Château of Vauvenargues - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Château of Vauvenargues is a fortified bastide

Bastide (Provencal Manor)

A Bastide is a local name for a manor house in Provence, in the south of France, located in the countryside or in a village, and originally occupied by a wealthy farmer...

in the village of Vauvenargues

Vauvenargues, Bouches-du-Rhône

Vauvenargues is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France. It is close to Aix-en-Provence and the Montagne Sainte-Victoire.-Population:-Chateau of Vauvenargues:...

, situated to the north
of Montagne Sainte-Victoire

Montagne Sainte-Victoire

Montagne Sainte-Victoire — in Provençal Occitan: Venturi / Santa Venturi according to classical orthography and Ventùri / Santo Ventùri according to Mistralian orthography — is a limestone mountain ridge in the south of France which extends over 18 kilometres between the départements of...

, just outside the town of Aix-en-Provence

Aix-en-Provence

Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...

in the south of France.

Built on a site occupied since Roman times

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

, it became a seat of the Counts of Provence in the middle ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, passing to the
Archbishops of Aix in the thirteenth century. It acquired its present architectural form in the seventeenth century as the family home of the marquis de Vauvenargues

Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues

Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues was a minor French writer, a moralist. He died at age 31, in broken health, having published the year prior—anonymously—a collection of essays and aphorisms with the encouragement of Voltaire, his friend. He first received public notice under his own name...

. After the French revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

it was sold to the Isoard family, who despite their humble origins eventually installed their coat of arms in the chateau. Nineteenth century additions include a ceramic maiolica

Maiolica

Maiolica is Italian tin-glazed pottery dating from the Renaissance. It is decorated in bright colours on a white background, frequently depicting historical and legendary scenes.-Name:...

profile in the Italian renaissance

Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...

style of René of Anjou, one of the former owners, and a small shrine containing the relics of St Severin

Saint Severinus

Severinus of Noricum is a Roman Catholic saint, known as the "Apostle to Noricum". It has been speculated that he was born in either Southern Italy or in the Roman province of Africa, after the death of Attila in 453. Severinus himself refused to discuss his personal history before his appearance...

.

In 1929 the chateau was officially listed as a historic monument. In 1943 it was sold by the Isoard family to three industrialists from Marseille

Marseille

Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

, who stripped it of its furnishings and mural decoration, some of which still survives in the Château of La Barben. In 1947 it became a vacation centre for a maritime welfare institution.

It was acquired in September 1958 by the exiled Spanish artist Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...

, seeking a more isolated working place than his previous home, La Californie in Cannes

Cannes

Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....

. He occupied and remodeled the chateau from 1959 until 1962, after which he moved to Mougins

Mougins

Mougins is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France.It is located on the heights of Cannes, in the district of Grasse. Mougins is a 15-minute drive from Cannes. The village is surrounded by forests, such as the Valmasque forest...

. He and his wife Jacqueline are buried in the grounds of the chateau, which is still the private property of the Picasso family. Their tomb is a grassy mound surmounted by La Dame à l'offrande (1933) (Woman with a Vase), a monumental sculpture that previously guarded the entrance of the Spanish pavilion at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1937

Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937)

The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne was held from May 25 to November 25, 1937 in Paris, France...

History of chateau

The present chateau is situated on a rocky knoll rising 440 m above a narrow gorge of the river Cose. During the Roman occupation of Provence

Provence

Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...

, when Vauvenargues was known as "Vallis Veranica", the site was occupied by a fort. The medieval castle was built over the Roman site; one large room with walls 2 to 3 m thick dates from this period. The castle passed from the Counts of Provence to the Archbishops of Aix in 1257, when Isnard II of Agoult and of Entrevennes ceded the property of his wife, Beatrix of Rians

Rians, Var

Rians is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.Rians is a completely unspoilt provencal village in the Upper Var located just behind the Mont Saint Victoire. Whereas other villages in Provence have become totally dominated by tourism and so...

, to Vicedomino de Vicedominis

Vicedomino de Vicedominis

Vicedomino de Vicedominis was an Italian cardinal.-Biography:Born at Piacenza, he was the cardinal-nephew of Pope Gregory X, his cousin who elevated him on June 3, 1273. From 1257 until 1273 he was archbishop of Aix, then cardinal-bishop of Palestrina...

, Archbishop of Aix.
In 1473 ownership passed from Oliver of Pennart, Archbishop of Aix, to René of Anjou, the "Good King René", who two years later bequeathed the castle to his physician, Pierre Robin of Angers

Angers

Angers is the main city in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France about south-west of Paris. Angers is located in the French region known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou, and its inhabitants are called Angevins....

.

In 1477 Robin exchanged the castle for that of Graveson

Graveson

Graveson is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.-Population:-References:*...

with Pierre de Cabanis. The castle was successively the property of the de Cabanis, de Jarente and de Séguiran families, until 1548, when ownership passed to François de Clapiers after his marriage to Margaret de Séguiran, and it remained in the de Clapiers family for two and a half centuries. The de Clapiers family's roots go back to Spain: Jean de Clapiers moved from Andalusia

Andalusia

Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...

to Provence in the fourteenth century. Between 1643 and 1667, while preserving the outer defensive walls, the medieval keep

Keep

A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...

was radically transformed into a manor house or gentilhommière by Henri de Clapiers, a cavalry officer, who later in 1674 was appointed first consul of Aix and state prosecutor.

For his exemplary conduct during the Great Plague of Marseille

Great Plague of Marseille

The Great Plague of Marseille was the last of the significant European outbreaks of bubonic plague. Arriving in Marseille, France in 1720, the disease killed 100,000 people in the city and the surrounding provinces. However, Marseille recovered quickly from the plague outbreak. Economic activity...

of 1720 which devastated Provence, Joseph de Clapiers was given the hereditary title of
Marquis

Marquis

Marquis is a French and Scottish title of nobility. The English equivalent is Marquess, while in German, it is Markgraf.It may also refer to:Persons:...

by Louis XV. The most famous of his sons was the celebrated Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

philosopher and moralist Luc de Clapiers

Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues

, admired and befriended by Voltaire

Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...

and Marmontel

Marmontel

Marmontel may refer to:* Jean-François Marmontel , a French literary figure* Antoine François Marmontel , a French pianist and musicographer...

. He died prematurely at the age of 32, almost blind and disfigured by smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

, before his writings had achieved due recognition. He recounted how, while reading the classics as a youth in Vauvenargues, feeling suffocated, he would "leave his books and rush out as if in a rage to run as fast he could several times around the very long terrace... until exhaustion brought an end to the attack."

After the French revolution

French Revolution

, the chateau was sold in 1790 by the third marquis of Vauvenargues to the Isoard family. Although of humble origins, the family achieved preferment during the First Empire

First French Empire

The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...

as a result of the friendship between Lucien Bonaparte

Lucien Bonaparte

Lucien Bonaparte, Prince Français, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano , born Luciano Buonaparte, was the third surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and his wife Letizia Ramolino....

and the abbé

Abbot

The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...

Joachim-Jean-Xavier d'Isoard, elevated to Cardinal

Cardinal (Catholicism)

A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...

in 1827, Archbishop of Auch

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Auch

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Auch, otherwise known in antiquity as Augusta Auscorum, is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Catholic church in France. The archdiocese now comprises the department of Gers in south-west France. It now is officially Auch, Condom, Lectoure and Lombez...

in 1828 and Archbishop of Lyon

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lyon

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lyon is a Roman Catholic Metropolitan archdiocese in France. It incorporates the ancient Archdiocese of Vienne. The current Cardinal-Archbishop is Philippe Barbarin...

just before his death in 1839. The cardinal had a small oratory

Oratory

Oratory is a type of public speaking.Oratory may also refer to:* Oratory , a power metal band* Oratory , a place of worship* a religious order such as** Oratory of Saint Philip Neri ** Oratory of Jesus...

installed inside the chateau to house the relics of St Severin

Saint Severinus

, a gift from Pope Pius VII

Pope Pius VII

Pope Pius VII , born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti, was a monk, theologian and bishop, who reigned as Pope from 14 March 1800 to 20 August 1823.-Early life:...

.

The chateau stayed in the Isoard family for 150 years until its sale in 1943 by Simone Marguerite d'Isoard Vauvenargues to three industrialists from Marseille

Marseille

. Despite its listing as a historical monument

Monument historique

A monument historique is a National Heritage Site of France. It also refers to a state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building or a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, or gardens, bridges, and other structures, because of their...

in 1929, all the furniture and a large part of the interior decoration including the magnificent Provençal embossed polychrome gilded Córdoba leather paneling lining the library and ceremonial reception room, was removed by the buyers. In 1947 it was transformed into a vacation centre for a maritime welfare organization, l'Association pour la gestion des institutions sociales maritimes.

Picasso's chateau

After passing through a series of other owners, the vacant property was finally shown on a whim to Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso

in September 1958 by the collector and art critic Douglas Cooper. Picasso was returning from a corrida

Corrida

Corrida was a French Thoroughbred racehorse who won races in France, Belgium, Germany and England and is regarded as one of the top fillies of the 20th Century worldwide...

to attend an exhibition of his own works at the Vendôme pavilion in Aix-en-Provence

Aix-en-Provence

; he was so taken by his first impressions of the chateau that he bought it within a week. Already from his first visit to the chateau, Picasso was aware of its history, in particular its connection with Luc de Clapiers. He moved into the chateau in January 1959 and thus embarked on a new era in his career. He was particularly proud to live in the shadow of Mont Sainte-Victoire

Montagne Sainte-Victoire

, one of the favourite subjects of the French painter Paul Cézanne

Paul Cézanne

Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...

, a native of Aix. A well-known anecdote has been passed on by his agent Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, whom Picasso informed that he had bought the Sainte-Victoire. When his agent asked him which one, thinking he meant one of Cézanne's painting, Picasso replied with satisfaction, "La vraie"—the real one. During his period at Vauvenargues, Picasso would never paint Mont Sainte-Victoire; the few landscape paintings he produced there were of the village of Vauvenargues opposite.

Kahnweiler asked Picasso on his first visit to Vauvenargues whether, even with the magnificent setting, it was not perhaps too vast or too severe. Picasso replied that it was not too vast, because he would fill it, and that it was not too severe, because as a Spaniard he liked sadness. When another art dealer Sam Katz

Sam Katz

Samuel Michael Katz, OM is the 42nd mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is also a businessperson and a member of the Order of Manitoba.- Life before mayorship :...

paid him a visit, Picasso proudly proclaimed, "Cézanne painted these mountains and now I own them."

At La Californie in Cannes

Cannes

Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....

, purchased in 1955, the view to the sea had been blocked by the construction of high rise apartments; socially too many demands had made on his time there by journalists and other visitors. Picasso had bought Vauvenargues not as a holiday retreat, but as a permanent home where he could work undisturbed. Apart from the installation of central heating, the standards of comfort in the chateau remained rudimentary. In April 1959 he moved his whole personal art collection from bank vaults in Paris into the chateau, overseeing and helping in the unpacking and hanging of the paintings. Among the artists in his collection were Le Nain

Le Nain

The three Le Nain brothers were painters in 17th-century France: Antoine Le Nain , Louis Le Nain , and Mathieu Le Nain...

, Chardin

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin was an 18th-century French painter. He is considered a master of still life, and is also noted for his genre paintings which depict kitchen maids, children, and domestic activities...

, Corot

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was a French landscape painter and printmaker in etching. Corot was the leading painter of the Barbizon school of France in the mid-nineteenth century...

, Courbet

Gustave Courbet

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement , with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists...

, Renoir

Renoir

-People with the surname Renoir :* Pierre-Auguste Renoir , French painter* Pierre Renoir , French actor and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir* Jean Renoir , French film director and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir...

, Gauguin, Vuillard, le Douanier Rousseau, Matisse, Braque, Miró

Joan Miró

Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...

, Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...

and Cézanne, of whom he had three oils and a much prized watercolour.

Picasso brought all the bronze sculptures from his garden in La Californie, which he arranged on the terrace in front of the principal facade of the chateau and in the entrance hall. Either side of the balustraded stairs leading to the front doors are fountains spouting water from grotesque sculpted heads from Portugal. Apart from the tomb, there are no longer any sculptures on the terrace; the Hungarian photographer Brassaï

Brassaï

Brassaï was a Hungarian photographer, sculptor, and filmmaker who rose to international fame in France in the 20th century. He was one of the numerous Hungarian artists who flourished in Paris beginning between the World Wars...

recorded that Picasso with the help of his children would create a patina

Patina

Patina is a tarnish that forms on the surface of bronze and similar metals ; a sheen on wooden furniture produced by age, wear, and polishing; or any such acquired change of a surface through age and exposure...

on outdoor bronze sculptures by urinating on them.

The Provençal dining room was the most lived-in part of the chateau. The traditional farmhouse table, with its simple wooden benches, stands on a floor tiled with Provençal octagonal brick red tomettes. On the mantelpiece over the marble fireplace stands a giant lifesize photograph of Picasso, placed there after his death by Jacqueline, who was not yet his wife when they first moved in. She was less taken with the chateau, complaining that it was too large and draughty. In the same room are two objects which Picasso often used in his paintings: a mandolin acquired in Arles

Arles

Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence....

, which figures in a series of still life

Still life

A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...

s, and a large black dresser in the style of Henri II

Henry II of France

Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559.-Early years:Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany .His father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by his sworn enemy,...

In the nineteenth century room of Cardinal d'Isoard, Picasso installed a medallion cabinet, left to him by his friend Matisse, who used it for storing prints and drawings. In his studio, as well as all the artist's painting materials, are a set of large wooden skittles, a gift from Chagall, as well as two chairs that Picasso painted almost as soon as he arrived in the colours of yellow and red for his native Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

and green for the surrounding forests of Vauvernagues and Mont Sainte-Victoire. Facing west with three spacious windows, his studio is the largest, grandest and best lit room in the chateau; like the library downstairs, it still has its original highly ornate seventeenth century sculpted plasterwork and mouldings, but all rendered in bright white. Picasso also brought in two industrial lamps to guarantee the quality of light. Commentators have said that Picasso tried to recreate at Vauvenargues the same conditions as in Spain: the intense light, the brilliant primary colours, the austerity and the rugged setting.

The bedroom of Jacqueline has a simple bed in the defiant yellow and red colours of the Catalonian flag. There is a swirling red and black carpet, designed by Picasso himself and taking up a theme familiar from his lino cuts. The walls of her bedroom were left in a partially painted state, as Picasso wished to live in the chateau as he found it. One wall of the adjacent bathroom has a bucolic frieze painted by Picasso into the plaster, a large scale version of his many bacchanalia

Bacchanalia

The bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals of the Greco-Roman god Bacchus , the wine god. The term has since come to describe any form of drunken revelry.-History:...

n scenes, with a faun playing on pipes amid greenery. Green garden furniture was later added by Jacqueline.

In fact Picasso only occupied the chateau for a relatively short period between January 1959 and 1962, with several interruptions. Nevertheless all the works of art he produced there bear the indelible marks of Vauvenargues, one of the high points of his career. Among the different themes, he painted various portraits of Jacqueline, jokingly styled Jaqueline de Vauvenargues, often with infant figures — the children they would never have; a series of bacchanalian scenes, many of them in lino cuts, with fauns and centaurs, rekindling themes from an earlier period when he lived with Françoise Gilot in Antibes

Antibes

Antibes is a resort town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France.It lies on the Mediterranean in the Côte d'Azur, located between Cannes and Nice. The town of Juan-les-Pins is within the commune of Antibes...

; and a series of paintings and drawings based on his own reworking of Déjeuner sur l'herbe by Manet

Édouard Manet

Édouard Manet was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....

.

During this period Picasso acquired the mas

Mas (Provencal Farmhouse)

A mas is a traditional farmhouse in the Provence region of France as well as in Catalonia, where is also named masia or masía ....

of Notre-Dame-de-Vie at Mougins

Mougins

, where he moved permanently in June 1961. He came back from time to time to Vauvenargues, but had to stop following a serious operation in 1965. After that Vauvenargues became a stopping-off point for Picasso on his way to corrida

Corrida

Corrida was a French Thoroughbred racehorse who won races in France, Belgium, Germany and England and is regarded as one of the top fillies of the 20th Century worldwide...

s in Arles or Nîmes

Nîmes

Nîmes is the capital of the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.-History:...

After Picasso

Picasso died at his hilltop villa in Mougins

Mougins

on Sunday 8 April 1973, at the age of 92. The local authorities would not permit him to be buried there, so his wife Jacqueline chose the grounds of the Château of Vauvenargues as his last resting place. The funeral cortège arrived to find Vauvenargues under a blanket of fresh snow, unusual for that time of year. The event was marred by the complex family problems that had clouded Picasso's final years. Jacqueline denied entry to several close friends and his three estranged children: Maya, Picasso's daughter by his longtime mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, and Claude and Paloma, his children by Françoise Gilot. Picasso's body lay in a mahogany casket in the vaulted guardroom, the oldest part of the château, during the week it took for a grave to be dug in the shaded terrace in front of the main entrance. On 16 April his body was placed in the grave in a sleeping position, beneath a mound of earth. Jacqueline had the monumental sculpture Woman with a Vase placed symbolically on the grave and transformed the guardroom into a shrine for her husband, filled with flowers. The sculpture is a second casting of the sculpture of 1933 that had guarded the Spanish Pavilion during the International Exhibition in Paris in 1937, where Guernica

Guernica (painting)

Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso. It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque Country, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War...

was first displayed. (This historic combination of the two works of art has been reintroduced by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is the official name of Spain's national museum of 20th century art . The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992 and is named for Queen Sofia of Spain...

in Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, where Guernica forms the centerpiece of the museum.)

Thirteen years later, with the family divided by arguments over the future of the Picasso estate, Jacqueline took her own life. Before her death she had regularly visited her husband's grave on the 8th of every month. Her funeral service took place in the old guard room of the château and she was buried next to Picasso. The ownership of the château passed to Catherine Hutin, Jacqueline's daughter by her first marriage. With her principal residence in Paris, she agreed to allow the château to be opened for public visits from May to September in 2009 for the first time since 1973; the village of Vauvenargues had long before that rejected plans to transform it into a museum. The château is furnished and decorated as Picasso left it; many bronze sculptures remain, although there are no longer any paintings either by Picasso or from his private collection. Public visits to the château resumed in 2010 from June 30 until October 2, with several more rooms opened to house an exhibition of around 60 of Jacqueline Picasso's photographs.

Selected artworks by Picasso from Vauvenargues

Please click on the links to see the images from the On-Line Picasso Project. For copyright reasons, these images are not directly available.

Nu assis, bras croisés sur la tête, February 1959.
Le buffet à Vauvenargues (Buffet Henri II avec chien et fauteuil), February 1959.
Mandoline, cruche et verre, April 1959.
El Bobo (d'après Velázquez et Murillo), April 1959.
Portrait de Jacqueline de profil, April 1959.
Jacqueline de Vauvenargues, April 1959.
Vauvenargues sous la pluie, April 1959.
Jacqueline au chien (Jacqueline et le chien afghan), May 1959 - January 1960.
Femme nue accroupie, June 1959.
Femme nue couchée, 1960.
Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (d'après Manet), March - August 1960.
Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (d'après Manet), March - July 1960.
Le pique, March 1960.
Buste de femme, March 1960.
Deux pigeons aux ailes déployées, March 1960.
Pigeons devant la fenêtre, March 1960.
Paysage aux colombe (Les pigeons perchés), April 1960.
Jacqueline (Buste de femme), April 1960.
Arles: les arènes devant le Rhône, April 1960.
Femme couchée sous la lampe, April 1960.
Guitariste et personnages dans un paysage, May 1960.
Femme et fillettes, August 1960 - April 1961.
Jacqueline, September 1960.
Trois colombes, November 1960.
Femme assise (Jacqueline), November 1960.
Le ragoût de poissons, November 1960.
Femme nue couchée, December 1960.
Visage de femme (Portrait de Jacqueline), February 1961.
Femme au chapeau, April 1961.

Picador et torero attendant le paseo de cuadrilla, 1959
Pique (rouge et jaune), 1959
Après la pique, taureau et picador, 1959
Mère, danseur et musicien (Bacchanale avec une femme assise tenant un bébé), 1959
Picador entrant dans l'arène, 1959
Les banderilles, 1959
La pique, 1959
Avant la pique, 1959
Femme dans un fauteuil et guitariste, 1959
Les danseurs au hibou, 1959
Femme couchée et guitariste, 1959
La pique, 1959
Avant la pique, 1959
Femme couchée et homme au grand chapeau, 1959
La corrida, la pique, 1959
Trois femmes, 1959
Tête de femme de profil, 1959
Femme regardant par la fenêtre, 1959
Picador et taureau, 1959
Les banderilles, 1959
Farol, 1959
Femme dans un fauteuil et guitariste, 1959
Moissonneurs du raisin, 1959
Bacchanale au taureau, 1959
Faunes et chèvre, 1959
Bacchanale au taureau, 1959
Le vase de fleurs, 1959
Tête de femme 1959 - 1960
La pique, 1959
La pique cassée, 1959
Petite bacchanale, 1959
La pique, 1959
Jacqueline, 1959
Deux femmes près d'une fenêtre, 1959
Bacchanale, 1959
Femme au collier (Portrait de Jacqueline accoudée au collier), 1959
Bacchanale (Couple et flûtistes au bord d'un lac), 1959
Bacchanale, 1959
Bacchanale (Bacchanale au taureau), 1959
Bacchanale au hibou, 1959
Faune et chèvre, 1959

Noble dame, January 1959
La fille au chapeau, January 1959
Seigneur et fille, January 1959
Jacqueline au mouchoir noir, January 1959
La tasse, January 1959
Seigneur et noble dame, January 1959
Ronde de la jeunesse, July 1959
La pique, September 1959
La pique, September 1959
Faunes et flore, September 1959
Danseurs, November 1959
Bacchanale, December 1959
Combat de Centaures, December 1959
Venus et L'Amour, 1960
Homme et femme (Verve), 1960
La danse, 1960
Femme au balcon (Affiche 'Œuvre gravé'), 1960
L'Écuyère, April 1960
Picador, femme et morte, June 1960
L'Espagnole: portrait de la mère de Eugenio Arias (Nicolasa Herranz de Arias), October 1960
Hommage à Bacchus, October - November 1960
Torero et Señorita (Prosper Mérimée, La Carmen des Carmen), November 1960
Portrait d'Arthur Rimbaud, December 1960
Taureaux, December 1960

Fleur parisienne, 1960
Fleurs, 1960
Hibou, 1960
Tête d'homme, 1960
Le bain de pieds, 1960
Le bain de pieds et chien dalmate, 1960
Chien dalmate couché, 1960
Picador à coté de son cheval, 1960
Picador à cheval, 1960
Scène de corrida, 1960
Le dalmatien, 1960
Picador et personnage, 1960
Espagnole de profil, 1960
Tête couronnée, 1960
Musicien et danseuse, 1960
Tête de femme profil, 1960
Nature morte aux poires et au pichet (aquatint), 1960
Interieur rouge avec transatlantique bleu (aquatint), 1960
Vollard et son chat (etching), 1960
Le faune (etching with aqautint), 1960
Sur les chevaux de bois (etching), 1960
Vieillard surprenant une femme au lit (etching with aquatint), 1960
Sabartés en costume de toréador et femme espagnole (etching), 1960
Buveur sur un ane et femme (drypoint and etching), 1960
Femme assise et homme nu affuble d'un masque de carnaval (drypoint), 1960
Personnage et nu (etching), 1960
Pierrot assis, 1961
Trois colombes, 1961
Étude de Youri Gagarine, 1961
Étude d'intérieur, 1961

Visage, 1959
Pigeon, 1959
Visage, 1959
Visage au nez pincé, 1959
Quatre visages, 1959
Visage au nez pincé, 1959
Visage en relief épais, 1959
Corrida aux tâches (Scène de tauromachie), 1959
Scène de tauromachie, 1959
Chope visage, 1959
Picador et taureau, 1959
Vase au gros oiseau vert, 1960
Visage, 1960

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