In the late 1980s we gave up our professional careers as a research scientist and a librarian in demanding corporate positions and decided to focus future trips on researching guidebooks that would have met our earlier needs. During the last ten years we have spent over thirty months traveling in Europe, driving tens of thousands of miles among cities and towns of all sizes. We were convinced that we were not the only people interested in such sites and that such reference books would satisfy a specific need for scholars and others planning a European trip, especially if their time was limited. The comments of many people we have spoken to about our idea and the positive reception of our first volume in this series have confirmed this belief.
The region covered by this book is primarily that of Provence, but the sites also span the Mediterranean coast from the Spanish border in the west to the Italian border in the east. This region has long been a favorite place of artists because of the interplay of the dazzling sunlight and the harsh landscapes. Although the area was heavily developed into a tourist Mecca after World War II, there remained enough aesthetic appeal that many artists still chose to live and work here until their deaths. We have selected eleven artists whose relationships to the region vary diversely. Paul Czanne, born in Aix-en-Provence, found his native region far more compatible with his daring new style of painting than the artistic community of Paris and thus spent most of his life in the South. The next six chapters cover artists who established homes in the region later in their lives: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Le Corbusier, Max Ernst and Marc Chagall. The next two men, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, had brief stays here but their artistic development was greatly influenced by these experiences. Finally, we relate the cases of Gustave Courbet and Joan Mir who both had important patrons here.
The book presents information on over two hundred fifty sites in South France relating to the lives of these artists; it is arranged with a chapter for each individual. Each chapter is presented in relation to a city which was central to the artist's life in the region; other cities are treated below in alphabetical order. Two sections are included under most cities: a narrative description of the artist's connection to it and a list of specific sites arranged chronologically. These sites relate to both the lives and work of the artists, e.g. locations of residences, studios, weddings, graves, painting subjects and museums. Sites which are essentially gone are indicated with a diamond symbol in the margin; those of extraordinary interest are similarly marked with a star. All names are given in French to correspond with local information which the traveler may be using. In some cities, where there are a small number of sites, they have been included in the narrative. For the convenience of the reader we have included two indices. The first is an alphabetical list of the fifty-two cities covered in the book with citations for the chapter(s) in which they appear. The other is a listing of American museums mentioned in the text as housing various works of the artists.
Our information comes not only from travel guides but also from comprehensive biographies and miscellaneous supplementary works on each person. After combing these sources, we traveled extensively throughout the area to verify the present status of the sites identified. These travels were important for several reasons: lack of specificity in many of the sources; various ages of the sources; and the constant march of development. In actuality, we found many items to be quite different from the written sources and often difficult to locate. We hope that our work abroad makes the reader's experience considerably easier.
Provence and the surrounding area is one of the most beautiful in Europe. This book is intended to show the readers the region's deeper value by making them aware of its importance to the great artists who came here from many countries of the world. We hope our choice of artists has a wide appeal and that our readers' travels in South France will be greatly enriched by having read this book.
