iRoyal Academy of ArtsPiccadilly
Painting the French Riviera
Monet, Matisse, Dufy and others capture the light and colour of the Cote d'Azur in this survey of the French Riviera's pull on modern painters.
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In Bonnard's Breakfast at Le Cannet, his wife Marthe eats alone in a room full of light, the bay visible through the open door. The mirror behind her reflects Bonnard himself. The Arts Desk called it the most intriguing painting in the show.
The Royal Academy follows painters south from the 1870s to the 1960s in more than 160 works: Cézanne and Renoir painting the same rocks side by side, a room of Monet, the pointillists, the Fauves, a gallery for Bonnard, Picasso's ceramics, a room of travel posters and Hitchcock clips, and Yves Klein's blue at the end. If London's grey is getting to you, this is the Riviera without the 6am easyJet.
The critics split. The Arts Desk went "from one delight to another"; the Guardian's Jonathan Jones called it "about as erotic and glamorous as a wet day in Margate". Both found Matisse short-changed. Fridays and Saturdays it's open until 9pm, with rosé or Champagne for £12 if you show your ticket.
Look for
Bonnard's breakfast
Look for the mirror in Breakfast, Radiator (Breakfast at Le Cannet), 1930, where the painter shows up behind his wife.
Cross's Les Îles d'or
Bands of dots dissolve the islands of Hyères into heat haze; The Arts Desk compared it to an Agnes Martin painted decades too early.
Matisse's Study for Luxe, calme et volupté
A small 1904 canvas in the Fauve room that Jonathan Jones thought should have been the show's centre.
Le Train Bleu
A scene painter's enlarged copy of Picasso's Two Women Running on the Beach, the Ballets Russes backcloth, hangs near film of English National Ballet dancing in front of it.
Klein's ANT 84
The finale: a 1960 imprint made by models covered in International Klein Blue.
Good for
- Dates
- Evening Visits
- First-Timers
Skip if
You're coming mainly for Matisse: both The Arts Desk and the Guardian found his selection thin.
With kids
Under-16s go free with a paying adult. Artlyst picks the posters-and-film room, with clips from To Catch a Thief, as the part young visitors will enjoy most.
Also at Royal Academy of Arts
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Image credits
9
- Painting the French RivieraCourtesy of Royal Academy of Arts
- RootsCourtesy of The Photographers' Gallery
- Sanlé Sory: Colour Years© Sanlé Sory, 2026. Courtesy of Tezeta.
- Snap Happy! How Children Became PhotographersCourtesy of The Photographers' Gallery
- Royal Academy of ArtsYair Haklai / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- The Photographers' GalleryThe wub / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- National GalleryCarlos Delgado / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- National Portrait GalleryIstvánka / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Churchill War RoomsJenny Poole / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0