World-class art in Nice

Colourful interiors, nudes and landscapes by world-renowned French artist Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), a leading figure in the transition from Impressionism to Modernism. He lived in Le Cannet between 1922 and 1947.

John Cocteau (1889-1963) was a famous French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker and visual artist. He’s arguably best known for his novel Les Enfants Terribles (1929). Seek out his whimsical, graphic work in this quirky museum, with a waterfront facade that resembles a row of teeth.

Set in a sublime garden amid playful mosaics, fountains and sculptures by Calder, Giacometti, Pol Bury and Tal Coat, the Maeght Foundation is itself a masterpiece.

Designed in 1964 by Josep Lluis Sert, a student of Le Corbusier, this striking building’s luminous white rooms are filled with natural light – the ideal setting for bold, colour-packed art by the likes of Braque, Chagal, Leger, Bonnard and Miro.

Outside, there’s a sculpture garden, with rotating works by world-renowned sculptors such as Jean Arp, Eduardo Chillida, Erik Dietman, Barbara Hepworth and Joan Miro.

Kids will love the garden with its Miro maze and Pol Bury fountain.

Housed in a low, modest-looking building among pretty Mediterranean gardens, this museum houses the painter Marc Chagall’s remarkable cycle of 17 glowing, colour-drenched paintings inspired by the Bible. This permanent collection is the biggest public collection of works by the artist anywhere.

One of the greatest artists of the 20th century, Chagall has an entirely unique style that borrowed from many schools of modern art, including Cubism, Fauvism, Symbolism, Surrealism, Orphism and Futurism.

The artist was heavily inspired by the Cote d’Azur, and lived in nearby Vence from the 1940s to the 1980s, becoming a key part of the region’s rich art scene.

Replete with Chagall’s trademark folk symbolism, the colour-saturated, dreamlike works in Nice’s pristine white museum have a special magic, especially the brilliant red Song of Songs.

Villa Massena, a lavish Second Empire palace (built circa 1900), was donated to Nice by the aristocratic Massena family, to house the city’s Museum of Art and History. A beautiful and intriguing building in itself, the villa’s 20 rooms now retrace the history of Nice through more than 1,500 exhibits – ranging from furniture to decorations and artworks.

Historic figures Napoleon and Garibaldi (the latter born in Nice) get plenty of attention – Napoleon’s letters to his wife Josephine, along with some of her clothes, are particularly interesting – and there are fascinating photos and relics from the resort’s early days.

World-renowned French artists Henri Matisse, like Picasso, is credited with revolutionising the visual arts in the 20th century. Many of his best works were painted at the turn of the 20th century, using his unique blend of intense colour, flattened form and decorative pattern.

Set in a grand 17th-century Genoese mansion, Nice’s Matisse Museum opened in 1963, containing works that Matisse left to his adopted city, where he lived from 1917 to 1954.

It isn’t focused heavily on his most famous works – instead, you’ll see how the artist’s style evolved over the years: touching on his bold, colourful paintings, gouache cut-outs, drawings, prints, and 57 sculptures (nearly all of his output). Steps lead down to the modern wing, built atop the city’s Roman ruins.

Conceived as Nice’s answer to Paris’s Pompidou Centre, MAMAC’s twin towers – connected by a sculptural glass facade – contain a core collection of intriguing art from the 1950s to the present.

Stroll through some 1,400 bold, edgy works by the likes of Ben, Yves Klein, Christo, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Dine, Warhol, Oldenburg, Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg, Tiguely and Kelly, framed by luminous white-cube rooms – and don’t miss the striking public art on your way in. MAMAC also holds frequent, excellent temporary exhibitions.

In 1946, Picasso was invited to use the 14th-century Grimaldi Castle in Antibes – perched high on the one-time acropolis of the ancient Greek city of Antipolis – as a studio.

It was a happy period for the artist and in spite of a shortage of art supplies, he made do with what he could find, painting joyful Cubist scenes of fauns, nymphs and centaurs inspired by Greek mythology.

Now a museum, the castle’s collection shows the fruits of this era, its artworks infused with optimism and a Mediterranean colour spectrum.

This delightful pink pastiche of an Italianate villa was built in 1912 by the flamboyant art collector Baroness Beatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild, to house her fabulous collection of 18th-century art and furniture. Set on the highest point of high-net-worth playground Cap Ferrat, it’s a gilded, fondant fantasy for fans of kitsch design and architecture, and a fun stop on a tour of the Cote d’Azur.

The villa’s gardens, terraced out of the rock, are equally remarkable, divided into little worlds of their own: exotic, English, Florentine Spanish, Provencal, Japanese, and French, with a musical fountain that plays every 20 minutes.