Today I fell in love with an art collection.
Having previously taken in the Sissley exhibition at Hôtel Caumont, I decided today it was time to take a look at Aix most famous art museum, Musée Granet. It is housed in two separate buildings 5 minutes walk apart – the first building is a converted church in the Rue Maréchal Joffre, which houses the 20th century and most recent works.
The other is in the Rue Cardinale, and is the principle gallery I think, with (at present) the Cézanne at Home exhibition. I really wanted to see the Cézannes, but I was not overwhelmed by them. What blew me away was the Jean Planque Collection in the more modern gallery.
Planque, a Swiss, was a painter and friend of Picasso and many of his contemporaries. The collection includes Van Gogh, Renoir, many, many Picasso works, Braque, De Staël, Berger and many others. It is incredibly impressive and the Picasso selection is superb.
In addition the gallery had a contemporary collection of larges nudes in red by Claude Garache, which are beautiful and overwhelming.
I have to admit, shallow person that I am, that I was severely tempted by many items in the gift shop as well, but I have resisted that temptation for now.
The rest of the afternoon passed in a bit of a haze after that, but I was shaken out of my malaise by passing at close quarters four soldiers patrolling the street in full combat gear, with automatic weapons held at ready. What are they expecting in the sunny streets of Aix, which are filled with school children on a term break? I guess it is a reminder that our privileged western lifestyle is not as secure as it once was, or at least as we thought it was. France, like the rest of Europe, is littered with reminders that the recent past (recent at least to people of my age and older) has been filled with savage conflicts. The unthinkable can happen everywhere, as the French have been reminded. But it is hard to imagine what use these passing patrols are in terms of prevention. At best they could help clean up an attack once it had already happened.
Still, a bit of a reminder of how lucky we are in NZ thus far.