organization for the management of French monuments and museums.

The Caumont Art Center

France-Aix Caumont Music Room.

The exhibits space is entered through the music room.

Several years of planning, 18 months of intensive work and 12.6 million Euros later, the newly minted Caumont Art Center was revealed in all its restored eighteenth century glory on May 6, 2015. The ground floor with its soaring central foyer houses to its right a remarkable bookstore and gift boutique reminiscent of the libraries and cabinets of curiosities that were de-rigueur in such homes at the time. To the left, the inviting formal dining room leads to the upper terrace of a classic jardin à la Française (formal French garden). The grand three-story central staircase of the 2,500 square meter (27,000 square foot) mansion leads to Pauline’s recreated apartments that mark the entrance of two stories of temporary exhibit spaces.

Turner and Color

France - Caumont Calais

JMW Turner, 1830. Calais Sands at Low Tide.

The current exhibition, on view until September 18, 2016, is a breathtaking retrospective of the giant of nineteenth century English painting, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851). This exceptionally rich exposition of over 120 watercolors, sketches and oils includes over thirty paintings from London’s Tate Gallery that were bequeathed to Britain by the artist, as well works from the London Royal Academy of Arts, the Oxford Ashmolean Museum and the Dallas Museum of Art, plus a number of rarely if ever seen pieces from private collections.

France-Caumont Vermillion Towers.

JMW Turner, 1934. Vermillion Towers.

Here the exploration of Turner’s works adopts a unique new point of view. Although still mainly chronologic, it invites the viewer to discover the evolution of this self-taught genious’ relationship with color, from his early days influenced by the great colorists of the past, from Rembrand to Poussin and Titian to Claude Lorrain, to his ground-breaking use of newly synthesized pigments (such as the whole range of yellows that had just become available through the isolation of the metal Chromium).

Journeys around Europe

France - Caumont Ball San Martino

JMW Turner, 1846. Going to the Ball (San Martino).

An important section illustrates Turner’s journeys around Europe through his travel sketches and watercolors as well that the ensuing paintings. Another thread of the exposition follows his relationship with the coastal village of Margate in Kent, which he had discovered as a child. He would then pass most of his later years there and realize his most incandescent color experimentations. It is especially eye-opening for me to detect in his bold use of color the seeds of the Impressionism movement that would flourish a few decades later.

Cafe Caumont

The Café Caumont terrace is a serene retreat on a beautiful Provence afternoon.

The serene Café Caumont terrace is a favorite with visitors.

After a dazzling afternoon in the company of Turner, I linger in the mini-Versaille vignette of the Café Caumont. The weather being its usual Provence gorgeous, I forgo the elegant eighteenth century atmosphere of the dining room for tea-time on the upper terrace, in the shade of a white canvas umbrella within earshot of a discretely gurgling fountain.

 

Good to Know

  • Getting There – Aix-en-Provence is easily reached by train, with several direct TVG (high speed train) connections throughout the day from Paris (3 hours) and Lyon (1 hour) as well as Geneva (3 hours) and Brussels (5 hours). The Aix TGV station is located 15 kilometers (9.5 miles) southwest of town, with a shuttle running every 15 minutes between the station and the bus terminal in the center of town. The Marseille–Provence airport is 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) southwest of Aix, with numerous flights from Paris, London and other major European cities. It is served by the same shuttle bus as the TVG station.
  • Getting Around – To explore the historic city, walking is definitely the way to go. Road signs at the approaches to Aix direct motorists to large facilities where they can park their vehicles for a nominal daily fee that also includes free round trip bus tickets to the center of town for all their passengers.
  • Each year, the Caumont Art Center features two large-scale temporary exhibitions. In parallel, a 20-minute film depicting the life of native son Paul Cezanne (1839–1906) is shown at intervals throughout the day in the basement projection room. From May to September, Café Caumont also features occasional Jazz evenings performances.
  • Visiting – Caumont Art Center, 3, rue Joseph Cabassol, Aix-en-Provence. Caumont Art Center. Contact: message@caumont-centredart.com. Tel: +33 (0) 4 42 20 70 01. Open daily from May 1 to September 30 from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, with late opening hours on Friday until 9:30 pm during temporary exhibitions, and from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm for the remainder of the year. From May to September, Café Caumont remains open from 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm from Tuesday through Saturday and offers a wine and light snacks menu. It’s the perfect place to stop for a drink in a serene al fresco atmosphere just minutes away from the bustling Cours Mirabeau.
  • If you miss this landmark exhibition, which was realized in cooperation with the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate, don’t despair. After Aix-en-Provence, the exposition will be on view there from October 8, 2016 to January 8, 2017.

A Few Souvenirs

France-Aix Caumont Pauline.
France-Aix Caumont dining.
France-Aix Caumont Boutique.
France-Aix Caumont Courtyard

Location, location, location!

Caumont Art Center