The King is Dead, Long Live the King 12-04-25

I think it was within the last week or so that I opined that Fondation Maecht may be my favorite museum down here in Southern France. Today I was schooled by the world again. We made the trip down to Biot and visited the National Musee de Fernand Leger. It took some effort to get there, in that we had to catch a bus out of Nice and make it to a bus stop close to the railway station in Biot. Then we had to catch another bus that would take us inland from the Mediterranean and drop us off in the middle of nowhere. From there we had to walk along a road that took us uphill to the museum. That seems pretty straight forward but the museum closes between noon and 1:30 every day. And the buses and trains seemed to stop running during that time as well. So we had to decide whether to catch an earlier bus and kill time until they reopened or go a little later then return to Nice as the sun retired. We opted to spend the morning here in Nice then try to get to the museum as soon after 1:30 as possible.  

Our plan worked out pretty well as we got to the intersecting bus stop in very good order. But the connecting bus was not scheduled to arrive for almost half an hour. The distance to the museum was around 1.5 miles which meant we might be able to walk it just as quickly. But cooler heads prevailed and we waited, it was a good choice as the bus came several minutes ahead of schedule. The bus route got us about two thirds of the way there and then we had to walk up a country road to the museum. It was mostly uphill but not excessively steep so we enjoyed the walk. Our first view of the museum was startling because the facade is a large Leger mural done in mosaic. But to enter we had to walk further along the road to the side of the building. On that side there was another massive mural done in mosaic, crazy! Rather than going in the gate then back down to a stairway facing the facade we opted for going in via an elevator. When we got out we were met by the museum security person and ushered over to where we had to open our bags and

go through a metal detector. We bought tickets and went in to the first exhibition space. There our eyes were overwhelmed by several colorful paintings and tiled sculptures. It was in an area used for giving visiting students an introduction to Leger. But it was also an area where they could apply their creative energy making artwork that responded to Leger’s works.  From there we moved on to another set of gallery rooms dedicated to showing something of his progression from Impressionism through to his modernist masterpieces. They showed one beautiful impressionist work and explained how rare and valuable these works have become. Because in 1907 Leger attended the inaugural exhibition of Cezanne

and was so overcome with excitement that he went back and destroyed almost all of his impressionist works. He then began addressing cubism, fauvism, Russian formalism, etc. and incorporating those influences in his later creations. He worked in oils, prints, ceramics, mosaic, stained glass, and tapestry. Oh, and sculpture too. For us it was a revelation to suddenly come upon a painting that was 5 meters by 10 meters done in a modernist style. But even more amazing were the works that he created for the building facades of churches and corporate headquarters. But to have his mosaics covering facades that are 50 feet long and 40 or more feet tall were mind bending. During our visit we kept hearing the cacophony of young voices throughout the building, but we never saw any of them until the very end. It was a group of perhaps 30 little ducklings no more than 3-4 years old. They had toured the museum with their teacher and her assistants. They had

A three story mural

spent time in the work area and created their own little pictures responding to Leger’s works. I saw them in front of the museum proudly displaying their work while their teacher took pictures of them. It was so endearing and just reinforced how seriously the French want to introduce their children to their own culture.  

I realize that Leger isn’t to everyone’s taste, but if I really liked him before now I’m completely smitten.  We both wondered why the museum was in such an out of the way place. It turns out that Leger bought the land himself before he died and so here it is.

It was after 4:30 when we left the museum and walked down to the road where we could catch a bus. When I looked at the projected wait for the bus we opted to walk back to the main road where we could catch our bus back to Nice. 

A side note:

He painted several series of painting where the figures are painted in white with black outlines and backgrounds in solid colors of red, or blue, or yellow. Several years ago I discovered where his inspiration may have come from. In the Jacquemart-Andre Museum in Paris there is a 16th century ceiling that is done in almost exactly the same manner. I think he must have taken that as a starting point. It’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it, even if Deb says I’m full of S__t.