0:00:06 > 0:00:08In the second half of the 19th century,
0:00:08 > 0:00:11the empty beaches and pine-covered hills of the French Riviera
0:00:11 > 0:00:15had provided powerful inspiration to some of the most significant
0:00:15 > 0:00:19pioneers in modern art, a place to escape and experiment,
0:00:19 > 0:00:23exploring new ways to live and paint,
0:00:23 > 0:00:26remote from the artistic mainstream.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29Their revolutionary paintings brought this enchanted stretch
0:00:29 > 0:00:33of the Mediterranean coast to the attention of a wider public,
0:00:33 > 0:00:36and in the first years of the 20th century, the Riviera
0:00:36 > 0:00:41had already earned a reputation as a crucible of artistic ideas.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45But the First World War abruptly interrupted this idyll,
0:00:45 > 0:00:48leaving a deep mood of insecurity in its wake.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50'People looked to the past,
0:00:50 > 0:00:55'and sought reassurance instead in the triumphs of older civilisations.'
0:00:55 > 0:01:00But, for the Riviera, this was to prove the dawn of its Golden Age,
0:01:00 > 0:01:04both in prosperity and as an inspiration to artists,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07its rich classical heritage presented a perfect
0:01:07 > 0:01:12setting for a "return to order" after the chaos of the war years.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17The Riviera rapidly evolved into the world's first international
0:01:17 > 0:01:19tourist destination in these years,
0:01:19 > 0:01:23a hedonistic playground for the modern era, where artists
0:01:23 > 0:01:26became an integral part of the fabric of society
0:01:26 > 0:01:27on the Cote d'Azur.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31For half my life, I have been one of the multitude who have been
0:01:31 > 0:01:35drawn here by this unique combination of leisure and culture.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40It was artists who discovered and celebrated this coast,
0:01:40 > 0:01:42and as the 20th century progressed,
0:01:42 > 0:01:46they became its new royalty, but ultimately they could only
0:01:46 > 0:01:52watch helplessly as it became a victim of it's own seductive beauty.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16On Christmas Day, 1917,
0:02:16 > 0:02:19a solitary, middle-aged man checked into a hotel
0:02:19 > 0:02:21on the seafront in Nice.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24It was very cold, and raining incessantly.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35His tall, narrow room was pokey and sparsely furnished,
0:02:35 > 0:02:38aimed at the transient tourist,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41with only a row of hooks for his things.
0:02:41 > 0:02:43A week later, on New Year's Eve,
0:02:43 > 0:02:46he celebrated his birthday by himself.
0:02:46 > 0:02:47It snowed.
0:02:48 > 0:02:55# Well, my heart is lonely and my room's so cold and bare... #
0:02:55 > 0:03:00At this point, Henri Matisse considered returning to Paris.
0:03:00 > 0:03:01But he didn't.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Instead he set up his easel and painted the only thing he could,
0:03:05 > 0:03:07the interior of his room.
0:03:07 > 0:03:14# Got the blues in the south cos I feel I ain't nowhere... #
0:03:14 > 0:03:18Matisse's arrival in Nice was an important moment,
0:03:18 > 0:03:20both for him and for the Riviera.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23The war was in its fourth year,
0:03:23 > 0:03:25and the city was over-flowing with refugees,
0:03:25 > 0:03:27both military and civilian,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31holding its breath, hoping life would return
0:03:31 > 0:03:33to normal some time soon.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36Before the war, Nice had been a wealthy city
0:03:36 > 0:03:39whose fortunes were tied to the British and Russian
0:03:39 > 0:03:41aristocracy who had made it famous.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45But the only British visiting France now were in the trenches,
0:03:45 > 0:03:49and the Russian revolution had put an end to their winter holidays.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51Matisse was soon forced to move on
0:03:51 > 0:03:54when his hotel room was requisitioned
0:03:54 > 0:03:55as yet more soldiers arrived.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00If the Riviera was suffering, so was Henri Matisse.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03He had last worked here in 1904,
0:04:03 > 0:04:07when he had painted Luxe, Calme et Volupte, in Saint Tropez,
0:04:07 > 0:04:12a picture whose pioneering technique and radical new use of colour
0:04:12 > 0:04:16set him on the path to become one of the leaders of the Parisian avant garde.
0:04:16 > 0:04:23But now, he was exhausted, as he said, by "long tiring years of experiment".
0:04:23 > 0:04:25Matisse, on some levels was doing very well.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28But it was also a time of anxiety for him.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31Two of his sons were in the army, so he was worried about them.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33His mother and brother were behind enemy lines
0:04:33 > 0:04:35in the family home in northern France.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38But also, of course, he was living under wartime conditions in Paris.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41He himself was experiencing food shortages.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45It was a time of great anxiety for him when he makes the decision to come down to Nice.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Matisse arrived in Nice as a tourist,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58like so many others before him and so many more to come.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02But then, the Mistral blew, and chased the clouds away.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07"It was beautiful," said Henri, "and I decided not to leave Nice."
0:05:07 > 0:05:08And he never did.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15In the next few years,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18Matisse would become one of the most revered painters in the world.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21But the Riviera would change dramatically too.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26In the 19th century, it had earned a reputation
0:05:26 > 0:05:28for gambling and loose morals,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31an aristocratic retreat from polite society,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34offering pleasure seekers a place to misbehave.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36Now, every holidaymaker
0:05:36 > 0:05:39would have access to this hedonistic way of life.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42But the Cote d'Azur would, at the same time,
0:05:42 > 0:05:46establish itself as a powerhouse of progressive artistic ideas,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49moving on from being the home of a handful of painters
0:05:49 > 0:05:51and occasional visitors
0:05:51 > 0:05:55to become the premiere location for any artist to live and work,
0:05:55 > 0:05:57to see, and be seen.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02It became indelibly associated in the public mind with modern art,
0:06:02 > 0:06:07and Henri Matisse was in the vanguard of that change.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09When the war ended,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12Matisse moved into an apartment in this building,
0:06:12 > 0:06:17overlooking the busy market square of the Cours Saleya, in the oldest part of the city.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22It was to become his home for the next 20 years and, in that period,
0:06:22 > 0:06:26he dedicated himself to his art with an extraordinary intensity.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35The circumstances he needed for his art to thrive
0:06:35 > 0:06:40were not those normally associated with the life of a bohemian painter.
0:06:40 > 0:06:45He was rigidly disciplined, and his daily routine began at dawn.
0:06:47 > 0:06:52As the Cours Saleya market came to life each morning,
0:06:52 > 0:06:56he walked the short distance from his apartment to the Club Nautique
0:06:56 > 0:07:01where he set out into the harbour in a small canoe.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04Matisse was always properly dressed for the job in hand.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07At his easel, he wore a white overall.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11And in his canoe, he wore a jaunty sailor's hat.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14He earned a medal from the club for assiduity.
0:07:15 > 0:07:17After two hours at the oars,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21he returned to his apartment where he practised the violin
0:07:21 > 0:07:24until the serious work of the day began at nine.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27He painted for three hours.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31He expected the same single-minded dedication from his models,
0:07:31 > 0:07:34who were often required to hold the same pose all morning.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37One lapse was tolerated
0:07:37 > 0:07:42but, if they lost a pose a second time, they were sacked.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45'After lunch at a nearby cafe,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48'he returned to the apartment for a nap.'
0:07:49 > 0:07:53And, on waking, he dealt with his correspondence,
0:07:53 > 0:07:55writing letters to his family and friends.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00At 4pm, he picked up his brushes once more
0:08:00 > 0:08:04and continued to paint until the daylight failed.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06He would then draw by artificial light
0:08:06 > 0:08:10until heading out, once more, into the old town for dinner.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14He followed this schedule six days a week.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18Matisse may have been predictable, but so was the Riviera.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22Nearly every day, the sky was blue.
0:08:25 > 0:08:33"When I realised that every morning I would see this light again, I couldn't believe my luck," he said.
0:08:33 > 0:08:38He very quickly became part of the furniture in his adopted home town.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41There seemed to be something about this city
0:08:41 > 0:08:42that fitted him like a glove.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47Alistair, why do you think Matisse felt so at home in Nice?
0:08:47 > 0:08:50Primarily because this was a sophisticated resort.
0:08:50 > 0:08:56He spent time on the southern coast of France earlier, places like the fishing village of Collioure.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58They were more rugged, rough-and-ready kind of places.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02In Nice, he found something very different. Something he very much liked.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05Good hotels, good restaurants.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08We should remember, by this time, he was middle aged, he's got family,
0:09:08 > 0:09:10he's doing quite well selling his paintings.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12So he's comfortable financially.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14It seems this feels much more like his kind of place
0:09:14 > 0:09:16by this time in his life.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19It may have been his kind of town
0:09:19 > 0:09:24but, strangely, it only played a supporting role on his canvasses.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27His paintings at this time were quickly executed
0:09:27 > 0:09:30with rapid brush strokes, and bright areas of flat colour.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33But they were almost exclusively interior scenes
0:09:33 > 0:09:36where Nice was glimpsed through the window.
0:09:36 > 0:09:37Now that he had this light every day,
0:09:37 > 0:09:42you might almost say he took it for granted, and ignored it.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46Can you explain why he stayed inside, to paint the outside?
0:09:46 > 0:09:48I think there are practical reasons, one of which is
0:09:48 > 0:09:51it's very hard to paint under this kind of bright light,
0:09:51 > 0:09:52or Matisse found it to be so.
0:09:52 > 0:09:57More important, I think, is the kind of feeling he wants to convey with the paintings.
0:09:57 > 0:10:03They give a sense of a secluded and private realm of pleasure.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05He seems to be trying to create an artificial paradise.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09So, he very often, poses his model in exotic costumes,
0:10:09 > 0:10:12he places them against painted backgrounds, inventive backgrounds,
0:10:12 > 0:10:16that would tend to hide the real architecture of the room.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18I think what he's doing is trying to blur the boundary
0:10:18 > 0:10:22between the real and the illusory, the real and the imagined.
0:10:22 > 0:10:27Essentially, creating a fantasy world that he invites us to step into.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34In order to better create this fantasy world,
0:10:34 > 0:10:36Matisse sought professional advice.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42In the 1920s, Nice's Riviera film studios were known as the Hollywood of France,
0:10:42 > 0:10:47turning out silent movies, starring the likes of Douglas Fairbanks Jr
0:10:47 > 0:10:50and Rudolf Valentino.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55His requirements might have been more modest,
0:10:55 > 0:10:58but Matisse recognised the similarities between
0:10:58 > 0:11:00the work that was going on here,
0:11:00 > 0:11:03and his own endeavours back in his apartment.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07During his excursions into the streets of the old town,
0:11:07 > 0:11:10Matisse often saw film crews from these studios
0:11:10 > 0:11:13transforming the alleys of Nice
0:11:13 > 0:11:19into Sinbad's Baghdad and the kasbahs of Algiers.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25In no time at all, he was doing exactly the same thing in his own studio,
0:11:25 > 0:11:30contracting these guys to build sets on wheels,
0:11:30 > 0:11:34and he amassed an incredible collection of exotic props and costumes
0:11:34 > 0:11:36to rival any film studio.
0:11:36 > 0:11:42"Everything is fake, absurd, amazing, delicious," said Matisse.
0:11:42 > 0:11:47He became his own movie director, and his home became his studio.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49Using these moveable backdrops,
0:11:49 > 0:11:54the apartment began to resemble the seraglio of an Eastern potentate,
0:11:54 > 0:11:58with drapery, vases and mirrors he had bought in local antique shops.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02These pictures became known as his odalisques,
0:12:02 > 0:12:05concubines relaxing in the harem.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07And, when they made their way back to Paris,
0:12:07 > 0:12:10Matisse was dubbed the "Sultan of the Riviera".
0:12:10 > 0:12:14The sultan and his fantasy harem
0:12:14 > 0:12:18might seem to have nothing to do with the Riviera where it was created,
0:12:18 > 0:12:20but this was a land of dreams,
0:12:20 > 0:12:24and Matisse wasn't the only one who was dreaming.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27This was a period of conflicting emotions.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31The 1920s are often remembered as a decade-long party
0:12:31 > 0:12:36where people sought to escape the trauma of the war in unbridled hedonism.
0:12:36 > 0:12:42And escapism had always been one of the attractions of the Cote d'Azur.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47But, at the same time, many felt a need for a more profound change in society
0:12:47 > 0:12:51to avoid the possibility that such a conflict could arise again.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55They looked for a way to salvage something from the wreckage.
0:12:55 > 0:12:56This hunger for seriousness
0:12:56 > 0:13:00led to a paradigm shift in the artistic outlook.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03The intensity with which innovation and experiment
0:13:03 > 0:13:08had pushed artistic ideas forward during the early years of the century was unsustainable.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12Now, they began to look backwards, into the past.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18The ancient Mediterranean civilisations of Greece and Rome
0:13:18 > 0:13:22seemed to represent a time of certainty and security,
0:13:22 > 0:13:26a democratic ideal that, in these immediate post-war years,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29became the dominant cultural theme.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33It was known as the "return to order".
0:13:34 > 0:13:37The return to order, in artistic terms
0:13:37 > 0:13:39generally refers to a return to Classicism,
0:13:39 > 0:13:44which is understood to be traditional principles of drawing,
0:13:44 > 0:13:48of form, of balance and symmetry in artworks.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52The political side of it, of course, is, in part, to do with the war.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55The social, political and artistic come together
0:13:55 > 0:13:59as artists are seen to be responding to this call to unity,
0:13:59 > 0:14:02and to the call to a notion of French tradition.
0:14:05 > 0:14:10On a commanding hilltop overlooking the harbour at Monaco,
0:14:10 > 0:14:15the ruins of the Trophy of the Alps dominate the little town of La Turbie.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19This colossal monument was built by the Emperor Augustus in seven BC
0:14:19 > 0:14:23to celebrate his subjugation of the local tribes.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25It's one of the most conspicuous reminders
0:14:25 > 0:14:28of the classical past on this coast.
0:14:30 > 0:14:31In the 17th century,
0:14:31 > 0:14:35the imaginary landscapes of Claude Lorraine and Nicolas Poussin
0:14:35 > 0:14:41were littered with these classical monuments set in an Arcadian Utopia.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43The artists, who now came to live on this coast,
0:14:43 > 0:14:46began to explore this connection once more.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50This did not mean ignoring the upheavals
0:14:50 > 0:14:54that art had been subject to in the previous hundred years
0:14:54 > 0:14:56and returning to simple, figurative painting.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02The challenge was to fuse this new Classicism
0:15:02 > 0:15:06with the inventiveness that had characterised the pre-war avant-garde,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09and Pablo Picasso loved a challenge.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16For someone who is now so strongly connected to the Cote d'Azur,
0:15:16 > 0:15:18Picasso was something of a Johnny-come-lately
0:15:18 > 0:15:20when he made his first visit.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24Many of the painters he greatly respected,
0:15:24 > 0:15:26like Henri Matisse and Georges Braque,
0:15:26 > 0:15:28had expressed their love of the place
0:15:28 > 0:15:32and, more importantly, its effect on their art.
0:15:32 > 0:15:33But Picasso had resisted.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41When he finally did make the trip in 1919, he was 37 years old,
0:15:41 > 0:15:46and widely acclaimed as the leading avant garde painter of his generation.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49But he didn't' come down here looking for something new,
0:15:49 > 0:15:51but something very old indeed.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56Picasso was becoming fascinated by classical antiquity.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59The set designs he did for a Ballets Russes production in London
0:15:59 > 0:16:02that year, The Three-Cornered Hat,
0:16:02 > 0:16:05demonstrate that even he was experiencing the pull
0:16:05 > 0:16:06of the return to order.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10That August, he explored the Roman ruins that litter
0:16:10 > 0:16:12the landscape around the town of Frejus.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16Picasso was at a turning point in his career.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19He felt that he had pushed cubism as far as it could go,
0:16:19 > 0:16:22that if he went any further with it, it would become merely abstract painting,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25and that was a step he was never prepared to take.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27He was also becoming interested in the classical,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30in part, under the pressure of the call to order.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32He would always be playful with it, and slightly ironic,
0:16:32 > 0:16:36but I think it's clear that he was also interested in what was going on down here,
0:16:36 > 0:16:38he sensed that there was an emergent artistic scene,
0:16:38 > 0:16:41and he wanted to check out what was going on.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45There was an awful lot going on in his personal life at this time,
0:16:45 > 0:16:48both domestically and artistically,
0:16:48 > 0:16:49and these classical ruins,
0:16:49 > 0:16:53half buried in the sandy Mediterranean pine woods,
0:16:53 > 0:16:55would lead him in a new direction.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01The previous summer, Picasso married the ballerina Olga Khokhlova,
0:17:01 > 0:17:03a dancer for the Ballets Russes.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05They travelled extensively across Europe,
0:17:05 > 0:17:10visiting the classical ruins in Rome and the excavations at Pompeii,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13which hugely broadened his horizons,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16but also dramatically changed the kind of life he was leading.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20Ever since his arrival in Paris at the turn of the century,
0:17:20 > 0:17:22Picasso had tended to hang out in bohemian areas,
0:17:22 > 0:17:25identifying with the working class,
0:17:25 > 0:17:27living the life of the outcast artist.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31But, by the mid teens, he was essentially becoming upwardly mobile.
0:17:31 > 0:17:32One of the clearest signs of that
0:17:32 > 0:17:36was his friendship with Diaghilev and others in the Ballets Russes.
0:17:36 > 0:17:41It's there that he meets his wife, Olga, said to be the daughter of a Russian colonel.
0:17:41 > 0:17:42Very elegant, very refined,
0:17:42 > 0:17:48very different from the kind of bohemian women that Picasso had previously been involved with.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56Though he was mocked by his friends for his bourgeois new lifestyle,
0:17:56 > 0:18:00Picasso did his best to keep up appearances.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03The couple stayed at the Grand Hotel Continental des Bains
0:18:03 > 0:18:07which used to occupy this corner of the seafront in St Raphael.
0:18:07 > 0:18:12The French Prime Minister, Georges Clemenceau, was a regular in the hotel restaurant.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16St Raphael was typical of the way the Riviera was developing.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19The population of this ancient fishing village
0:18:19 > 0:18:22had tripled in the previous 50 years
0:18:22 > 0:18:26and it was now a resort town whose grand hotels and amusements
0:18:26 > 0:18:30catered to the burgeoning middle class holidaymaker.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33This was not Picasso's normal milieu.
0:18:35 > 0:18:41It was unlikely that a leopard could so suddenly and comfortably change his spots.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44And, though you had to give Picasso top marks for effort,
0:18:44 > 0:18:47he was certainly aware of the imposture.
0:18:47 > 0:18:48He told one of his models,
0:18:48 > 0:18:53"My Russian wife likes tea, caviar, and pastries.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57"Me, I like sausage and beans."
0:18:57 > 0:18:59HE LAUGHS
0:18:59 > 0:19:04Whatever he liked to eat, he certainly liked the Cote d'Azur,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07and he couldn't wait to come back.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13The following summer marked the start of Picasso's
0:19:13 > 0:19:15true love affair with the Riviera.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17He knew the coast now,
0:19:17 > 0:19:21and found a villa above the beach at Juan-Les-Pins with a view of the sea.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24Just before leaving Paris,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26the couple discovered that Olga was pregnant.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29Picasso was like a child,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32bursting with anticipation for a long-desired treat.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36He started painting the seaside two weeks before they were due to leave.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39When he got to the coast,
0:19:39 > 0:19:43it was exactly as he had seen it in his imagination.
0:19:43 > 0:19:48"At that moment," he said, "I knew that this landscape was mine."
0:19:49 > 0:19:51And he was to make it his own.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56it was an incredibly productive summer, spent in relaxed informality in their villa,
0:19:56 > 0:20:00much more in keeping with a diet of sausage and beans!
0:20:00 > 0:20:05Picasso even claimed to have learnt to swim in the Mediterranean.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09He had discovered the hedonistic life the Riviera was famous for.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12The paintings he made that summer
0:20:12 > 0:20:15are of statuesque, but decidedly sturdy women,
0:20:15 > 0:20:18swimming or laying on the beach.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21They inhabit a timeless, classical arcadia,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24given over entirely to a life of pleasure,
0:20:24 > 0:20:27bathing and enjoying the sun on their naked skin.
0:20:27 > 0:20:32This is a vision of life on the Mediterranean shores at any point in history.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36Only the book being read by the nearest figure gives the game away.
0:20:36 > 0:20:38But, in a drawing that same summer,
0:20:38 > 0:20:42Picasso explores another side of classical mythology.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45One of his bathers has been carried off by a centaur,
0:20:45 > 0:20:47and doesn't look too pleased about it.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50In order to paint these mythical creatures,
0:20:50 > 0:20:55he had to come down to the Riviera to see them, he couldn't do it in Paris.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59"I feel that they live in these parts," he said.
0:20:59 > 0:21:00He knew what he was talking about.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04When it came to classical mythology, he had done his homework.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08Picasso had been reading the German philosopher Nietzsche,
0:21:08 > 0:21:12who drew a distinction between the Greek gods, Apollo and Dionysus.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16Apollo, god of sun, god of music and poetry,
0:21:16 > 0:21:21Nietzsche, associated with classical beauty, calm, restraint and so forth.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24But the classical had a dark side, Nietzsche said,
0:21:24 > 0:21:25and that dark side was Dionysus,
0:21:25 > 0:21:29god of wine, god of madness, god of destruction.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32The Riviera could be seen as having an Apollo side,
0:21:32 > 0:21:35the civilised and polite resorts such as Nice.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38But it could also be seen has having the characteristics of Dionysus.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41The debauched parties that people went to,
0:21:41 > 0:21:44the semi-naked bathing in the sea,
0:21:44 > 0:21:48giving oneself over to a kind of uncontrolled hedonism.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50For the next 50 years,
0:21:50 > 0:21:54Picasso very adroitly kept these two forces in equilibrium,
0:21:54 > 0:21:59painting images that recorded the hedonistic Dionysian life of the Riviera,
0:21:59 > 0:22:02but also always keeping it at arm's length.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07Observing the madness, but wary of getting too personally involved.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15As the exuberant chaos of the roaring '20s got into its stride,
0:22:15 > 0:22:20Dionysus was about to recruit a whole new legion of followers.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24The Riviera had been a playground of Europe for a generation,
0:22:24 > 0:22:27drawing a rich, aristocratic clientele,
0:22:27 > 0:22:30but its reputation had, by now, crossed the Atlantic.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35Ocean liners travelled directly from New York to the ports of the Mediterranean coast.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38America was about to fall in love with the Riviera
0:22:38 > 0:22:42and would, in the process, completely change its character.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53This is the Hotel Du Cap, on the very tip of the Antibes peninsula.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57It had always been popular with British tourists
0:22:57 > 0:22:59since it opened in 1889.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01But, in May every year, the British went home
0:23:01 > 0:23:02before the weather got too hot
0:23:02 > 0:23:05and the hotel closed until September.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09But, in 1923,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12a wealthy young American couple, Gerald and Sara Murphy,
0:23:12 > 0:23:14asked the owner of the hotel to stay open for the summer
0:23:14 > 0:23:16to accommodate themselves
0:23:16 > 0:23:20and their many arty and influential friends they hoped would join them.
0:23:20 > 0:23:21He agreed,
0:23:21 > 0:23:24and this one small step for the Murphy's comfort
0:23:24 > 0:23:29went on to be a giant leap in the fortunes of the Riviera.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34The speed with which this change to the established order
0:23:34 > 0:23:37spread to other hotels was astonishing.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41By the mid-1920s, almost every hotel on this coast
0:23:41 > 0:23:45had followed the lead of the Hotel du Cap, and opened for the summer.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48The image of the Riviera in the public mind
0:23:48 > 0:23:51changed just as dramatically.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53The pre-war advertisements
0:23:53 > 0:23:57featuring chic ladies in long dresses, enjoying the winter sun
0:23:57 > 0:24:00gave way to images that concentrated on bathing costumes,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03and the beach life of the summer vacation.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07The Murphys were in their early 30s,
0:24:07 > 0:24:09and both from American business dynasties.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12They were Jazz Age refugees,
0:24:12 > 0:24:15fleeing prohibition and parental disapproval of their marriage.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18The great motivation for their move to France
0:24:18 > 0:24:22was a hunger for some old world culture.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25When it came to their summer holidays, however,
0:24:25 > 0:24:27they had New World habits,
0:24:27 > 0:24:31and enjoyed it in a way that would be familiar to us today.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34Their carefree concept of leisure was very different
0:24:34 > 0:24:37to the way that tourists enjoyed this coast in the past.
0:24:41 > 0:24:46Rather than promenading in the shady grounds of the hotel under a parasol,
0:24:46 > 0:24:47they went swimming in the sea,
0:24:47 > 0:24:52covered themselves in banana oil, and set about getting a tan.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54Their behaviour horrified the kind of guests
0:24:54 > 0:24:56who normally stayed in the hotel.
0:24:56 > 0:24:57In the 1890s,
0:24:57 > 0:25:02the American inventor of the cornflake, John Harvey Kellogg,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05suggested that sunlight was beneficial to human health,
0:25:05 > 0:25:09and this odd notion was suddenly beginning to be taken seriously.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14For previous generations of holidaymakers,
0:25:14 > 0:25:16the sun tan was a sign of poverty.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19You only got brown if you couldn't avoid the sunlight.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23But the Murphys were part of a sudden and dramatic change of attitude in the early '20s,
0:25:23 > 0:25:25and it all started here, on the tennis court.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31Conventional ladies' tennis attire in the early years of the century
0:25:31 > 0:25:34seemed to have been designed for anything but tennis.
0:25:34 > 0:25:39But, in 1919, the flamboyant French tennis star Suzanne Lenglen
0:25:39 > 0:25:42managed to win the Wimbledon women's singles
0:25:42 > 0:25:44without the support of a corset,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47wearing a dress which revealed her bare arms.
0:25:47 > 0:25:53And, if this wasn't shocking enough, the exposed skin was deeply tanned.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57As a sports star, Lenglen made tanned skin a sign of a healthy lifestyle.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01But it became fashionable when the designer Coco Chanel
0:26:01 > 0:26:02arrived on the Cote d'Azur
0:26:02 > 0:26:05on the Duke of Westminster's yacht in 1923,
0:26:05 > 0:26:08having acquired a deep tan on the voyage.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15Having a tan suddenly became a symbol of youth, freedom
0:26:15 > 0:26:17and a bohemian lifestyle,
0:26:17 > 0:26:22and the Riviera was the perfect place to lead this kind of life.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26The Murphys were "utterly captivating", wrote one friend,
0:26:26 > 0:26:31and their summer trips to the Riviera attracted an ever-changing group of visitors
0:26:31 > 0:26:34who helped make their holiday as amusing as possible.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44This little stretch of sandy beach at Plage de la Garoupe
0:26:44 > 0:26:47would have been more or less deserted in the 1920s,
0:26:47 > 0:26:49and they adopted it as their base,
0:26:49 > 0:26:52spending the day there, partying and picnicking.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56Gerald brought a rake to clear away the seaweed each morning.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01During the previous summer, they had stayed with Cole Porter,
0:27:01 > 0:27:05and the following year, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald would join them.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09But, in 1923, their star guest was Pablo Picasso,
0:27:09 > 0:27:12along with his wife Olga, their two-year-old son Paulo,
0:27:12 > 0:27:14and his mother, Dona Maria.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17With so many fun-seekers coming and going, it must have felt like
0:27:17 > 0:27:21one long, never-ending party, of the kind Jay Gatsby was so fond of giving.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29Here, they all are enjoying a fancy dress party on the beach.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Olga, in a tutu, seems to be wearing her work clothes,
0:27:32 > 0:27:34and Picasso later complained
0:27:34 > 0:27:37it was all "too rowdy, with too many cocktails".
0:27:40 > 0:27:42All of this leisure activity
0:27:42 > 0:27:47overshadowed the fact Gerald was an extremely gifted painter himself.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50His precise architectural depictions of the minutiae of their life
0:27:50 > 0:27:51owe something to cubism,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55but he had his own unmistakable technique.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57This picture, Cocktail,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01is a hymn to an important ritual in their daily routine.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06When Gerald mixed a drink, he was said to resemble a priest at mass.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10And, whilst this painting may appear to have used the cubist technique of collage,
0:28:10 > 0:28:14in fact, every detail was painstakingly painted by Gerald.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24Their enchanted life on the Cote d'Azur had a tragic ending, though.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28Both of their sons died in quick succession in the 1930s.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30And, during the Depression, they were forced to return to America
0:28:30 > 0:28:34where Gerald took over management of the family firm.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36He gave up painting
0:28:36 > 0:28:39and became the businessman his father had always wanted him to be.
0:28:41 > 0:28:46In 1934, their friend Scott Fitzgerald published Tender is the Night,
0:28:46 > 0:28:50whose main characters, Nicole and Dick Diver,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54lived a life on the Riviera that closely mirrored the Murphys' own.
0:28:54 > 0:28:56But their bitter, destructive personalities
0:28:56 > 0:28:59were the complete opposite of his hosts'
0:28:59 > 0:29:02on whose sunny, carefree lives they were based.
0:29:02 > 0:29:07The Murphys were later described as "masters in the art of living".
0:29:07 > 0:29:10But it seemed everyone was having a good time now.
0:29:10 > 0:29:15"One could get away with more on the summer Riviera," wrote Scott Fitzgerald.
0:29:15 > 0:29:20"And whatever happened seemed to have something to do with art."
0:29:24 > 0:29:27Summer on the Riviera had been attracting artists for years.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30The art academies of Paris were closed
0:29:30 > 0:29:34and the Riviera, a winter resort, was cheap.
0:29:34 > 0:29:35Now, all of a sudden,
0:29:35 > 0:29:38in no small part due to the Murphys' family holidays,
0:29:38 > 0:29:41this sleepy, summer backwater
0:29:41 > 0:29:44was where the important things were taking place.
0:29:44 > 0:29:47Artists, consequently, were everywhere on this coast.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51The old guard were well established.
0:29:51 > 0:29:53Matisse in Nice, Picasso in Antibes,
0:29:53 > 0:29:55Bonnard in Le Cannet.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58But now, a host of new names were to join them.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00Jean Cocteau in Villefranche,
0:30:00 > 0:30:03Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia in Mougins.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08And visitors like Joan Miro, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst,
0:30:08 > 0:30:12and Raoul Dufy, whose colourful fauvist images of the French seaside
0:30:12 > 0:30:15have made him a favourite poster boy for Nice.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20Taking advantage of this maelstrom of creativity,
0:30:20 > 0:30:24Sergei Diaghilev brought the Ballet Russes to Monaco
0:30:24 > 0:30:27to act like a sponge and soak up all his talent.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34Diaghilev had been perpetually one step ahead of his creditors
0:30:34 > 0:30:38since the Russian Revolution had left him and his company exiled,
0:30:38 > 0:30:42an itinerant troupe wandering Europe in search of a home.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47In 1922, it seemed they might have found that home when the new
0:30:47 > 0:30:52Prince of Monaco, Louis II, decided he wanted his tiny principality
0:30:52 > 0:30:57to be known for something other than its legendary gaming tables.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01He offered the Ballet Russes the use of the Theatre du Monte Carlo,
0:31:01 > 0:31:03attached to the back of the Casino.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08Diaghilev's great genius was to harness the cutting edge
0:31:08 > 0:31:10artistic talent of the day,
0:31:10 > 0:31:14and present it to the public as part of the spectacle of the ballet.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18As part of the cultural celebrations of the Paris Olympics in 1924
0:31:18 > 0:31:21he staged 'Le Train Bleu'.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25'Le Train Bleu' was a luxury express service run by the same
0:31:25 > 0:31:30company responsible for the Orient Express, and every bit as glamorous.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33It gained near mythical status in the '20s and '30s,
0:31:33 > 0:31:37in keeping with the hedonistic reputation of the coast it served.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53The train left Paris each evening, travelling along the spectacular
0:31:53 > 0:31:57Riviera coastline overnight in sleeping cars of great opulence.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00Its clientele were the creme de la creme
0:32:00 > 0:32:04and the journey frequently turned into a night-long party on rails.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08Agatha Christie set a Poirot mystery on the train and Winston Churchill
0:32:08 > 0:32:12later claimed to have been its most frequent passenger.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20Diaghilev desperately needed a hit,
0:32:20 > 0:32:24and this simple one act satire on the sporty Riviera beach scene
0:32:24 > 0:32:27fulfilled the brief, but he wasn't taking any chances.
0:32:27 > 0:32:31He was in the fortunate position of having people queuing up
0:32:31 > 0:32:32to work on his productions.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35On this occasion, the libretto was by Jean Cocteau,
0:32:35 > 0:32:39the costumes by Coco Chanel, and the curtain by Pablo Picasso.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45In fact, Train Bleu doesn't even appear in it.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49The action all takes place amongst the smart set on the Cote d'Azur.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52Diaghilev wrote in the programme,
0:32:52 > 0:32:54"The first point about Le Train Bleu
0:32:54 > 0:32:57"is that there is no blue train in it.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01"This being the age of speed, it already has reached its destination
0:33:01 > 0:33:04"and disembarked its passengers."
0:33:04 > 0:33:05In a similar vein,
0:33:05 > 0:33:10Picasso's curtain didn't involve much work from Picasso himself.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12The monumental women in the picture,
0:33:12 > 0:33:16examples of his sturdy Riviera classism, are completely at odds
0:33:16 > 0:33:20with the performers in the ballet, who were all Olympic athletes,
0:33:20 > 0:33:24whose gymnastics made up a large part of the choreography.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27At 38 by 34 foot, you might argue
0:33:27 > 0:33:31this is the largest Picasso painting ever made.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35But in fact, Diaghilev saw the picture in Picasso's studio
0:33:35 > 0:33:38and had it copied onto the curtain by a scene painter,
0:33:38 > 0:33:41Alexandre Shervashidze,
0:33:41 > 0:33:45who was moonlighting from his other job as Prince of Abkhazia.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49Picasso's gigantic women, skipping
0:33:49 > 0:33:53thunderously along the Mediterranean shoreline, suggested the artist
0:33:53 > 0:33:57was not taking the call to order quite as seriously as he might.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00And he was not the only one.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04The warped flipside of the scholarly retreat into the classical past
0:34:04 > 0:34:07was the disparate international grouping of artists
0:34:07 > 0:34:10who gathered under the umbrella of Dada.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13This playful image, by Marcel Duchamp,
0:34:13 > 0:34:17a moustache graffitied in pen onto a postcard of the world's most
0:34:17 > 0:34:20famous painting, summed up the attitude of Dada.
0:34:22 > 0:34:23Like the call to order,
0:34:23 > 0:34:26Dada was born out of the horrors of the First World War.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30But where the call to order saw the solution as being a return to
0:34:30 > 0:34:35tradition, Dada held the entire European tradition to blame.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39And if the tradition was to blame, then everything had to be attacked.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42So Dada was anti-art, it was anti-capitalist,
0:34:42 > 0:34:45it was anti-bourgeois, it was anti-military, it was anti-church,
0:34:45 > 0:34:49it was anti-colonial, it was even anti-Dada at times.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59Almost everything on the list of things Dada was against were
0:34:59 > 0:35:03present in abundance on the Riviera, so it was no surprise that
0:35:03 > 0:35:06when the Dada painter Francis Picabia arrived on the coast
0:35:06 > 0:35:10in 1925 he found it a rich source of inspiration.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19Picabia was in his mid-forties, and undoubtedly a very gifted painter.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22His questing mind explored the possibilities of every 'ism'
0:35:22 > 0:35:25that came along, beginning as an Impressionist
0:35:25 > 0:35:30and adopting Neo-Impressionism, Fauvism and Cubism in their turn,
0:35:30 > 0:35:34but through it all he remained devoted to having a good time.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40Picabia embraced Dada with more enthusiasm than any other art
0:35:40 > 0:35:41movement he had tried,
0:35:41 > 0:35:44perhaps because he had never had to take art seriously.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48He was a wealthy playboy with the means to enjoy the Riviera,
0:35:48 > 0:35:50and the wit to point out its absurdity.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55This vision of the Promenade des Anglais,
0:35:55 > 0:35:59the seafront road in Nice, is made from found objects.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03The palm trees from macaroni, their fronds are feathers dyed green,
0:36:03 > 0:36:05but in contrast to the picture itself,
0:36:05 > 0:36:09the frame was made of snake-skin by the society bookbinder
0:36:09 > 0:36:13Pierre Legrain in mocking imitation of tourist trinkets like sea-shell
0:36:13 > 0:36:17encrusted cigarette cases, that were for sale in the seafront shops.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23Picabia and his fellow Dada-ists had entered into a kind
0:36:23 > 0:36:26of Faustian pact on the Riviera.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30However much their anarchistic art emphasised the worthless
0:36:30 > 0:36:32pursuits of the idle rich on this coast,
0:36:32 > 0:36:35it was very clear that they enjoyed the good life
0:36:35 > 0:36:39every bit as much as the people that were mocking.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42Is it just a myth that there were people who lead decadent
0:36:42 > 0:36:43lives in the South?
0:36:43 > 0:36:46Well, Picabia shows you it was not a myth.
0:36:46 > 0:36:52He leads a wild life, he truly leads a decadent exciting life living
0:36:52 > 0:36:56in the chateau he builds in Mougins with three different women at once.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00The wife, a girlfriend, the next girlfriend.
0:37:00 > 0:37:06I did know Olga Picabia in her very old age and she said to me,
0:37:06 > 0:37:09"No, we really did all live together in that house."
0:37:11 > 0:37:15One thing Picabia took very seriously though, was the motor car,
0:37:15 > 0:37:18and, in this respect, he was part of a trend on the Riviera
0:37:18 > 0:37:21which he might otherwise have mocked.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30"It came to me in a flash," He said,
0:37:30 > 0:37:33"that the genius of the modern world is machinery,
0:37:33 > 0:37:34"and that, through machinery,
0:37:34 > 0:37:38"art ought to find its most vivid expression."
0:37:38 > 0:37:42In the 1920s, a motor car was becoming as important to an artist
0:37:42 > 0:37:45as his easel on this coast.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48Any town with a railway station had quickly become a hot spot
0:37:48 > 0:37:52for development and in order to discover the elusive beauty spots,
0:37:52 > 0:37:56it was essential to head away from the main highways.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00This restless life was recorded by a talented amateur photographer
0:38:00 > 0:38:03called Jacques-Henri Lartigue,
0:38:03 > 0:38:07who took this evocative photograph, in 1927 when he was 33.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10It is simply titled 'Mediterranean'.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14The South really gives him that kind of outdoor life
0:38:14 > 0:38:17that he's so particularly attracted to
0:38:17 > 0:38:21because he knows he can make art out of it, maybe something
0:38:21 > 0:38:25about freezing motion is what's most exciting to him and he talks about
0:38:25 > 0:38:31the sense of wanting to grab life, to keep life from escaping from him.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35That's one reason you make art. I mean, it's Proustian, right?
0:38:35 > 0:38:37You somehow want to make the transitory permanent.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41I think that's true for Lartigue and I think nowhere did life feel more
0:38:41 > 0:38:47fleeting than at a place devoted to pleasure like the Cote d'Azur.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51He wrote in his diary,
0:38:51 > 0:38:54"Having a motor car in this landscape is magical.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58"The drive to Cannes along the narrow coastal road is wonderful.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01"A motionless sea falling asleep in the sunset
0:39:01 > 0:39:03"with its eyes still open."
0:39:03 > 0:39:06Not everyone was so in love with the automobile though.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16The painter Fernand Leger wrote to his girlfriend
0:39:16 > 0:39:18from his hotel room in Nice,
0:39:18 > 0:39:22"For 20 kilometres it's nothing but a racetrack,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25"where cars drive past double file in both directions."
0:39:25 > 0:39:29He compares this 'modern thunder' to the Battle of Verdun.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35The headlong pace of development was now challenging the Riviera's
0:39:35 > 0:39:37primary attraction to artists.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39Fitzgerald put it simply.
0:39:39 > 0:39:44"The lush midsummer moment, outside of time, was already over."
0:39:46 > 0:39:49But now the dissatisfaction had a political edge.
0:39:51 > 0:39:56In 1929, a radical 24-year-old director called Jean Vigo,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59spent the summer filming the wealthy inhabitants of Nice,
0:39:59 > 0:40:03and the underclass who supported their lifestyle.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07The movie he made 'A Propos de Nice' was a damning portrait.
0:40:07 > 0:40:12"By showing certain basic aspects of a city," He said,
0:40:12 > 0:40:14"a way of life is put on trial."
0:40:20 > 0:40:24By the time Vigo's movie was finished the New York stock market
0:40:24 > 0:40:29had crashed in October 1929, initiating a worldwide depression
0:40:29 > 0:40:34that wiped out much of the wealth of the revellers Vigo's film portrayed.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38But even in the face of the economic catastrophe,
0:40:38 > 0:40:41Nice did its best to carry on business as usual.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45With the Wall Street crash,
0:40:45 > 0:40:52the economic and political situation is extremely severe in Paris.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56The small galleries for modern art really suffer and many of them close
0:40:56 > 0:41:00and modern artists are really fighting to survive.
0:41:00 > 0:41:03The south of France is still a bit of a refuge from all of that,
0:41:03 > 0:41:09and it very much maintains its status as a place of a sun-kissed lifestyle,
0:41:09 > 0:41:15of pleasure, even whilst of course, in the 1930s throughout Europe,
0:41:15 > 0:41:18the political situation is worsening.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23Vigo's view of Nice was carefully calculated.
0:41:23 > 0:41:24He felt he was showing,
0:41:24 > 0:41:31"The last gasps of a society so lost in escapism that it was sickening
0:41:31 > 0:41:35"and made you feel sympathetic to a revolutionary solution."
0:41:36 > 0:41:40The beaches of the Riviera might not seem like the obvious place
0:41:40 > 0:41:44for a revolution, but the political upheavals in France in the 1930s
0:41:44 > 0:41:48did play a major role in democratising access to this coast.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54The 1936 general election was won by a new left wing alliance
0:41:54 > 0:41:56known as Le Front Populaire,
0:41:56 > 0:42:00an event that would bring about profound change on the Cote d'Azur.
0:42:00 > 0:42:05Despite the speed with which it was possible to reach the Riviera coast
0:42:05 > 0:42:08these beaches were still largely the preserve
0:42:08 > 0:42:10of the upper reaches of society.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14In the summer of 1936, the Socialist government passed legislation
0:42:14 > 0:42:19giving every worker the right to two weeks holiday each year.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21The result was transforming.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23For tens of thousands of French families,
0:42:23 > 0:42:26this was their first experience of the seaside.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29The age of mass tourism had arrived.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32You have the first popular reforms,
0:42:32 > 0:42:37the 40-hour week, paid holidays for the first time,
0:42:37 > 0:42:39and you have this brief moment
0:42:39 > 0:42:43of exhilaration where workers are having picnics.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47Some workers are going on these organised trips,
0:42:47 > 0:42:49by their trades unions, to the South of France,
0:42:49 > 0:42:52discovering the South of France for the very first time,
0:42:52 > 0:42:55discovering that wonderful Mediterranean light
0:42:55 > 0:42:57and cooking and fish for the first time,
0:42:57 > 0:43:00and the incredible lyricism of that moment of hope.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05500,000 discounted rail tickets to the Riviera
0:43:05 > 0:43:08were made available through trades unions.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10They became known as 'The Red Trains'
0:43:10 > 0:43:13in a dig at the upper crust 'Train Bleu'.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21Picasso came to the Cote d'Azur every year during the 1930s,
0:43:21 > 0:43:26and his work became more politically charged as the decade progressed.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29He may have been working on the Riviera, but ultimately it would be
0:43:29 > 0:43:34events in Spain that brought politics into focus in his work.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37'Guernica', his passionate and tortured response to
0:43:37 > 0:43:40the bombing of a Basque village, painted entirely in sombre
0:43:40 > 0:43:45tones of grey, nailed his colours very firmly to the mast.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49But in the months between the defeat of the Spanish Republican government
0:43:49 > 0:43:52he supported and the outbreak of the Second World War,
0:43:52 > 0:43:55Picasso painted a much more intensely colourful picture,
0:43:55 > 0:43:59set, not in the country of his birth, but in his adopted home,
0:43:59 > 0:44:02the Cote d'Azur.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11"It is not sufficient to know an artist's works.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15"It is also necessary to know when he did them, how,
0:44:15 > 0:44:18"and under what circumstances," Picasso told a friend.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21But even following his advice
0:44:21 > 0:44:25may not fully explain 'Night Fishing in Antibes'.
0:44:25 > 0:44:26It's a kind of happy painting,
0:44:26 > 0:44:30if you wish because it's a kind of tribute to this place.
0:44:30 > 0:44:36I think he really liked Antibes so we are facing the kind of landscape.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39You have the sea, you have the city of Antibes,
0:44:39 > 0:44:42and in the sea not far from the coast you have a little boat
0:44:42 > 0:44:44like the one we're in now.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48And in this boat, two guys fishing. Two fishermen.
0:44:48 > 0:44:53One is looking at the sea, trying to see if fish are coming, you know,
0:44:53 > 0:44:57and the other one is having a big trident.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01They use electric light by night to make the fish come in the light.
0:45:01 > 0:45:06It's not a very, how you say, legal way of fishing
0:45:06 > 0:45:09but in that time maybe it was.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13Anyway, so the two women on the wall on the right side of the painting,
0:45:13 > 0:45:17one is with a bicycle and licking an ice cream.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21This is Dora Maar, mistress of Picasso.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24Dare I ask, what does it mean?
0:45:24 > 0:45:28This painting is about maybe troubled times in a way
0:45:28 > 0:45:30because it's just before the war
0:45:30 > 0:45:34and you have the struggle of life.
0:45:34 > 0:45:36The men are fishing, you know.
0:45:36 > 0:45:37It's a kind of hunt in a way.
0:45:37 > 0:45:42You have all these incredible colours in the paining.
0:45:42 > 0:45:47With his mixing of blue, violet, green for the sea
0:45:47 > 0:45:51and these kind of purple towers, it's a Cubist work.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55- If you see the fishermen, their heads are quite...- Distorted?
0:45:55 > 0:46:00..distorted but it's also a very figurative work in a way
0:46:00 > 0:46:04because you can see that ladies, fishermen, boats, the city,
0:46:04 > 0:46:06everything is quite obvious,
0:46:06 > 0:46:10so this is a mixing of many influences in Picasso's work.
0:46:13 > 0:46:15'There's something else going on in this painting.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18'There's a real darkness that goes beyond the fact
0:46:18 > 0:46:20'it's a night time scene.'
0:46:20 > 0:46:23You see that partly in the light that the fishermen are holding up.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25It's an acetylene lamp to daze the fish
0:46:25 > 0:46:28but it looks almost like a shell exploding in the air.
0:46:28 > 0:46:30Picasso has other things on his mind.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33He's thinking partly about the Spanish Civil War,
0:46:33 > 0:46:36which has just finished, with Franco the victor,
0:46:36 > 0:46:40and Picasso detested Franco and the Spanish Fascists.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43It also has to do with the darkening mood in Europe at the time.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47Shortly after Picasso finishes the painting Germany invades Poland,
0:46:47 > 0:46:49and the Second World War begins.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55In September, Picasso returned to Paris
0:46:55 > 0:46:57and the Nazis were not far behind him.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01The Riviera was initially in the southern Free Zone, run by
0:47:01 > 0:47:05the French themselves, and became, once more, a place of refuge.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09Those fleeing the round ups in the north included French Jews,
0:47:09 > 0:47:14but also many modern painters, who the Nazis regarded as degenerate.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19The area became a holding zone for those hoping to escape to America,
0:47:19 > 0:47:22like Max Ernst, Marc Chagall and Fernand Leger.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26Matisse moved to a house in the hills at Vance,
0:47:26 > 0:47:28fearing that Nice would be bombed.
0:47:28 > 0:47:32In Paris, Picasso was kept under surveillance.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35The Riviera was later occupied by the Italians,
0:47:35 > 0:47:37then by the Nazis themselves.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40Nice's battered population was near to starvation
0:47:40 > 0:47:44when the city was finally liberated in 1944.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48In a final act of vandalism,
0:47:48 > 0:47:52the Nazis dismantled the Grand Jetee Pavilion for its metal content,
0:47:52 > 0:47:56depriving the city of one of its most recognisable landmarks.
0:47:59 > 0:48:00When the war ended,
0:48:00 > 0:48:05both Matisse and Picasso were lauded as heroes by the French Republic.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08Fernand Leger and Marc Chagall returned from exile
0:48:08 > 0:48:12and a fantastic mood of optimism seemed to grip the entire country,
0:48:12 > 0:48:15and its artists.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19Picasso returned to the coast in 1946 and during this visit
0:48:19 > 0:48:22he was offered the use of the attic rooms of the Grimaldi Castle
0:48:22 > 0:48:24here in Antibes.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28He donated his entire output from that summer to the town,
0:48:28 > 0:48:32and shortly afterwards this building became the first national museum
0:48:32 > 0:48:36in France dedicated to the work of a living artist.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41Whilst here he painted this picture, 'Joie de Vivre',
0:48:41 > 0:48:44expressing something of the mood of the age,
0:48:44 > 0:48:48but also a renewed enjoyment of the mythological playground
0:48:48 > 0:48:51that the Mediterranean coast represented to him.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54This is a period of great happiness in his life.
0:48:54 > 0:48:58He goes off to the South of France with his beautiful new mistress,
0:48:58 > 0:49:01Francois Gilot, who's so much younger than he is.
0:49:01 > 0:49:06I think, Picasso's personal happiness, is massively reflected
0:49:06 > 0:49:08in 'Joie de Vivre'.
0:49:08 > 0:49:13It's got a wonderful chalky palette of white mixed up with pale blues,
0:49:13 > 0:49:18and, all those Mediterranean themes like pan pipes and sea
0:49:18 > 0:49:21and naughty little frisking centaurs,
0:49:21 > 0:49:25rediscovering Mediterranean themes, actually on the Mediterranean.
0:49:25 > 0:49:30And I think Francois Gilot herself, not only as a beautiful woman
0:49:30 > 0:49:34but also as a model for him, expresses that joie de vivre.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38She's superbly fertile. She's giving him two beautiful new children.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42Of course Picasso himself is participating in a baby boom
0:49:42 > 0:49:45which is happening all over France at the time.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49As in Britain, the political mood of the country had swung
0:49:49 > 0:49:52decisively to the left and the French Communists polled
0:49:52 > 0:49:56the most votes in the first post war elections.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59Picasso had joined the party in 1944.
0:49:59 > 0:50:02"He has never read a line of Karl Marx", said a friend.
0:50:02 > 0:50:04"His Communism is sentimental".
0:50:06 > 0:50:09That same summer of 1946,
0:50:09 > 0:50:12he paid a visit to a small town outside Cannes.
0:50:12 > 0:50:17Vallauris was a Communist stronghold of artisan ceramicists
0:50:17 > 0:50:19that had now fallen on hard times.
0:50:20 > 0:50:24Picasso's politics were revealing a side to the Riviera that was
0:50:24 > 0:50:27largely ignored by the wider world.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31A hinterland of old craft industries and working class towns that
0:50:31 > 0:50:34were a million miles from the holiday beaches.
0:50:35 > 0:50:40Picasso wandered into the Madoura pottery workshop in July 1946
0:50:40 > 0:50:43and his reaction to the work that he saw going on was,
0:50:43 > 0:50:46'Can I have a go at this?'
0:50:47 > 0:50:51The ceramic work Picasso made in Vallauris adapted the plates
0:50:51 > 0:50:55and jugs that were already being produced in the workshops and, using
0:50:55 > 0:51:01these raw materials, he pulled, cut and tore the clay into new forms.
0:51:01 > 0:51:07What Picasso really liked in ceramics was the fact that you're never sure
0:51:07 > 0:51:09the way it will go out from the oven,
0:51:09 > 0:51:12you know, because there is a kind of alchemy.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17You have something in mind and it's something else that happens
0:51:17 > 0:51:20so Picasso was very excited about that.
0:51:20 > 0:51:24Picasso had all the time he wanted to make these kind of
0:51:24 > 0:51:26trials on the pottery.
0:51:26 > 0:51:31Usually ceramic works were done for precise functions, plates,
0:51:31 > 0:51:36you know for the food, but they are also sculpture, animals,
0:51:36 > 0:51:38you see, this condor, the big bird there,
0:51:38 > 0:51:43and this incredible bull, so these are really disconnected to
0:51:43 > 0:51:47any function, they are works of art, they are sculpture.
0:51:47 > 0:51:49Ceramic sculpture.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52Picasso's work here put Vallauris back on the map,
0:51:52 > 0:51:56and he single-handedly brought about a revival in the fortunes
0:51:56 > 0:52:00of the town, and just to show he was serious about his ceramics,
0:52:00 > 0:52:04he moved here to live in 1948.
0:52:04 > 0:52:07In the market square, the sculpture he gave the town,
0:52:07 > 0:52:10'Homme et Mouton' has pride of place.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14Ivan Oreggia worked alongside Picasso in the Madoura workshops
0:52:14 > 0:52:15for 20 years.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22Picasso may have been trying to produce art to interest the masses,
0:53:22 > 0:53:26but the masses were becoming more interested in his life.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29Artists appeared alongside movie stars in the magazines
0:53:29 > 0:53:33and newsreels and the celebrity circus liked it best of all
0:53:33 > 0:53:35if you lived this life on the Riviera.
0:53:35 > 0:53:40# The more I see you
0:53:43 > 0:53:46# The more I want you. #
0:53:48 > 0:53:53This is the Villa Santo Sospir, where Jean Cocteau stayed during
0:53:53 > 0:53:57the 1950s, and it still speaks very eloquently of his life and his art,
0:53:57 > 0:54:01including some of the ceramic works he produced in Vallauris.
0:54:04 > 0:54:08The location, on the tip of Cap Ferrat, couldn't be better,
0:54:08 > 0:54:12with a view of Nice across the unreal blue of the Baie des Anges.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19By the 1950s it seemed every other person you met on the Riviera
0:54:19 > 0:54:22was an artist, and most of them were famous.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29Of the many watering holes along this coast where you could expect to
0:54:29 > 0:54:32spot a member of this newly exotic species,
0:54:32 > 0:54:36the one with the greatest claim to an authentic artistic heritage
0:54:36 > 0:54:38is in the village of St Paul de Vance,
0:54:38 > 0:54:41the Colombe d'Or restaurant.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45Beginning in the 1930s, the owner, Paul Roux,
0:54:45 > 0:54:49amassed one of the great collections of modern art here, picking up works
0:54:49 > 0:54:54for a song from impecunious artists in exchange for a meal.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57Tony Penrose was brought here as a youngster with his parents,
0:54:57 > 0:55:01the artist Roland Penrose, and photographer Lee Miller.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05The Riviera had this incredibly free atmosphere,
0:55:05 > 0:55:10and I think what epitomises that is this photograph by Lee Miller.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14She was my mum, and it captures absolutely the freedom,
0:55:14 > 0:55:18the friendship, the love that all these people had between each other.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21And this is my dad, that's Roland Penrose.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23That's what an uptight Englishman looks like.
0:55:23 > 0:55:27And I think, you know, that actually, the expression on his face sums up,
0:55:27 > 0:55:30what it was like to come here in those days.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33I first arrived down here in the early '50s
0:55:33 > 0:55:35when we were visiting Picasso.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39We drove overland from England, and it was a wonderful adventure.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42So when you first met Picasso you were a small boy
0:55:42 > 0:55:45so I assume you had no idea who he was,
0:55:45 > 0:55:49other than that's just Pablo who doesn't speak English?
0:55:49 > 0:55:51It sounds really pretentious,
0:55:51 > 0:55:55but it didn't occur to me that there was anything unusual about this.
0:55:55 > 0:55:58And it was amazing just hanging round.
0:55:58 > 0:56:04He had this studio in an old scent factory and it was full of junk.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08That lovely, warm, dusty smell of the studio.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12The smell of plaster and all kinds of things that he was using.
0:56:12 > 0:56:17And he had this wonderful magical ability to make junk into things
0:56:17 > 0:56:20and she was called the lady with the key.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24How do you feel about what has happened to the Riviera
0:56:24 > 0:56:26since the 1950s?
0:56:26 > 0:56:31I think it would be unrecognisable to my parents and Picasso
0:56:31 > 0:56:34and the other guys that used to hang out there because,
0:56:34 > 0:56:38it's the international impact of it, you know.
0:56:38 > 0:56:42The beautiful Medieval towns like here, St Paul de Vance,
0:56:42 > 0:56:46you walk around and there's bus tour after bus tour after bus tour
0:56:46 > 0:56:49of people coming from all over the world.
0:56:49 > 0:56:50Can't blame them for doing that
0:56:50 > 0:56:53but it's altered the whole character of the place.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01The artistic credentials that established the Riviera
0:57:01 > 0:57:06on the bus tour itinerary have been inherited by a legion of followers
0:57:06 > 0:57:10hoping that some of the magic will rub off on their own endeavours.
0:57:10 > 0:57:12There is something about the heritage modernism
0:57:12 > 0:57:16on sale in these shops that can make St Paul feel a bit like
0:57:16 > 0:57:18an artistic Disneyland,
0:57:18 > 0:57:22but this still doesn't detract from the extraordinary contribution
0:57:22 > 0:57:25this coast has made to the story of modern art.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31It's the scale of the French Riviera.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35It's the number of years, decades and decades of art making
0:57:35 > 0:57:36on the Cote d'Azur.
0:57:36 > 0:57:41It's the variety of artists from a huge number of places
0:57:41 > 0:57:45that makes this unique in terms of the history of art making.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48Never has there been and it may well be,
0:57:48 > 0:57:52never will there be again a resort, a pure pleasure zone,
0:57:52 > 0:57:57that contributes quite this degree and quite this quantity
0:57:57 > 0:58:02of remarkable artistic innovation as the Cote d'Azur has done.
0:58:04 > 0:58:07The artistic treasure trove on the Cote d'Azur makes a holiday here
0:58:07 > 0:58:10a cut above any other destination on earth,
0:58:10 > 0:58:13and every tourist a part of a great artistic adventure.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18And the adventure continues.
0:58:18 > 0:58:19This coast still inspires,
0:58:19 > 0:58:23and it also has a legacy unequalled anywhere else.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26The museums and galleries of the Cote d'Azur
0:58:26 > 0:58:29rank alongside the very best in Paris, London and New York
0:58:29 > 0:58:32for the sheer range and quality of the art on display.
0:58:33 > 0:58:35Is it paradise?
0:58:35 > 0:58:37Perhaps not.
0:58:37 > 0:58:40But it certainly looks like it when it poses for a picture.
0:58:58 > 0:59:01Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd