Whether it was the search for a refuge, light or more clement weather, it seems that the painters who settled in Provence came here looking for something – and found a lot more than they'd hoped for.
Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) arrived in Arles from Paris in 1888, keen to escape the excesses of the capital. He found inspiration amid the region's landscapes, customs and, above all, the intense quality of light. By the time he left Arles a year later, he'd completed more than 200 oil paintings – including masterpieces such as Bedroom in Arles (1888) and Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers (1888).
Throughout his life, van Gogh was wracked with self-doubt and depression, conditions that were compounded by his lack of commercial success – famously, he sold just a single painting during his entire career, and never received any kind of serious critical acclaim. He was prone to fits of manic depression – including the famous incident in December 1888, when he cut off part of his left ear following a spat with Paul Gauguin.
In May 1889, he voluntarily committed himself to an asylum in St-Rémy-de-Provence; despite his illness, he continued to work at a feverish pace, producing many key works including Starry Night (1889) and several haunting self-portraits. Van Gogh left St-Rémy in May 1890 to join his brother Theo in Auvers-sur-Oise; he shot himself two months later, aged just 37.
Van Gogh is now acknowledged as one of the 20th-century's greatest painters. Most of his works now reside in international museums, although a few have stayed in Provence – notably at Musée Angladon in Avignon and Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence.
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) is perhaps the most Provençal of all the impressionists. His work is generally credited with providing a transition from 'traditional' 19th-century art to the radical new art forms of the 20th century, notably cubism.
Cézanne was born in Aix-en-Provence and spent most of his life there, save for a decade in Paris and another ferrying between Provence and the capital. He met writer Émile Zola at school in Aix and the pair remained friends for years – until Zola used Cézanne as the main inspiration for his character Claude Lantet, a failed painter, in his novel L'Oeuvre (The Work; 1886).
Provence was Cézanne's chief inspiration: the seaside village of L'Estaque, the Bibémus quarries near Aix (said to have inspired his cubist trials by their geometric character) and the family house, Jas de Bouffan, in Aix appear in dozens of paintings. But it was the Montagne Ste-Victoire that captivated him the most, its radiance, shape and colours depicted in no fewer than 30 oil paintings and 45 watercolours.
Sadly, Cézanne's admiration for Provence was not mutual: few of Aix's conservative bourgeoisie appreciated Cézanne's departure from the creed of classical painting and there were even calls for him to leave the city.
In 1902, Cézanne moved into a purpose-built studio, from where he did much of his painting until his death in 1906. The studio has been left untouched and is one of the most poignant insights into his art.
In 1892, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), started to develop rheumatoid arthritis. The condition gradually worsened, and in 1907 doctors ordered Renoir to move to the sunny climes of Cagnes-sur-Mer in a bid to alleviate his pains.
In 1909, Renoir bought a farm in Cagnes-sur-Mer called Les Colettes, where he lived until his death. Far from being a retirement home, however, Renoir enjoyed a new lease of life in the south of France and painted vigorously throughout his twilight years. Although he had to adapt his painting technique – he was wheelchair-bound and suffered from ankylosis in his shoulder – many credit his late works with displaying the same joy and radiance that were the hallmark of his earlier (and most famous) works.
Renoir's house at Les Colettes is now the Musée Renoir, where you can see the artist's studios, his gorgeous garden and several of his works. The museum reopened after extensive renovations in 2013.
Although Provence and the Côte d'Azur are best known for their relatively modern artistic legacy, the region's reputation as a haven for artists goes back centuries.
In the 14th century Sienese, French and Spanish artists thrived at the papal court in Avignon and created an influential style of mural painting to decorate the palace.
Renaissance painter Louis (Ludovico) Bréa (c 1450–1523), often dubbed the ‘Fra Angelico Provençal’, is best remembered for his signature burgundy colour known as rouge bréa.
Two centuries later, it was the rococo influences in his landscapes and the playful and often licentious scenes of his paintings that made Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806), a native of Grasse, so popular with French aristocrats.
Originally from drab northern France, leading Fauvist exponent Henri Matisse (1869–1954) spent his most creative years lapping up the sunlight and vivacity of the coast in and around Nice.
Matisse travelled to southern France on a number of occasions, including a visit to impressionist Paul Signac in St-Tropez, which inspired one of his most famous works: Luxe, Calme et Volupté (Luxury, Calm and Tranquility; 1904). But it was a trip to Nice to cure bronchitis in 1917 that left Matisse smitten – he never really looked back.
Matisse settled in Cimiez, in the hills north of Nice's centre, and it was here that he started experimenting with his gouaches découpées (collages of painted paper cut-outs) in the 1940s, after an operation. The famous Blue Nude series and The Snail epitomise this period.
Matisse's ill health was also a key factor in the creation of his masterpiece, the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence. The artist had been looked after by a nun during his convalescence and the chapel was his mark of gratitude. Matisse designed everything, from the stained-glass windows to the altar, the structure of the chapel and the robes of the priests. The chapel took four years to complete and was finished in 1951.
Matisse died in Nice in 1954 and is buried in Cimiez' cemetery.
Although Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) moved to the Côte d'Azur rather late in life (the Spanish artist was in his mid-sixties when he moved to Golfe-Juan with his lover Françoise Gilot in 1946), his influence over the region and the region's influence on him were significant.
It was following an offer from the curator of Antibes’ Château Grimaldi, now the Musée Picasso, that Picasso set up a studio on the 3rd floor of the historic building. Works from this period are characterised by an extraordinary joie de vivre and a fascination with Mediterranean mythology.
It was that same year that Picasso visited the nearby potters' village of Vallauris and discovered ceramics. Picasso loved the three-dimensional aspect of the art and experimented endlessly. His method was somewhat unorthodox: he melted clay, used unglazed ceramics and decorated various pieces with relief motifs; he also eschewed traditional floral decorations for a bestiary of his favourite mythological creatures.
Picasso settled in Vallauris in 1948 and although he left in 1955, he carried on working with ceramics until his death. His time in Vallauris wasn't only dedicated to ceramics, however; it was here that Picasso got 'his chapel' (arch-rival Matisse had finished his in 1951). It was the chapel of the town's castle, in which he painted War and Peace (1952), the last of his monumental creations dedicated to peace, after Guernica (1937) and Massacre in Korea (1951).
In 1959, Picasso bought the Château de Vauvenargues near Aix-en-Provence. The castle slumbered at the foot of the Montagne Ste-Victoire, depicted so often by Cézanne, whom Picasso greatly admired. It was Cézanne's early studies on cubism that had led Picasso and his peers to launch the cubist movement (which seeks to deconstruct the subject into a system of intersecting planes and present various aspects of it simultaneously); Picasso was also an avid collector of Cézanne's works.
In 1961, Picasso moved to Mougins with his second wife Jacqueline Roque. He had many friends in the area, including photographer André Villers, to whom Picasso gave his first camera and who in turn took numerous portraits of the artist.
Picasso died in Mougins in 1973 and is buried in Château de Vauvenargues, which remains the property of his family.
Belorussian painter Marc Chagall (1887–1985) moved to Paris from Russia in 1922. He was well-known for his dazzling palette and the biblical messages in his later works (inspired by his Jewish upbringing in Russia and trips to Palestine). Chagall managed to escape to the US during WWII and it was upon his return to France in the early 1950s that he settled in St-Paul de Vence on the Côte d'Azur. Both Matisse and Picasso lived in the area at the time and many artists regularly visited; it was this sense of 'artistic colony' that attracted Chagall.
Though Provence and the Côte d'Azur never featured explicitly in Chagall's works, he was clearly fascinated by the region's light and colour – something that becomes obvious looking at the luminous works on display at the Musée National Marc Chagall in Nice. Chagall is buried in St-Paul de Vence.
Provence and the Côte d'Azur produced a spate of artists at the forefront of modern art in the middle of the 20th century. Most famous perhaps was Nice-born Yves Klein (1928–62), who stood out for his series of daring monochrome paintings, the distinctive blue he used in many of his works (supposedly inspired by the colour of the Mediterranean) and his experiments in paint-application techniques: in his series Anthropométrie, paint was 'applied' by women covered from head to toe in paint and writhing naked on the canvas.
Also making a splash in modern-art circles was native Niçois Arman (1928–2005), who became known for his trash-can portraits, made by framing the litter found in the subject’s rubbish bin, and Martial Raysse, born in Golfe-Juan in 1936, renowned for pioneering the use of neon in art: his 1964 portrait of Nissa Bella (Beautiful Nice) – a flashing blue heart on a human face – is typical.
Klein, Arman and Raysse were among the nine people to found New Realism in 1960. The movement was one of several avant-garde trends of the time and was often perceived as the French interpretation of American pop art. In 1961, another prominent Provençal artist, Marseillais César Baldaccini (1921–1998), known for his crushed cars and scrap metal art, joined the New Realists' rank, as did Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002), famous for her huge, colourful papier mâché sculptures.
Nice's Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain has one of the best collections of New Realist artists' works; the building itself is a work of art too.
One look at the portfolio of Documents d’Artistes (www.documentsdartistes.org), an association in Marseille that catalogues and diffuses the work of contemporary regional artists around the world, proves that contemporary art is well and truly alive in Provence: be it tracing a line along the surface of the planet, creating sound installations, or producing inflatable or mechanical art, it is all happening here.
There are many galleries where you can admire contemporary art. In Marseille, make a beeline for exhibition space La Friche La Belle de Mai; in Arles, check out the Fondation Vincent Van Gogh; or amble the gallery-lined streets of St-Paul de Vence and Mougins.