Musée Picasso (Antibes)

Founded on the old acropolis of the Greek town of Antipolis, a Roman castrum and residence of bishops in the Middle Ages, the château Grimaldi has been inhabited since 1385 by the Monegasque family that lent it its name. Become the Picasso museum on 27 December 1966, the château Grimaldi served as lodging for the artist from mid-September to mid-November 1946. He would moreover declare: "I'm not going to paint only for myself here. I'm going to decorate the museum for you." The painter thus made many works there; he left 23 paintings and 44 drawings on deposit with the town of Antibes, including "The Keys of Antibes", on a section of wall of the room. In September 1947, he also painted "Ulysses and the Sirens" at the museum. Picasso reveals, through the use of unusual paints and supports (such as Ripolin, fibre cement or plywood), the post-war shortage. But it is above all man's surpassing of it and the artist's propensity to experiment with new materials that Pablo Picasso celebrates. To this formidable legacy were added various gifts and purchases from 1952 to today, deposits from the Jacqueline Picasso donation in 1990, which considerably enriched the museum's Picasso collection. To name only the best: Nicolas de Staël, Hans Hartung, Anna-Eva Bergman, as well as works by Miró, Bernard Pagès or Anne and Patrick Poirier, visible from the terrace.

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