Vivre pour l’art

Exhibit background

“Vivre pour l’art - les collections Trachel et Rothschild”. To live for art - Trachel and Rothschild collections at the Beaux-Arts museum in Nice. The exhibit invites the visitor to explore the lives and adventures of prominent members of both families, notably: Hercule, Dominique, and Antoine Trachel, their sister and their niece both called Fanny, and Hercule’s friend and student, Charlotte de Rothschild. Both families played significant roles in Nice’s cultural scene.

Having grown up in Mougins, a town renowned for its art galleries and as a haven for XX century artists, I decided to take some time to explore the local area and exhibits while home for the holidays. A family friend had recommended Nice’s Beaux-Arts museum, amongst others in the area (see below), and it just so happened that we were to meet up with my sister in Nice later that day, so I took the train down early to explore.

My highlights

One of the main aspects I really enjoyed was how a lot of the portraits were like true windows to another world. The way each artist used their colour palettes to really transport the viewer, to see what they saw as they worked, was brilliant. To see what I mean, check out Canal des usines à Bar-le-Duc by Renaudin, Bords de Rivière by Richet, and Le Clos Monsieur by Prévot-Valérie in the gallery here.

This really became apparent when comparing those pieces to Marine by Trachel, where it felt very much one dimensional. The lack of colour doesn’t draw you in - but this could also have been the lighting in the room…

As someone who’s quite new to painting in particular, it was great to see a large variety of different media used. My very limited knowledge would probably be able to name just acrylic, oil, and watercolours, so it was genuinely enlightening to see pastel on canvas and etchings on wood panels, for example.

Liked less

As much as I enjoyed the exhibit as a whole, there were a few moments that I thought might be improved for visitor experience.

The position of the lights for the oil on canvas Portrait d’Emma Calvé meant it was difficult to see the whole painting. You can’t fully see the top of the portrait due to the reflection of the light, impacting observation of her face and the top right corner. I had to get really up close and personal, I felt like I was missing out on the whole work by not seeing the top right of it. It also meant I got a disapproving yet subtle cough from one of the staff members…

This was also the case in the first corridor of the exhibit, where a lot of works by Ziem were displayed. The ones closer to eye-level were brilliant (definitely among my favourites), however I couldn’t see the ones higher up (curse of being 5’6”?).

Across the whole exhibit, I found that the organisation of the plaques wasn’t always clear - so the visitor was left guessing which painting was which, especially when similar pieces were arranged together.

Ok full disclosure (which I’m sure you’ve guessed by now) - I’m not an expert at this at all. But I was left wondering why you would arrange beautiful pieces of work, which featured a lovely apricot-ish (see - I’m a total colour expert) on a background of a more faded apricot colour? I thought it leeched the colour from the drawings and nullified them (see the Roman-inspired one in the gallery that I can’t name because of the plaque confusion mentioned above).