Picasso in Provence

"if things I love were for sale, I'd have been bankrupt long ago…For I love water, the sun and love"

It is at the end of the XIXth century that, following the steps of painter Paul Signac, today's famous painters such as Francis Picabia, Charles Camoin, Maximilien Luce, or Henri Matisse arrived in Saint-Tropez. Little by little, other artists and intellectuals discovered the village with them. Thanks to its unique light, Saint-Tropez became the birthplace of pictorial avant-garde: pointillists, Nabis and Fauvists.

The Annonciade Museum, inaugurated in 1957 by Georges Grammont, a manufacturer and art patron, is considered as the first Modern Art Museum of France, (the Museum of Modern Art of the Town of Paris was inaugurated only 4 years later). It testifies the richness of pictorial culture in Saint-Tropez.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was an important visitor of the village. In 1951, Picasso and his companion at the time, Geneviève Laporte, visited their poet friend Paul Eluard (1895-1952) who had a flat on the old harbour. Picasso had been friends with him since a long time. Picasso rented a house in la Rue des Bouchoniers to spend the summer with Geneviève. In spite of the 45 years age difference, they met there to share a intense and carefree love affair interspersed with the pleasures offered by the village; a drink at the terrace of the Bar de la Ponche, a walk along the coastal path towards the graveyard and the Canebiers beach, lunch in the sun at l'Escale, a few presents collected by Picasso in the little shops of Saint-Tropez, like those famous strapped sandals made in the Rondini or K Jacques workshops, or a few moments of rest shared with friends on the Pampelonne beach.
Picasso and Geneviève, like other tourists roamed those typical places that are emblems of Saint-Tropez, past and present.

The house of la Rue des Bouchonniers became Picasso's studio where he drew the famous "Odalisque". This nude representing Geneviève is different from his other sketches, the style is not the same. It resembles no other portrait painted by the Master, no torn or distorted face, Geneviève's face appears serene and balanced. The features underline a sensuous, shy and pure rhythm. With "l'Odalisque" Picasso signed his love affaire with Geneviève Laporte. Those sketches devoid of harshness are named by the curators of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersbourg the "tender period" of Picasso.
Picasso called these works, "my drawings, my love letters" before he gave them to his model. It is at the restaurant l'Auberge des Maures that the love affair ended because of a misunderstanding.
One morning of October 1953, Picasso left for Vallauris telling his son : "isn't it a shame, I can't get rid of women I don't love and the woman I love does not want to come with me".
Saint-Tropez remembers that love and all those places Picasso frequented are still there for everyone to visit and be penetrated by the Master's spirit.
The drawing: "l'Odalisque" is exhibited at the Picasso Museum in Paris.