An exceptional exhibition bringing together more than forty of the leading painters from the French Riviera of the 19th century is organized by the Municipality of La Gaude and the management of the Cultural Center, La Coupole room, from May 5th to 24th, 2009.
Unique to the region, you will be able to see the original works of the painters who have marked the history of the French Riviera, from Cyrille Besset to Ziem, including Fricero, Mossa, Trachel, Lessieux, Costa, and Comba.
On this occasion, Alex Benvenuto will sign his book about these artists on Saturday, May 16th as part of “Le Livre dans la rue” (The Book in the Street) event in La Gaude.
Winter tourism began at the start of the 19th century with wealthy winter residents who fled the cold, the spleen, or tuberculosis. Everything was in reach for the emergence of a school of landscape painting: buyers, a location, colors, and light. Yet, these painters often remain unknown to the general public.
Even the locals in Nice do not always remember that names like Barberi, Besset, Biscarra, Martin-Sauvaigo, Matisse, Carlone, Dufy, Chéret, Comba, Costa, Trachel, Mossa, Fricero, Caïs de Pierlas, Roassal, Rostan, Fer, Fossat, Ziem, Garneray, Garaud, Bashkirtseff were famous painters before becoming street names.
Precious Memories
The society of winter residents, eager to bring back memories of their stay, quickly met this demand with watercolors of small and medium formats. The Promenade des Anglais, the port, the bays of Cannes or Villefranche, and Menton were favored motifs for these painters. Watercolor also allowed them to explore the hinterlands with pencils, brushes, and sketchbooks.
A Niçoise identity.
These paintings are not merely precious testimonials of the old French Riviera Beyond the memories, artists like Mossa, Fricero, Trachel, Costa, Comba, and Defer conveyed their moods about the landscape, its inhabitants, and its customs, thereby helping to shape a Niçoise identity. Though the inspiration from Italian “vedute” or English watercolorists is evident in their work, it remains distinctly personal.
Like the writers of the same period, their conception of the landscape was romantic and lyrical. The landscape was, in a sense, a state of soul, not only a mirror but the soul itself.
Extraordinary lives.
Behind these artists lay extraordinary lives full of work and unique destinies.
Years of work grinding colors in Italy and copying the antique masters before returning to settle in Nice.
Unique destinies like Fricero, who, “noticed” by a Russian prince, went to teach watercolor in Saint Petersburg and married a natural daughter of Tsar Nicholas I; like Louis Garneray, who embarked on a ship at 13 years old, then became a corsair for the emperor, captured for eight years on British pontoons, and who would become the first official painter of the navy; like Comba who followed the Blue Devils on all fronts in 1914-18.
Some pushed themselves to the limits for their art, like Emmanuel Costa, who fell from scaffolding while painting a large-format canvas at over 80 years old and continued to paint in his wheelchair, leg amputated; Cyrille Besset who caught cold while painting the rock of Monaco and died of tuberculosis at 41; Arthur Burrington, who passed away while painting at his easel.
This exhibition and this book invite you on an initiatory journey with these landscape painters.
