Painting the French Riviera

Painting the French Riviera explores the rise and development of modern art on the Mediterranean coast of France from the 1870s to the 1960s. This international loan exhibition, co-organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, brings together more than 120 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper on loan from European and American museums and private collections. Such works explore how artists, including Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Yves Klein found endless inspiration in the brilliant light, blue skies, and luminous sea in the South of France. The Riviera came to symbolize an ideal of artistic and spiritual renewal, inspiring artists to develop bold new ways of representing their surroundings. This exhibition explores how artists translated the experience of the South of France into their work, and how the influence of the Mediterranean encouraged them to new heights of modernist experimentation. Spanning nearly 90 years, Painting the French Riviera traces the transformation of the Mediterranean coast into one of the defining landscapes of modern art.​​

This exhibition is organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Arts, London. It is on view at the Royal Academy from October 3, 2026, through January 31, 2027.

Credit: Overview from museum website