Painting the French Riviera

Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2 October 2026 – 31 January 2027

The Côte d’Azur has been the setting for the rise and development of modern art for over a century, leaving an indelible mark on artists. It has sparked the imagination not only of the greatest painters of the 19th and 20th centuries – including Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir and Klein – but also of the giants of literature, cinema and fashion, whose works have helped to define the carefree glamour and eternal romance of the Mediterranean coast.

As early as the 1870s, the azure seas and sapphire skies of the Côte d’Azur attracted artists, writers, intellectuals and aristocrats seeking an escape from their dreary, overcrowded industrial cities. There they discovered the landscape of their dreams – a landscape that propelled the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and Modernists to new creative heights.

This exhibition catalogue examines how the Côte d’Azur fostered the rise of modern art – before becoming a tourist destination and a film location that epitomised mid-century sophistication. This story comes to life through more than 160 works, including paintings, sculptures, travel posters and films, dating from the 1870s to the 1960s.