From October 19, 2024 to January 26, 2025, the Musée Villa Montebello invites you to discover an exceptional exhibition dedicated to Jacques Cordier. This exhibition presents a unique set of works, initiated during the artist's honeymoon in 1966 with Simone Duckstein, owner of the La Ponche hotel in Saint-Tropez. It highlights how this Parisian figurative painter adopted the light of the Var, in the tradition of post-impressionist artists.
Jacques Cordier, a friend of Sagan, Bardot and Dunoyer de Segonzac, was collected throughout Europe and internationally before a tragic accident ended his career in 1975, leading to a relative oblivion of his work. The Jacques Cordier endowment fund, chaired by Simone Duckstein, has been working for several years to revive this talented painter.
After a retrospective at the Villa Masséna in Nice in 2022, the exhibition at the Villa Montebello aims to reveal a new aspect of the artist's work through views of Normandy and northern Europe, influenced by the Impressionists, notably Eugène Boudin. At a time when France is celebrating the 1960th anniversary of Impressionism, this exhibition highlights a painter formed by this heritage, whose paintings from the XNUMXs present striking analogies both in technique and in the subjects chosen.
This trip to the northern beaches allows us to discover Jacques Cordier's search for the "perfect grey", a quest that he did not find in the Mediterranean, and to access a very personal and sensitive part of his creation, never exhibited until now. In 1966, Jacques Cordier already enjoyed a significant reputation, with successes at the Salons and in the Parisian and Saint-Tropez galleries.
The exhibition is structured around several themes: the holiday resorts dear to Eugène Boudin, the ports and industrial landscapes that the artist encountered as he travelled up the European coasts from La Rochelle to Antwerp via Boulogne. This collection, presented opposite some of the most beautiful views made in the 1960s in the Var, highlights the painter's qualities as a colourist and his desire for accuracy in rendering atmospheres, whether seaside or port.
The end of the exhibition presents works on paper, testifying to Jacques Cordier's first compositions when he was training as a drawing teacher in Paris, before his discovery of the light of the Mediterranean. These Indian inks and watercolors on paper allow us to understand the trajectory of his inspiration and the rapid evolution of his art over the course of a decade (1958-1970).
Through this exhibition, the Villa Montebello Museum highlights a unique personality and a figurative painter of the post-war period, a movement that has been little studied to date. Don't miss this opportunity to rediscover the work of Jacques Cordier and his artistic legacy.
Don't hesitate to visit this exhibition to immerse yourself in the rich and contrasting world of Jacques Cordier!
Useful information :
- Monday to Friday: 14 p.m. to 17:30 p.m.
- Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and school holidays: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 14 p.m. to 17:30 p.m.
- Prices: €8 full price, and €4 half price (proof must be presented at the museum entrance). Tickets on site or online.
- Villa Montebello Museum, 64 rue du Général Leclerc. Tel: 02 31 88 16 26.