A beautiful sunny day visiting the Hanging Gardens of Marqueyssac in the Dordogne, France.

Cordes sur Ciel

Puycelci

Exploring the medieval hilltop towns of the Tarn region in south-west France.

Hoping for a beautiful summer in the medieval bastide town of Villefranche du Périgord, in the Dordogne region of south-west France.

Villefranche du Périgord was founded by Alphonse de Poitiers, Count of Toulouse, in 1261 and is the oldest bastide town in the Dordogne. The town’s houses, some with stone towers, were built between the thirteenth and the sixteenth centuries. 

The town is a ‘ville fleuri‘, as well as being the first in the Dordogne to be designated a ‘site remarquable du goût’. It has an extremely impressive medieval market hall where the regular Saturday morning market still takes place. In the summer months it also holds the weekly ‘farmers’ market’, as well as selling the famous cèpe mushrooms which grow in the surrounding chestnut forests.

Marché aux cèpes sous la halle de Villefranche du Périgord

At Museo Correr, Venice, for the excellent exhibition, ‘New Objectivity. German Art in the Weimar Republic, 1919 – 1933’. A fascinating collection of paintings and photographs dealing with the aftermath of World War I, the disparity between the bourgeoisie and the victims of the war, and the tensions caused by the effects of industrialization and mechanization.

Otto Dix ‘The Parents I’ (1921)

Otto Dix ‘Portrait of the Lawyer Hugo Simons’ (1925)

Rudolf Schlichter ‘Margot’ (1924)

George Grosz ‘Street Scene’ (1925)

Georg Scholz ‘Self-Portrait in front of an Advertising Column’ (1926)

Christian Schad ‘Self-Portrait’ (1927)

At the Palazzo Diamanti, Ferrara, for the exhibition ‘La Rosa di Fuoco – Picasso and Gaudi’s Barcelona’. The exhibition tells the story of the modernization of Barcelona at the turn of the twentieth century – a golden age of Catalan art and architecture. It starts with the optimism and celebration of Barcelona’s Universal Exposition in 1888 and ends with the events of Tragic Week in 1909, which brought about the end of the dream. At that time Barcelona became known as ‘La Rosa di Fuoco’ – the Rose of Fire, as the city bore witness to a violent uprising by an impoverished population.

The exhibition brings together architectural designs by Antoni Gaudi and others and paintings by artists such as Ramon Casas, Hermen Anglada Camarasa and ‘Blue Period’ Pablo Picasso.

Hermen Anglada Camarasa ‘The White Peacock’ (1904)

Picasso ‘Portrait of Gustave Coquiot’ (1901)

Picasso ‘Girl in a Chemise’ (1904 – 05)

Picasso ‘The Frugal Meal’ (1904)

Easter in Montecarlo, a delightful hilltop village, near Lucca, Tuscany. The historic centre, with origins in the eleventh century, is set on top of a hill overlooking a 360° panorama of Tuscan vineyards, olive groves and green woods.

At the Palazzo Ducale, Genova for the exhibition ‘Espressionismo Tedesco 1905 – 1913’, a survey of the ‘Die Brücke’ group. ‘Die Brücke’ was formed in 1905 in Dresden by four architecture students, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Erich Heckel. They were later joined by Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller and, for a short time, Emil Nolde.

The exhibition was very good, though somewhat incomplete. There were hardly any examples of paintings from Moritzburg and none of Kirchner’s Berlin Street Scenes , but apart from that a fairly thorough survey.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner ‘Artist -Marcella’ (1910)

Max Pechstein ‘The Black and Yellow Bathing Suit’ (1909)

Erich Heckel ‘Franzi Reclining’ (1910)

Max Pechstein ‘Two Dancers’ (1909)

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff ‘Thoughtful Woman’ (1912)

At Villa Manin, Passariano, near Udine, for the fascinating exhibition ‘Avanguardia Russa’. The exhibition displays works from the Costakis collection of early twentieth-century Russian avant-garde art, collected in extraordinary circumstances while George Costakis worked in Moscow for the Greek and Canadian embassies.

The exhibition shows examples from all the major movements from 1910 to 1930 in Russia, including Symbolism, Cubo-Futurism, Suprematism and Constructivism, from artists including Malevich, Popova, Rodchenko, El Lissitsky, Tatlin and others. Also on display is a superb collection of photographs by Alexander Rodchenko.

Kazimir Malevich ‘Portrait’ (1910)

Kazimir Malevich ‘Austrian went into Kadziwill’ (1914)

Ivan Kliun ‘Portrait of the Artist’s Wife’ (1910)

Liubov Popova ‘Travelling Woman’ (1915)

Alexander Rodchenko ‘Books’ (1924)

Alexander Rodchenko ‘Pioneer Trumpet Player’ (1930)

In Ljubljana, Slovenia, for the exhibition ‘Painting in Normandy’. Works by French artists in the Normandy region from the Realism of Courbet and Corot and the Impressionism of Monet to the Post-Impressionism of Bonnard and Vuillard.

 Gustave Courbet ‘The Beach at Trouville’ (c.1865)

Claude Monet ‘Étretat’ (c.1864)

Edouard Vuillard ‘The Garden at Amfreville’ (c.1905 – 07)

In Pisa for an extremely interesting exhibition, ‘Modigliani et ses amis, Parigi 1906 – 1920’. The exhibition tells the story of the avant-garde artists who worked in Paris in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Focusing on the paintings and sculptures of Amedeo Modigliani, it also shows works by people associated with the ‘School of Paris’ during that period, including Constantin Brâncusi, Raoul Dufy, Chaim Soutine, Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso, André Derain and Marc Chagall.

Amedeo Modigliani ‘Paul Guillaume, Novo Pilota’ (1915)

Amedeo Modigliani ‘Femme au ruban de velours’ (1915)

Amedeo Modigliani ‘Gaston Modot’ (1918)

Amedeo Modigliani ‘The Young Apprentice’ (1917 – 19)

André Derain ‘Portrait of Lucie Kahnweiler’ (1913)

Juan Gris ‘Nature Morte au Livre’ (1913)