Painters: Matisse and Chagall

Monday, February 26, 2018  

One reason we came to the south of France from Rochester is for the weather.  Well, it snowed on and off all day today, with temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s.  It hasn’t snowed in Nice since 1991 we were told.

No matter; we had a great day.  We began with a 90-minute talk on the painters of southern France, with special attention to Matisse, Chagall and Picasso.  Our trip leader is wonderfully educated on the art history of this region, and his talk (with PowerPoints) was an extraordinary summation of an enormous amount of material.  We then went out into the cold and drove up to a place where there’s supposed to be a wonderful view of the city and the coast.  There was not.  But our visit to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral was fascinating.  It was built in 1912, a product of the melding of important families from all over Europe—it’s a long story.

Nice has its share of Roman ruins; here are baths, and we also saw an amphitheater:

The Matisse Museum is high above the city:

The collection is mildly impressive, with representations of many parts of his long life.  There are cutouts:

Here’s a wonderful “Still Life with Pomegranates”:

Here’s one which really resonated with us today, “Storm in Nice”:

There’s an old monastery nearby, way above the city, with a beautiful view which was totally obscured today.  There is a lovely garden:

Then came the highlight of the day, the Chagall Museum.  Opened in 1973, it was built specifically to accommodate 12 very large paintings in a series titled “Biblical Message.”  These are paintings “illustrating Genesis and the Exodus…[which] call attention to the relationship between man and God.”  They were originally designed for a Christian chapel, but Chagall donated them to the State because “he preferred to detach his theme from one particular religion.”  Yet despite all representing stories from the Hebrew Bible, Chagall placed Christian materials in each.  So, for example, here’s the Sacrifice of Isaac, with a cross and a Christ figure in the upper portion:

There are other rooms with works which are not part of the “Biblical Message” series, and many of those works are remarkable.  Here’s a King David:

Chagall believed music to be of great importance, and owned a harpsichord which he decorated with the story of Isaac and Rebekah at the well.  It’s currently in the museum’s auditorium:

The Chagall Museum is remarkable!  Tomorrow we continue the art tour: Picasso, Antibes, and Cannes.