aixcentric

To celebrate its lovely new space at the Chapelle des Pénitents Blancs, the Musée Granet is offering free entry all weekend to see the 120 works donated by Jean and Suzanne Planque.

Degas

I have to say that when I visited the collection in 2011, I wasn’t inspired by the paintings.  The Van Gogh – only the second to be on show in Provence – seemed uncharacteristically dingy, the Degas had an unusually strange composition and the Monet view of Leicester Square seemed to be garish and discordant. But these things are subjective and it is certainly worth going to see what you think. Amongst so many different works, there should be something to inspire. 

Planque was a great admirer of Picasso and came to know him well.  So his collection has 8 paintings which hung around his bed.  As I posted back at the time of the original expo, one had an interesting story. 

Femme au chat assise dans un fauteuil was, Planque thought, the cornerstone of his collection but it frightened him. It reminded him of the Fates who cut the thread of life and he used to turn it to the wall.  But he said that one morning it fell off its nail – and that was the very morning that Picasso had died. The story doesn’t end there.  According to La Provence, at the expo opening, the press party had just gone into the Picasso room when the power failed, plunging the room into darkness. Power cut by the Fates – or coincidence?

The newly renovated chapel may have some other ghostly visitors as the workmen turned up several skeletons under the floor when family tombs were disturbed.   But this chapel had been long boarded up and so neglected; it is great to see it re-opening to the public with its stone facade restored to its original soft honey hue and I’m sure an interesting conversion inside. 

Journées Portes Ouvertes runs Friday – Sunday, 24-26th May, 12-18:00hrs. Free. There are three guided tours each afternoon.  The Chapelle des Penitents Blancs is at the top of the Rue du Maréchal Joffre in Aix.