Auguste Renoir

In 1888, Cézanne invited Renoir to spend some time in Provence. While there, Renoir painted a number of female nudes (the Bathers). In 1903, seeking a climate that would be beneficial to his health, he settled in Cagnes sur Mer. When he bought the Domaine des Collettes, on a hillside to the East of Cagnes sur mer, he did so in the hope of saving its remarkable Olive groves, which were in danger of being destroyed by a potential buyer.

Whether in Avignon, or in the gulf of Saint Tropez, Paul SIGNAC dipped his brushes in pure light, and elaborated theories on the science of painting for the benefit of future generations. In 1887, SIGNAC settled for a few months in the South of France. In 1889 he bought a new boat, and spent the summer on the Mediterranean coast, taking the opportunity to visit Van Gogh, who was hospitalised in Arles.

Matissse seduced the world with his use of colour, capturing the charm of the dazzling light of the Cote d’Azur. He expressed his creative faith in « l’Homme debout », his mystical testament in Vence, and his love for life in Nice. Matisse’s discovery of the South, at the start of the century, had important consequences on his working style, his way of working with colours, and light Having spent part of the winter of 1916-1917 in Nice, Matisse made the decision to stay longer on the Cote d’Azur.

Pierre Bonnard was fascinated by drawing and colour. He studied at the Academie Julian before being admitted to the École des beaux-arts in Paris where he met Vuillard with whom he became close friends. He discovered the work of Gaugin, Degas, Monet and Cézanne. A post-impressionist artist, he was part of the group of artists the Nabis. Very interested by the fashion for all things Japanese, his work was particularly known for his unusual conception of perspective and space.

Edouard Manet

Edouard Manet is considered to be one of the fathers of impressionism.
What differentiates his work from other painters of the movement was his scrupulous quest for realism, he did not use the new techniques for colour and light which were common amongst painters of the era. In 1850 he joined Thomas Couture’s studio, where he started his artistic training. In 1860 he presented his first works, the portraits of M and Mme Auguste Manet.

Edgar Degas is the central figure of the impressionist movement thanks to his innovative composition and his analysis of the perspective of movement. 
He belonged to the movement in that his painting displayed the freedom they advocated, even if he did not share others of their more well known traits.
A student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, his drawing skills were extremely accomplished, and his drawing always played a central role in his art.

A XXth century master painter, Marc Chagall left his native Russia and settled down in France in 1910. His interest in the work of the Fauves painters inspired him to use pure, light and playful colors. Cubism painting led him to appreciate the deconstruction of objects and space. The First World War brought him back to Russia, where he developped for a time a fascination with the Russian Revolution. He engaged in the beginnings of Surrealism. In his works, he expressed his entire life, his nostalgia for his native village of Vitebsk and for Russian landscapes.

Pablo Picasso

Pablo PICASSO used bis sculpture and all of his influence to encourage the development of universal and meaningful art. Certain places served as sources for his great creative energy: Cannes, Vallauris, or the Antibes. He was laid to rest in the Chateau de Vauvenargues, a property he bought as a final homage to Cézanne, the father of modern painting.

Van Gogh had long been inspired by a mythical vision of Japan, and it was this theme which he explored with his work in Provence. In 1888, on the recommendation of Toulouse Lautrec, Vincent Van Gogh went to live in Arles. This was a turning point for him, as he discovered the incredible light of Provence. He explored the region on foot, painting landscapes, harvest scenes and portraits.

At the end of the 19th Century, Paul CEZANNE hid himself away to pursue his search for the Absolute in painting. He let himself become completely absorbed in the landscapes that surrounded him in Estaque, Gardanne and Aix, and in the search for the intense sensations which he believed to be the painter’s only real truth. He was the instigator of the trend which brought many of the major post-impressionist artist to the South of France.

Claude Monet

Claude Monet was one of the founding fathers of the impressionist movement, alongside Auguste Renoir. His passion for art developed at a very young age. He sold his first caricatures at 17, signing them O Monet, and met Eugène Boudin, of whom he later said « If I became a painter, it was entirely thanks to Eugene ». After discovering the work of Turner, he became fascinated by the reflection of light on water.

Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin is a post-impressionist painter, thought to be one of the most important French painters of the XIXth century. Formerly employed at the stock market (la Bourse), he resigned his job in 1882 in order to devote himself to his passion: art. He settled in Rouen, where Camille Pissarro guided him in his discovery of impressionism, and he painted almost forty pictures of different views of the town. Unable to make a sufficient living from his art, he joined the group of impressionists and participated in their last five exhibitions.

André Derain

André Derain was a great French painter, and one of the founders of Fauvism. He studied from 1898 to 1899 at the Academie Camillo and was taught by Eugene Carriere. It was at the academy that he made friends with Henri Maitsse, the two met when they were copying paintings at the Louvre museum. He attended Van Gogh’s first exhibitions, and exhibited his first paintings at the Salon d’automne. He joined Matisse in Collioure in 1905, and there developed the style for which he would become famous: bright colours, simple lines, clear composition.

Fernand Léger

Fernand Léger was born in Argentan, Normandie on February 4, 1881. In 1900, he settled down in Paris where he was admitted to the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs. His first paintings were influenced by Impressionism. Suffering from pulmonary illness, he went to stay with a friend in Corsica. While there he discovered the light of the Mediterranean. Back in Paris in 1907, he met numerous painters including Paul Cezanne.

Robert Delaunay

In 1904 Robert Delaunay exhibits at the Autumn Salon then at the Salon of the Independents. Throughout this period he paints in a Neo-Impressionist style, mainly influenced by Paul Cézanne After his military service he frequents the Cubist milieu but develops his own style. In 1909 he paints his first Eiffel Tower, and the next year marries the painter Sonia Terk, his collaborator in numerous artistic projects, who becomes Sonia Delaunay.

Georges Rouault

Georges Rouault is counted as one of the greatest french artists of the twentieth century. He was at the same time a painter, a draftsman and a remarkable writer. Son of a cabinetmaker, he has been initiate to painting by his grandfather who was fond of Courbet, Manet and Daumier. After an apprenticeship as a glass painter and studies in Gustave Moreau's atelier.

Raoul Dufy

The artistic career of Raoul Dufy, accompanying the Parisian avant-garde of the early century, makes him a very original painter. Raoul Dufy classmate of Braque at Le Havre, friend of Marquet, admirer of Matisse, he passes through Impressionism and Fauvism and is under some influence from the cubists as well. He takes an interest in the decorative arts (fabrics, draperies, ceramics and decor) starting in the 1910s.

Amedeo Modigliani

Originally known as a figurative painter, Modigliani became famous for his so-called modern paintings and sculptures, with faces that resemble masks and elongated shapes. In 1906, first influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec, he drew his inspiration from Paul Cezanne, from Cubism and from Picasso's Blue Period. He became well-known for the furious pace of his work. He never retouched or altered his paintings but those who posed for him said that it was like having their soul laid bare..

Joan Miro

Joan Miro is one of the main representatives of the Surrealist movement. First influenced by Fauvism, then Cubism, he joined André Breton's Surrealist movement. After a first trip to Paris in 1920, he decided to split his time between the French capital and Spain. In Paris, he frequented Picasso, and also Pierre Reverdy and Tristan Tzara, and even took part in the Dada movement.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec

Despite a short life marked by illness, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec produced numerous works.   He immersed himself in Impressionism and befriended Edgar Degas and Vincent Van Gogh.   Incapable of taking part in the activities of the healthy-bodied, he lived for his art and became a Post-Impressionist painter, an Art Nouveau illustrator and a remarkable lithographer.

Salvador Dali

Considered as one of the main representatives of Surrealism and as one of the masters of XXth century art, Salvador Dali is both one of the most controversial artists and one of the most popular.   Influenced early on by Impressionism, he left his native city of Figueras for Madrid. Soon thereafter, he became one of the first Catalan Impressionists.   He officially joined the Surrealist movement in 1929.

Georges Braque

George Braque's refined his vocation as a painter over the course of his life. In 1899 he debuts as an apprentice painter and decorator before going to Paris in 1903 to study fine arts. After this he makes his first paintings inspired by Impressionism in 1905, before moving closer to Fauvism with compositions such as the Port de l'Estaque in 1906. From 1908 on his works break with traditional aesthetics. To do this he works with Picasso on recomposition and geometrization.

Chaïm Soutine

Chaïm Soutine was born in 1893 in a small village in Belarus, which was dominated by the Russian Empire at the time. His childhood is marked by poverty and the exacerbated pressure of Jewish traditions. He arrives in Paris in 1913 at the age of 20 and encounters the greatest painters of the time, like Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani. Soutine leaves to practice his art in Céret, a small town in Catalonia. The 3 years he spends there prove to be his most essential and inventive period, even if he isn't able to sell a single painting.

Serge Poliakoff

Born in Moscow, Serge Poliakoff is considered an important representative of the School of Paris. In 1917 he flees the Russian revolution and reaches Paris in 1923, where he will spend the rest of his life, with the exception of a few years. To begin with he earns a living as a musician, while starting an intensive study of painting at the same time. He varies the traditional academic themes and prefers to paint figurative motifs like nudes, houses, trees, etc.

Georges Chirico

Giorgio De Chirico devotes himself to drawing and painting from very early. He already observes the things around with painters eyes. At the age He already sees the world around him with the eyes of a painter. At the age of 12 his father sends him to the Fine Arts Academy in Athens. Having arrived in Paris in 1911, he is the inventor of Metaphysical Painting, concerned with revelation.

René Magritte

René Magritte discovers Futurism in 1919 and De Chirico in 1922. He paints his first Surrealist composition in 1925. From then on, his art will attempt to evoke the mystery of our perceived reality, if we step away from our routine, habitual logic. His works often plays with the difference between an object and its representation.

Sonia Delaunay

While Robert Delaunay conceptualize abstraction as a universal language, Sonia Delaunay was the pioneer.
She was a follower of the total art and experimented all kind of support (paintings, poster projects, clothing, binders, household objects).

Nicolas de Staël

Nicolas de Stael was born on January 5, 1914 in St. Petersburg. He was a French painter of Russian origin ( ? wiki). Nicolas was an enthusiast of French literature and Greek tragedy. But he was also interested in painting. In museums and galleries he discovered Rubens and the contemporary Belgian painters, James Ensor and Perneke.

De Vlamminck

Maurice de VLAMINCK est un peintre français s’étant illustré dans les courants fauviste et cubiste. Grand admirateur de Van Gogh, il s’en inspire fréquemment dans ses toiles tant en utilisant une couleur très pure que par des effets de tourbillon. Négligeant un peu les recherches de composition, il s’intéresse plus aux qualités spatiales et affectives de la couleur.

A modifier

Edouard Manet is considered to be one of the fathers of impressionism.
What differentiates his work from other painters of the movement was his scrupulous quest for realism, he did not use the new techniques for colour and light which were common amongst painters of the era. In 1850 he joined Thomas Couture’s studio, where he started his artistic training. In 1860 he presented his first works, the portraits of M and Mme Auguste Manet.

A modifier

Edouard Manet is considered to be one of the fathers of impressionism.
What differentiates his work from other painters of the movement was his scrupulous quest for realism, he did not use the new techniques for colour and light which were common amongst painters of the era. In 1850 he joined Thomas Couture’s studio, where he started his artistic training. In 1860 he presented his first works, the portraits of M and Mme Auguste Manet.

Toulouse Lautrec’s descendants take us on a tour of Montmatre, as it would have been during the painters lifetime in the « Belle Epoque ». They take us to his studios, his apartments, and down the steep backstreets of Montmatre to ancient brothels. We go in search of memories of the dancers, mistresses and prostitutes who populated the life of the painter, and who were always the subjects of his fancy. The Place du Tertre, the Cabaret Lapin Agile, the Moulin Rouge : accompanied by Pierre-André Helenr, author of the book « Toulouse Lautrec in Montmartre », we learn all about the painter’s favourite haunts.

There is no need to introduce Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter and great mind, an artist, scientist, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, urban planner, botanist, musician, poet, philosopher and writer. 
In September 1515, Francis the 1st conquers Milan as the new king of France, with the battle of Marignan. In November 1515, Leonardo begins the planning of the Médicis quarter in Florence. Francis the 1st, fascinated by his talent, invites him to France.

Italy in the 14th century, the centre of the Mediterranean Sea. A strategic commercial axis for trade between Europe and Asia, the silk and spice trade brought riches to the Italian merchant cities. Economic development meant that Italian cities were able to become major centres for the arts, culture and sciences as well. The Italian Renaissance originated in Tuscany and gradually spread to Rome. (...)

Leonardo da Vinci, the great Renaissance painter, played an important role in the history of Art. He was a man of many talents : artist, scientist, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, urbanist, botanist, musician, poet and philosopher, he was the archetype of the Renaissance man: curious and inventive.

Another of the key figures of the Italian Renaissance was Raphaël, he showed great talent from a young age, and was admired by all. Trained by Il Perugino, Raffaeollo Sanzio, called Raphael became famous thanks to his paintings commissioned bythe pope Julius II, and especially because he decorated the rooms and the Gallery of Lodges at the Vatican. Around 1500, Raphael was already considered as a full-blown master, with works like « Sposalizio ».

There are many masterpieces that we owe to Michaelangelo. Born into a rich Florentine family, he first worked in the workshop of the painter Ghirlandaio. At the age of 14 he was welcomed at the palace of Lorenzo de Medici, a great patron of the arts and letters of Florence. It was the beginning of an artistic apprenticeship, which he accomplished on his own.