An evening of Debussy and Mendelssohn played by the really excellent Quatuor Varèse at the Festival de Musique Romantique in Salviac in the Lot department of France.

Debussy String Quartet; Mendelssohn String Quartet no. 6.

An excellent concert of Haydn, Mendelssohn and Beethoven String Quartets played by Quatuor Ardeo in the beautiful medieval church at Audrix in the Dordogne.

Haydn String Quartet no. 3; Mendelssohn String Quartet no. 1; Beethoven String Quartet no. 3.

A very enjoyable evening at the Festival ‘8 de Montcabrier’, with a programme of Debussy, Satie and Fauré extremely well performed.

Debussy: Prélude à l’aprés midi d’un faune; Satie: Gnossiennes I, Piccadily, Gymnopédie I; Fauré: Sicilienne pour violoncelle et piano; Fauré: Fantaisie pour flute et piano; Fauré: Quatuor pour piano et cordes no. 1.

At Chateau de Biron in the Dordogne for the exhibition ‘Living Natures’. Representations of nature in  art from the collections of the Maeght Foundation.

Wassily Kandinsky ‘Red Knot’ (1936)

Fernand Léger ‘La partie de campagne’ (1954)

Marc Chagall ‘Tour Eiffel à l’âne rouge’ (1954)

Georges Braque ‘The Bird and his Shadow’ (1959)

In Pont-Aven, Brittany, home of the Pont-Aven School of artists who gathered around Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard in the 1880s. Paul Serusier painted the work known as ‘The Talisman’ there, which would be instrumental in the beginning of the Nabis movement.

The Musée de Pont-Aven has an extensive permanent collection of paintings by Nabis artists and an excellent temporary exhibition of ‘La Modernite en Bretagne’.

Paul Gauguin ‘Les Lavandiéres à Pont-Aven’ (1886)

Emile Bernard ‘Madeleine au Bois d’Amour’ (1888)

At the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Quimper for the exhibition ‘Paysages d’Odilon Redon’, a collection of mainly landscape paintings by Redon from his native Aquitaine and Brittany.

Odilon Redon ‘Peyrelebade, domaine familial près de Listrac’ (1896 – 97)

Odilon Redon ‘Saint Sébastien’ (c.1910)

Odilon Redon ‘Sommeil de Caliban’ (c.1912)

The port of Saint-Goustan, Auray, Brittany

A fascinating exhibition which shows the influence of non-western arts on Picasso’s career. On display are items from Picasso’s own collection of African and Oceanic art as well as works by him that they influenced.

Female Body Mask [Nevimbumbao], Vanuatu

Grebo Mask, Ivory Coast

Pablo Picasso ‘Three Figures under a Tree’ (1907)

Pablo Picasso ‘Standing Nude Profile’ (1920)

21 Rue La Boétie was the address of the Paris gallery of Paul Rosenberg. who. between the two world wars, represented artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Leger. The exhibition brings together works that passed through his hands during that period.

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec ‘Seated Woman in the Garden’ (1891)

Fernand Leger ‘Le Grand Déjeuner’ (1921)

Pablo Picasso ‘Bathers’ (1921)

Henri Matisse ‘The Piano Lesson’ (1923)

Henri Matisse ‘Blue Dress in Ochre Armchair’ (1937)

A wonderful exhibition of paintings of genre scenes of the daily lives of the Dutch urban elite in the 1650s and 60s. The exhibition shows that far from being a lone figure, Vermeer was part of a network of painters, including Gerard Ter Borch, Pieter de Hooch and Gabriel Metsu, all painting similar subjects.

Johannes Vermeer ‘The Milkmaid’ (c.1657 – 58)

Johannes Vermeer ‘The Astronomer’ (c.1668)

Johannes Vermeer ‘The Geographer’ (c.1668 – 69)

Johannes Vermeer ‘The Lacemaker’ (c.1669 – 70)

Gerard Ter Booch ‘Woman at a Mirror’ (1651 – 52)

Pieter de Hooch ‘Woman Nursing an Infant, with a Child and a Dog’ (c.1658 – 60)

Gabriel Metsu ‘Woman Reading a Letter’ (1664 – 66)