Artists and their museums on the Riviera

by Barbara F. Freed

Although the Riviera stretches for a mere eighty miles along the French coast of the Mediterranean from Menton to Saint-Tropez, during the first three-quarters of the twentieth century it was home to an astounding array of European artists - including Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Leger, Marc Chagall, and Jean Cocteau, among others - whose lives and work are celebrated in numerous museums and art sites in this region of intense natural beauty. Artists and Their Museums on the Riviera focuses on 28 of these museums, highlighting both museum collections and the artists' personal stories, while providing all the necessary information an energetic voyager or enthusiastic armchair traveler needs to ensure a series of memorable visits.