The Cleveland Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts Present Painting the French Riviera

CLEVELAND (June 3, 2026)—The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) and the Royal Academy of Arts London present Painting the French Riviera, an exhibition that explores the rise and development of modern art on the Mediterranean coast of France from the 1870s through the 1960s. The exhibition brings together more than 120 paintings, sculptures, and drawings, as well as film, books, posters, and other media, demonstrating the lasting influence and inspiration found in the French Riviera.  

On view at the Royal Academy of Arts from October 2, 2026, through January 31, 2027, Painting the French Riviera travels to the CMA and welcome visitors from March 14, 2027, through July 11, 2027.  

“Painting the French Riviera spans 90 years of artwork inspired by the brilliant light, blue skies, and luminous sea abundant in the French Riviera’s landscapes, especially its Mediterranean beaches,” said Heather Lemonedes Brown, the CMA’s Paul J. and Edith Ingalls Vignos Jr. Curator of Modern European Art.  

“Artists such as Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso traveled to the French Riviera seeking refuge from the cold, crowded conditions of industrialized cities, looking to rejuvenate themselves, recoup from illness, socialize, and paint,” she continued.  

Entranced by the quality of the light and the intense blue of the Mediterranean Sea and sky, visits to the French Riviera became a form of renewal, inspiring artists to develop new techniques and approaches to portray their surroundings. Many returned year after year or acquired homes there. As Matisse famously explained, he traveled to Nice to recover from bronchitis. Discouraged by rain, he was on the point of leaving when the sky cleared. “I decided not to leave Nice and have stayed there practically the rest of my life,” he said.

The exhibition traces how the South of France became a powerful vehicle for modern artistic experiments thanks to expanded rail lines that allowed for easier travel from Paris and northern Europe to Marseille, the French Riviera, and the small coastal villages along the Mediterranean. Paul Cezanne, a native of Aix-en-Provence, was among the first to forge modernist experiments in the region. His work inspired fellow Impressionists Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Berthe Morisot to visit and paint the region. The work of all three artists is represented in the exhibition.  

Monet, too, was drawn to the area of which he said, “It is so beautiful here, so bright, so luminous. One swims in blue air.” It was in the French Riviera that Monet first began experimenting with painting in series producing such masterpieces as Morning at Antibes (1888). 

Visitors to the Painting the French Riviera also encounter works by Neo-Impressionists Paul Signac, Henri-Edmond Cross, and Théo van Rysselberghe, whose pointillist technique was ideally suited to capturing the sparkling southern light. “Those familiar with the CMA’s collection have the exciting opportunity to view a popular recent acquisition, Cross’s Pink Cloud, presented alongside other Pointillist paintings by Cross and his colleagues that offer new perspectives and greater context,” said Brown. 

Inspired by the Neo-Impressionists, Matisse visited the south of France, painting in Saint-Tropez and later in the fishing town of Collioure with André Derain, leading to the creation of paintings with a bold use of color that prompted the critics to call them Fauves (Wild Beasts). In this section of the exhibition, Matisse, Derain, and Georges Braque’s paintings are juxtaposed with sculptures and paintings of Aristide Maillol, an artist from Banyuls-sur-Mer on the southwest coast of France near the Spanish border, whose works frequently allude to his Mediterranean origins.  

Bonnard’s interpretation of the French Riviera, with golden-lit interior spaces and spectacular Mediterranean views, coincided with the glamour of the 1920s, when Nice and the French Riviera became the center of leisure, travel, and modern life. The exhibition also includes the work of international artists such as Léopold Survage, Alexander Archipenko, Chaïm Soutine, William H. Johnson, and Max Beckmann, who made important modernist advances while spending time on the French Riviera.  

Digital reproductions of vintage travel posters, maps, first edition copies of travel guides, memoirs, novels taking place on the French Riviera, and clips from films featuring the area during Hollywood’s Golden Age (1920s–1960s) are also on display. 

Picasso spent many summers along the Mediterranean coast, eventually settling there, inspired by its light and colors. Through paintings and works on paper created across five decades, the exhibition explores Picasso’s ever-shifting artistic style, as it was influenced by the French Riviera. 

Nicolas da Staël, who explored natural landscapes through experiments with color and form, including the CMA’s Landscape at Le Lavandou (1952), and works by Yves Klein, a native of Nice known for his blue sea sponge sculptures and paintings that reference the physical environment of the Riviera, conclude the exhibition. 

Painting the French Riviera is cocurated by Ann Dumas, curator, the Royal Academy of Arts, and Heather Lemonedes Brown, Paul J. and Edith Ingalls Vignos Jr. Curator of Modern European Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, with Colm Guo-Lin Peare, assistant curator at the Royal Academy of Arts. 

Catalogue 

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Kenneth Silver, Marilyn McCully, Jean-Louis Andral, Richard Thomson, Belinda Thomson, Aymeric Jeudy, William Robinson, Heather Lemonedes Brown, and Ann Dumas. 

Generous support is provided by Christie’s, Carl M. Jenks, the Gottlob Family in loving memory of Milford Gottlob, MD, Anne T. and Donald F. Palmer, Robin and Andrew Schachat, and the Simon Family Foundation, a supporting foundation of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. Additional support is provided by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and Richard G. and Mary Ann Stuhan.  

All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, the John and Jeanette Walton Exhibition Fund, and Margaret and Loyal Wilson. Major annual support is provided by the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm and the Frankino-Dodero Family Fund for Exhibitions Endowment. Generous annual support is provided by two anonymous donors, Gini and Randy Barbato, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Gail and Bill Calfee, the Leigh H. Carter family, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Mary and Jim Conway, Joseph and Susan Corsaro, Ron and Cheryl Davis, Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, Florence Kahane Goodman, Martha H. and Steven M. Hale, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Linda Harper, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., the estate of Walter and Jean Kalberer, Robert M. Kaye, Jane and Doug Kern, the late Mrs. Nancy M. Lavelle, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, William S. Lipscomb, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Roy Minoff Family Fund, Lu Anne and the late Carl Morrison, Mrs. Peta and the late Dr. Roland Moskowitz, Jeffrey Mostade and Eric Nilson and Varun Shetty, Sarah Nash, Courtney and Michael Novak, Mark and Paula Nylander, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, Dr. Nicholas and Anne Ogan, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, the Pickering Foundation, Frank and Fran Porter, Christine Fae Powell, Peter and Julie Raskind, Michael and Cindy Resch, Marguerite and James Rigby, in memory of Dee Schafer, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, Elizabeth and Tim Sheeler, Saundra K. Stemen, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage.  

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About the Cleveland Museum of Art 

The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 68,000 records and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts. The museum is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship, and performing arts and is a leader in digital innovation. One of the leading encyclopedic art museums in the United States, the CMA is recognized for its award-winning open access program—which provides free digital access to images and information about works in the museum’s collection—and free of charge to all. The museum is located in the University Circle neighborhood with two satellite locations on Cleveland’s west side: the Community Arts Center and Transformer Station.  

The museum is supported in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and made possible in part by the Ohio Arts Council (OAC), which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts. The OAC is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically. For more information about the museum and its holdings, programs, and events, call 888-CMA-0033 or visit cma.org.