At first glance, Naples and St. Paul de Vence, the most visited medieval village in France, appear to have little in common.  One is a community less than 100 years old at sea level.  The other is an ancient village on top of a mountain.   But there is at least one characteristic they share.  Both are thriving art centers attracting thousands of visitors every year.

There are dozens of such communities in Europe and several in the south of France to rival St. Paul, but this little village in particular has much that makes it unique; not least of which is how it got started as an art destination and, most important, who began that trend and who followed it.

A MOUNTAIN OF ART ON THE FRENCH RIVIERA

Words and pictures by Roger Weatherburn Baker

St. Paul de Vence is a spectacular tangle of medieval dwellings and cobbled passages immured behind massive 13^th century ramparts.   From its lofty perch on a spur in the craggy foothills of the Alps-Maritime, it offers stunning views across cypress-studded valleys toward the distant Mediterranean and the azure shores of Cap d’Antibes.

Just the sort of place to attract artists and artisans.  And it has done, since the Middle Ages.  In the beginning, they were humble weavers, stone and wood carvers.  But later, those that walked these streets included some of the greatest names in 20^th century art.

They first came in the 1920s, a cadre of avant-garde artists with a common passion for pushing the envelope of their creativity into realms few others appreciated at the time.  Drawn from their studios in the surrounding countryside the attraction was not St Paul’s history or its panoramic views but a cool leafy inn built on a rocky outcrop just outside the village walls.  There they would meet, eat and drink and perhaps play a form of bowls known locally as petanque in the elm-shaded square outside.

Although they were often short of funds, the innkeeper, Bernard Roux, welcomed them and encouraged them, willingly accepting their art in exchange for food, wine and lodging.  It was the smartest thing he ever did.  It began a revival for St. Paul de Vence and made him a very wealthy man.

Among the first artists to pay their way in kind at the inn were Chagall, Signac, Modigliani, Bonnard and Soutine.  Among the many that followed were Picasso, Miro, Matisse and Dufy.   Within the span of a few years, the Roux family found themselves owners of a priceless cache, one of the finest 20^th century art collections in private hands anywhere in the world.

Today, the old inn is an internationally renowned hotel and restaurant known as La Colombe d’Or. Inside, almost every available space is decorated with enough 20^th century masterworks to fill a small museum.  Some are large, impressive and of unmistakable origin.  Others are little more than a doodle on a scrap of paper pinned to a corridor wall.  Outside are works as big as the stature of the artists who created them.  A huge mosaic by Leger is built into an ivy-clad wall of the summer dining terrace.  Another mosaic of a dove by Braque is installed in a wall fringing the swimming pool, one end of which is overhung by a Calder mobile as tall as the cedar trees that flank it.

Over the years, the eye-boggling collection has attracted an impressive list of celebrity guests that have included Greta Garbo, Sophia Loren, Yul Brenner, Burt Lancaster, Yves Montand, David Niven, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Roger Moore, Tony Curtis and many, many more.  And they keep coming.  The evening in July this writer was there Michael Caine swung by on vacation.

Located a little farther outside the village is the Fondation (correct spelling) Maeght,  a world-renowned museum opened in 1946 that has an even more extensive and impressive collection of 20^th century paintings, sculpture and ceramics, many by the same artists but largely donated or acquired from a variety of private collections.  This gem, however, is frequently overlooked in favor of its more celebrity-associated rival.

Both destinations helped put St. Paul on the map with artists and collectors alike.  Today, the little village is crammed with dozens of studios and ateliers, and more than 70 fine art galleries that attract an average of 7,000 visitors a day.

Main Street is the rue Grande, which is anything but grand by today’s standards.  It’s a narrow cobbled passageway little more than a hand-drawn cart wide in places.  Underfoot, even the cobbles are laid out in decorative designs, sometimes a complex floral still life, sometimes abstract swirls resembling clouds.  The little street snakes through the village from one side to the other, rising and falling, twisting and turning, lined with shops from end to end like a medieval mall.

Some of the more cramped shops, sweetly scented with lavender, sell herbs, olives and oils from the region; others are stacked with fabrics, tablecloths, napkins and bags in those distinctive patterns so typical of Provence.  But these shops are mere diversions.  Those offering art seriously outnumber them.

Some of the galleries are upscale, spacious and well appointed.  They exhibit paintings and sculpture with attitude and prices inflated enough to give even the fattest wallet a hernia.  Others are in a sliver of space little more than a doorway.  There’s even one parked in a single room called The Garage Gallery.

Often these quainter showrooms are artist-owned, and have the more affordable and unusual art.  One such gallery was offering tiny miniatures of famous French shops, cafes and restaurants individually crafted from Limoges porcelain.  Another displayed sculptures created in weird abstract shapes that when lit cast shadows that looked like a violin, a flower or a shapely nude.

While Mark Chagall spent the latter part of his life in St Paul and is buried in the village cemetery, others who first came here decades ago are more notably connected to other communities in the surrounding area.

Picasso, who spent most of his life in Provence, lived in nearby Mougins, another picturesque mountain village now also peppered with galleries and studios.  In 1946, he was loaned space for a studio in the Grimaldi Palace down the road in Antibes.  During the five months he worked there he created more than 70 drawings and paintings, which he donated to the city at the end of his stay.  Those works form the nucleus of the Picasso Museum that also displays the art of Ernst, Leger, Miro and Nicolas de Stael.

Just a quick brush stroke away from St. Paul is the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer.  Here is Les Collettes, the wonderfully tranquil retreat that was once Renoir’s home and is now also a museum.  On display in nine rooms are a few of his original paintings, drawings and sketches.  In a small studio his easel, paints, brushes and palette have been poignantly left out ready for use as if he were about to return.

In Nice is a museum dedicated to the life and works of Henri Matisse close to the Hotel Regina where he once lived.  Just outside Monte Carlo is the mountain village of Eze where ascent to the galleries and studios above is permitted only by mule or on foot.

Provence has so many places of interest to the art lover a map pinpointing them all would resemble a pointillist painting.  But there is none that can rival St. Paul — a veritable mountain of art where so many giants’ paths crossed creating a legacy still thriving almost a century later.

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View Original Fine Art at The Weatherburn Gallery in Naples, Florida