Picasso’s Chateau Opens to the Public for the First Time

Excerpted from Telegraph.co.uk -

PROVENCE, FRANCE — In the grounds of Château de Vauvenargues, near the Provençal town of Aix-en-Provence, there is a simple mound of earth, covered in grass and ringed by ivy. Perched on top is a curvaceous bronze nude, made by Pablo Picasso in 1933, and exhibited alongside Guernica in the Paris international exhibition of 1937. But, in terms of significance, it doesn’t come close to what lies beneath: the body of the artist himself.

This summer, 36 years after Picasso’s death, the château in the south of France opens its gates to the public for the first time. The Spanish artist bought Château de Vauvenargues in 1958 after he discovered it in the foothills of Mont Sainte-Victoire, the mountain immortalised in countless paintings by Paul Cézanne, the man Picasso regarded as his artistic father.

“The position of the château literally on Cézanne’s mountain made it like a magical object to Picasso,” says Bruno Ely, curator of the nearby Musée Granet in Aix which is holding a major Picasso-Cézanne retrospective this summer. “Picasso telephoned his dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler to tell him he had just purchased Cézanne’s Sainte-Victoire. ‘Which one?’ Kahnweiler asked, presuming Picasso was talking about a painting. ‘The original!’ replied Picasso.”

Tickets for Château de Vauvenargues can be bought via www.picasso-aix2009.com and from various centres around Aix-en-Provence. The château is open until September 27.

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