With MUCEM getting so much attention, it’s understandable that some people are not crossing the road to visit the nearby Musée Regards de Provence. A mistake!
Not only does it have some interesting and usually local paintings (which I’ll come onto), its top floor has a restaurant and café-terrace that must be one of the nicest places to have a drink in Marseille. (There is a separate entrance and lift).
The building was the station sanitaire for immigrants arriving at the port, for what must have been a grim experience. Now beautifully renovated, light floods through the galleries and the huge windows give visitors panoramic views of Fort Jean and MUCEM right along to the docks.
The gallery is privately owned and is dedicated to Provencal art, either focusing on the life and work of one painter or taking a theme like the current ‘Femmes en Provence’ on til 4th May.
Which makes the new exhibition ‘Autour du Bateau-Lavoir: Des artistes a Montmartre 
(1892-1930) et la Méditerranée’ a little different in that its main focus is on work done in Paris. There are a couple of Marseillais painters included and the artists did get down to the south of France to work, but the story really revolves around the iconic Bateau-Lavoir building in Montmartre. Just 100 years ago, this was very much on the edge of Paris, an exposed hillside with dairy cows grazing, 18 windmills and very cheap housing – hence its attraction for artists. 
They came from Greece, Italy, Spain and provincial France, to work in the cramped ateliers, share ideas and cut loose in the bars in the evenings.
The exhibition shows paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramics and jewellery from Braque, Picasso, Dufy, Derain, Matisse, de Vlaminck amongst others, many names new to me. And as is often the case in shows like this, you can come across painters whose work is fresh and interesting – but who remain relatively unknown. In this case, I was so impressed by the colourful work of Gen Paul.
Bal du Moulin de la Galette, Gen Paul, 1925
He was born in Montmartre, ‘pere inconnu’, in a house in rue Lépic that had been painted by Van Gogh. Like many of this generation, he was involved in the Great War and was badly wounded, losing a leg. But afterwards, he made friends with the artists at Bateau-Lavoir who encouraged his talent, and in fact he made a living from his art for the next 60 years. During this time, he visited Marseille and Sanary, hence I expect his inclusion in this expo. Apparently he was a very optimistic man with a great passion for life – and I think this shows in the celebratory and exuberant studies of life in Montmartre.
Le Musée Regards de Provence is open every day 10:00-18:00. Closed 1st May. 6€. More details: www.regardsdeprovence.com.
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