Artists in Provençal
Jean Cocteau
“Christmas 1958 (...) You will go to Provençal where I invite you. Le Provençal is just between the top and the Port. These are exquisite people who gave me my chapel bell. " Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau regularly came to the Provençal bar. He spent time talking with our grandfather. They were close. He gave us several paintings. We also carefully preserve letters sent in the 50s and 60s. At the time, one of his paintings was in the entrance to the Provençal. He was always very grateful to my grandfather for giving him the bell from Saint Pierre Chapel.
Olivia Cognet
Olivia Cognet is a friend, ceramic artist and illustrator, originally from Nice, began her career in the fashion field with the famous designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. It was in Los Angeles that she discovered her passion for ceramics, developing a unique style characterized by elegant and imposing pieces, now prized by interior designers and celebrities such as Jay Ze and Robert De Niro. Olivia followed in the footsteps of George Capron in his Vallauris workshop, steeped in history, to create her works!
Emma Seneze is a friend I met in Paris more than 5 years ago. She trained at the Annecy School of Fine Arts, specialized in contemporary art and exhibits throughout the world. By contemplating the clouds or the waters of a lake, the eye can perceive familiar poetic forms (an animal , a face, a plant…). These pareidolia are illusions that escape us as much as they are our own. In Provençal, Emma worked on the magnificent arches of the stairs, on the shapes and her inspirations, from plants to maritime. between land and sea, from outside to inside.
Self-taught designer, shapes bold and colorful pieces of furniture, inspired by the Mediterranean and the Memphis movement, while exploring a variety of materials, from steel to wood, to create unique interiors in collaboration with interior designers.
At Le Provençal, we chose its shells, we have more than 20 of them in our corridors! It was Capucinede Cointet, architect, and Nelly Labrousse, who suggested this Designer to us and we are delighted!
« Le Chemin de mes rondes » 2021. Dessin encre de Chine sur papier. 56x76cm
Emmanuel Regent is a friend of the Collège de Beaulieu-sur-mer, recently found in Paris! He is a contemporary artist who graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux arts in Paris. The painting in the entrance to the Provençal comes from his series called “my walkway”. This is the most beautiful circular path in the world, that of Villefranche-sur-mer of course! It is located under the Citadel. Emmanuel Régent's work plays on discretion and self-effacement and invariably prefers a little to excess. This bias allows him to create a discreet art that fits the world without excess.
A graduate of the Strasbourg School of Decorative Arts, Caroline Cutaia is a multidisciplinary artist from Marseille who has devoted herself mainly to ceramics for several years. Her interest in collecting and everyday objects is reflected in her art, where each object she creates tells a story, evokes a memory or a landscape. She created custom ceramics from our hotel for our new bathrooms.
Freed from any conceptual complexity, Antoine Desailly's creative process is immediately revealed. No artifice or grandiose illusion; on the contrary, the light forms of the designer are of the voluntary humility of an artist who, faced with the millions of facets of a world saturated with possibilities, limits himself to a simple and innocuous object. (...) An almost manic or neurotic attitude which injects into this mechanization a truly human dimension. Nervous and muscular, the articulation of the process and the result is lodged in the hollow of the wrist, at the tips of the fingers, in the continuous search for 'a harmonious gesture aiming at the balance between the form and the movement which produces it. almost degrading. The repetition of the same motif pushed to its limits suggests alienation.
Jean Michael Eckert, artist from Villefranche, friend of my uncle, Jean Duchateau is a versatile artist from Villefranche. He masters with virtuosity a multitude of artistic techniques, from painting to ceramics, while being a fervent defender of the preservation of the sea. His workshop is in the old town of Villefranche. He was the one who painted the picture above the piano! We also have other works by him in the hotel.
Alexandra Sylvestre
Our great grandmother. All the paintings that we have and are not signed are by Alexandra, our great-grandmother who lived in Provençal until her death in 1973.
Benoit Ruff is a childhood friend. An artist and photographer with an unconventional background, he explores a wide range of artistic media, constantly pushing the boundaries of his creative expression. He is distinguished by a remarkable stylistic diversity, demonstrating his ability to merge different artistic disciplines to create unique and captivating works. At the hotel, he offers watercolor photos and drawings of the hotel view from several rooms.
