Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds
Audio Exhibition
Juan-les-Pins
Hello, I am Molly Milano-Rifkind, the museum’s Donor Events Manager. I will be reading an introduction to the “Juan-les-Pins” section of Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds.
Picasso traveled extensively in the late 1910s and 1920s. As his reputation and success became established, he spent more time in fashionable seaside towns on the Côte d’Azur (French Riviera). Picasso felt an instant affinity for the small French seaside village of Juan-les-Pins, which he first visited in the summer of 1920. He explained, “I don’t want to pretend to be a psychic [but…] everything [about Juan-les-Pins] was there […] I understood that this landscape was mine.” Juan-les-Pins remained an important destination and source of inspiration for the artist for many years.
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, active in France, 1881–1973), Villa Chêne-Roc at Juan-Les-Pins, Juan-Les-Pins, August 18, 1931, oil on canvas, Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte, Madrid © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society, (ARS), New York, Courtesy American Federation of Arts, 15 3/16 x 21 5/8 in. (38.6 x 54.9 cm)
Verbal Description
Hello, I am Molly Milano-Rifkind, the museum’s Donor Events Manager. I will be reading a description of the painting Villa Chêne-Roc at Juan-Les-Pins, in Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds.
Pablo Picasso, a Spanish artist who lived from 1881 to 1973, painted Villa Chêne-Roc at Juan-Les-Pins in oil on canvas on August 18, 1931, at Juan-les-Pins, France. It is in the Almine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso Foundation for Art, Madrid.
Measuring about 15 by 21 and a half inches or 39 by 55 centimeters, Villa Chêne-Roc at Juan-Les-Pins, is a horizontally oriented painting. In the center of the picture is a grand, light pink two-storied stucco home. A balcony runs the width of the house between the first and second story creating a front porch with columns. A staircase leading to a gravel walk and front lawn extends out from the entrance. In the left foreground, a crenelated light blue brick wall is evident. To the right, a road sweeps toward the rear of the structure. Green trees and shady palms surround the scene. In the background, a mountain range that appears to be on fire draws the viewer’s attention.
Label Text
Hello, I am Molly Milano-Rifkind, the museum’s Donor Events Manager. I will be reading the label for the painting Villa Chêne-Roc at Juan-Les-Pins, in Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds.
Pablo Picasso, a Spanish artist who lived from 1881 to 1973, painted Villa Chêne-Roc at Juan-Les-Pins in oil on canvas on August 18, 1931, in Juan-les-Pins. It is in the Almine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso Foundation for Art, Madrid.
Here Picasso paints the Villa Chêne-Roc, an ornamented and manicured 19th-century estate he moved into with his family in 1931. Though he rarely referenced current events in his landscapes, this dramatic canvas records the massive fire that ravaged the outskirts of the town in the summer of that year. Visually arresting and true to life, the leaping flames underscore Picasso’s attentiveness to the effects of natural phenomena on his environment.