Whetting my Appetite

"Ménerbes"

Nicolas de Staël

 

After missing the last two summers in Provence, I am now preparing to return. I have cancelled so many trips since COVID--I'll believe it if and when I actually arrive!  One thing I am really looking forward to is the opportunity to explore  the village of Ménerbes in more depth.  I'm not interested in the Méberbes of Peter Mayle (author of the bestseller "A Year in Provence"). My attraction is to the Ménerbes of Nicolas de Staël.  And the Ménerbes of Dora Maar, a romantic partner of Picasso and subject of many of his paintings, who was an artist in her own right.

"Agrigente"

Oil on Canvas, 60 x 81 cm

Nicolas de Staël, 1953-54

Painted in Ménerbes

De Staël lived in Ménerbes in the mid 1950's, and produced some magnificent work there.  I have written all about that period of his paintings earlier, so I won't repeat myself.  These are my favorites among all of de Staël's paintings--such brevity, such color, such strength, nothing wasted!  The top image is his painting of Ménerbes itself.  

The house de Staël bought and lived in in Ménerbes still stands (photo above).  In fact, the house was home to the British food guru Elizabeth David, before de Staél.  (It starts to seem that all roads lead to Ménerbes...). How I wish there were an opportunity to go inside.

"Portrait of Dora Maar"

Pablo Picasso

Happily, that opportunity does exist for the house where Dora Maar lived.  Dora Maar bought the house in 1944 after breaking up with Picasso.  She spent every summer there, painting in the isolation of the small rural village.  After her death, an American patron of the arts, Nancy Brown Negley, bought the house and renovated it.  It now hosts residencies for artists and writers. And you can book an in person tour!  

Portrait of Pablo Picasso

Dora Maar, 1936

This summer La Maison Dora Maar is mounting an exhibit with works by Nicolas de Staël, Dora Maar, and others who painted in Ménerbes in the 20th century.  Can't wait to check it out!  

A Fine Line

"Bateaux aux Martigues"

Felt tipped pen on paper, 33 x 40.5 cm.

Nicolas de Staël, 1954

I have recently been taking a drawing seminar, and it has led me to look at a lot of drawings by masters of years past.  I love seeing fully "modeled" drawings, don't get me wrong.  But there is something especially exciting to me when a single line makes all the right moves.  How can some artists say so much with so little?

"Study of a Nude"

Pen and China Ink on Paper

Nicolas de Staël, 1952-53

Faithful readers know that one of my favorite artists is Nicolas de Staël.  I'm illustrating this post with some of his drawings, in which a mere line creates an entire world.  Interestingly, de Staël used a felt tipped pen to create many of these works. It just goes to show that sometimes great art can come from very humble materials! I can imagine de Staël sitting with a drawing pad and pen, and distilling the chaos of the world around him into a few tell-all lines.

It might appear as if these drawings were dashed off quickly or haphazardly.  In fact, the opposite is true. As Nicholas Fox Weber as written: "With de Staël, even the shortest dash is the result of a conscious decision.  It would not be there if the measure were not perfect, and if it did not fit as an essential in the overall scheme."  I am also struck by the way de Staël uses the white (blank) space of the picture plane.  The line may be the only visible mark, but it also defines the invisible shapes that we know are there. For example, in the first drawing above,  the boat hulls sit in the top of the picture plane--and the space below them, though "blank", teems with the movement of the water.

Nicolas de Staël

The bouquet of flowers (shown just above) stopped me in my tracks the first time I saw it.  And it sill makes me catch my breath. Oh, such clarity!  Weber writes of a similar floral painting that de Staël   "caught that bouquet of flowers as a mass of angles in space."  And a great catch, at that.  Hope you'll enjoy these drawings as much as I do.