In Draguignan, an exhibition rehabilitates the Esterel as a land of inspiration for the avant-gardes

The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Draguignan presents an exhibition rehabilitating the Esterel Massif as a major source of inspiration for modern art, particularly post-impressionist painters. The show, sparked by the 2025 acquisition of Louis Valtat's painting *Les Rochers rouges*, explores how the volcanic red-rock landscape—once a haven for brigands and surrounded by legends—became a vibrant artistic colony after the arrival of the railway and the Corniche d'Or road in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Artists such as Henri Matisse, Paul Signac, Albert Marquet, and Charles Camoin were drawn to the area, which offered an archaic, unspoiled nature that had never before been depicted in painting.

This exhibition matters because it corrects a historical oversight: the Esterel has often been overshadowed by other Provençal sites like Saint-Tropez or L'Estaque in art history, despite playing a crucial role in the development of modern painting. By highlighting the massif as a laboratory for artistic experimentation, the show repositions a neglected landscape within the geography of modern art. It also underscores how infrastructure and tourism transformed a once-feared wilderness into a creative haven, offering fresh insight into the relationship between place, perception, and artistic innovation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.