Villa La Californie

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Villa La Californie
La California
View of the Bay of Cannes
Former names	Villa Alexandra
Alternative names	Villa Picasso
General information
Type	Private residence
Location	Cannes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Coordinates	43°33′2.79″N 7°2′31.57″E / 43.5507750°N 7.0421028°E / 43.5507750; 7.0421028
Opened	1920
Design and construction
Architect	H. Piquart

Villa La Californie, also known as Villa Fénelon, Villa Picasso, and now known as Pavillon de Flore, is a villa in Cannes, France. The house overlooks the bay of Cannes from Le Suquet. In the background are the hills of the quarter of Californie, which gave its name to the villa. It is located 22 Costebelle Avenue.

The villa was built in 1920, and was the residence of artist Pablo Picasso from 1955 to 1961.

History[]

Eugene Tripet (1816–1896), consul of France in Moscow, moved to Cannes in 1848, with his wife Alexandra Feodorovna Skrypitzine (1818–1895), a wealthy Russian heiress friend of Prosper Mérimée. He built the "Villa Alexandra" on the heights of the city overlooking the Cape of the Croisette facing the Lérins Islands. The villa was quickly surrounded by the residences of many representatives of the Russian aristocracy who were immigrants in Cannes, and the area is nicknamed "Little Russia".^{[citation needed]} In 1903, his son, General Vicomte de Salignac Fenelon, acquired the northern part of the garden of the villa and ordered a winter residence project from the architect H. Piquart. In 1920, the project was commissioned and the house was named "Villa Fenelon".

Pablo Picasso had already been installed in La Californie since the 40s, but in 1955 he bought a house and moved there with Jacqueline Roque. It is from this workshop that he painted the Bay of Cannes, in 1958, where he represents the seascape strangled by the urban environment.^{[citation needed]} In 1961, with the construction of a new building concealing the sea view, Picasso decided to look for another home. He left the house in Cannes and moved to Mougins, where he spent his last years. During the inventory of Picasso's estate, many previously unknown works were found in the house and formed part of the original collection of the national museum which bears his name. His granddaughter, Marina Picasso, inherited "Californie" and finished restoration work in 1987.^[1] She renamed the villa as "Pavillon de Flore".

In 2015, Marina Picasso put the house up for sale.^[2]

Cultural[]

The house is a private property, registered in 2001 in the  [fr] in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur as part of the seaside resort of Cannes ( [fr]).

On August 11, 2020, Marina Picasso's son Florian performed a music and light show on the property. Over 25 people worked for four months on the presentation. Florian said of the performance, "Turning the entire house into a moving piece of art felt like the right way to pay tribute to what this place represents and the history it has."^[3][4][5]

See also[]

• Villa La Californie, series of paintings by Damian Elwes

References[]

• "Heritage - Souvenir and celebrities - Aristocrats and dignitaries" cannes.com [archive]
• One of the architects of the establishment of Champagne wines Moët et Chandon
• "A beautiful villa eclectic style, a famous painter and a hidden treasure," Camille Mondon, fragments-cannes.com [archive]
• "Notice n o IA06000165" [archive], basis Merimee, French Ministry of Culture
• Didier Gayraud, Beautiful homes in Riviera 1835-1930, p. 43, Editions Giletta, Nice, 2005 (ISBN 2-915606-20-X)