Following the success of “Picasso and the Mediterranean landscape,” which marked the reopening of the Toulon Art Museum (MAT) in 2019, the museum is now showcasing a collection of one hundred delicate and vibrant watercolor paintings. This exhibition aims to celebrate the technique of watercolor, which allows artists to paint directly in front of their subjects due to its portable nature. Visitors will have the chance to view rarely displayed paintings by renowned artists such as Eugène Delacroix, George Sand, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, Felix Ziem, and Paul Signac, on loan from prestigious national museums like the Louvre Museum and Petit Palais. Additionally, works from regional museums like the Granet Museum in Aix-en-Provence, Ziem Museum in Martigues, and Annonciade Museum in Saint-Tropez will be featured to highlight local artists like Vincent Courdouan and François Nardi.
A Four-Stage Journey
This exhibition, as described by Baudelaire, serves as an invitation to embark on a journey through time. Divided into four themes, visitors will explore the history of watercolor starting with classical and romantic artists of the 19th century, such as Eugène Delacroix. The following section focuses on impressionist works by artists like Eugène Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind, followed by renowned southern artists like Felix Ziem capturing the landscapes of Marseille. The final part, titled “The Modern School,” showcases innovative paintings influenced by Impressionism from the late 19th century.
An Ode to Southern Landscapes
The Mayor of Toulon, Josée Massi, described the exhibition as an experience where the observer can feel the hues, brightness, transparencies, and lightness of the paintings as a gentle invitation to escape and relax. The luminous works of artists like Ziem, Courdouan, Nardi, and Mossa, representing the schools of Toulon and Nice, pay homage to the landscapes of the South. This is an excellent opportunity to explore historical landscapes like the Toulon harbor and Marseille port from a century ago. Additionally, the MAT offers visitors a chance to rediscover Toulon through cultural mediation and outdoor watercolor workshops led by a local artist.
After “Picasso and the Mediterranean landscape” which marked the reopening of the Toulon Art Museum (MAT) in 2019, and still with the desire to offer Toulon residents exceptional works, the place opens up to watercolor. A hundred sensitive and luminous paintings are exhibited to honor this technique which, thanks to its easily transportable support, allows painting facing the subjects. Visitors have the opportunity to discover paintings rarely exhibited due to their fragility, painted by the greatest (Eugène Delacroix, George Sand, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, Felix Ziem or Paul Signac) and loaned by the most prestigious national museums (Louvre Museum, Petit Palais, etc.). Works also come from regional museums (Granet Museum in Aix-en-Provence, Ziem Museum in Martigues, Annonciade Museum in Saint-Tropez) because the exhibition gives a large place to artists (Vincent Courdouan or François Nardi) and local subjects.
A four-stage journey
As Baudelaire wrote, this exhibition is an Invitation to travel. The journey transports visitors through time. From one era to another, from touches of light to bursts of paint, they wander through an intimate scenographic journey that traces the history of watercolor in four themes.
They can first contemplate “Watercolor among classical and romantic artists” who used this technique at the beginning of the 19th century at a time when it was still despised in France. Works by Eugène Delacroix, painter of “Liberty Leading the People”, are exhibited, some of which come from his travel notebooks in Morocco.
The second chapter is devoted to the impressionist works of Eugène Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind, all of which were painted outdoors.
Then come the artists from the south, the most renowned of whom is Felix Ziem, who sketched the bright and colourful landscapes of Marseille and its surroundings.
The fourth and final part, entitled “The Modern School”, brings together innovative paintings derived from Impressionism. Less academic than those preceding them, they date from the end of the 19th century.
An ode to the landscapes of the South
As Josée Massi, Mayor of Toulon, pointed out during her visit to the exhibition, “the hues, the brightness, the transparencies, the lightness [of these paintings] are felt by the observer as a gentle invitation to escape, to relaxation” The luminous works of Ziem, Courdouan, Nardi, Mossa, worthy representatives of the schools of Toulon and Nice, pay tribute to their native South.
A good opportunity to discover what landscapes such as the harbor of Toulon or the port of Marseille looked like a hundred years ago. The MAT also offers to rediscover Toulon through a route combining cultural mediation with watercolor workshops led outdoors by a watercolor artist.
