Through their presence or the themes they illustrated, many of the artists in the fine arts collection drew their inspiration from Bormes and Provence. These representations form an important ensemble among which the landscape genre predominates.
In the MHAB, you can discover different paintings with subjects such as the seaside, plants, landscapes of the plain or the architecture of the Var town and its surroundings. Many of these works were created by the painter Bénézit whose creations focus on the plant motif, freezing a particular essence and the immediacy of a moment.
During your visit, you can also admire works with impressionist, post-impressionist and avant-garde influences.
Thus, Jean Peské, Jean Arene, Lucien Seevagen, Henri-Edmond Cross or Alcide Le Beau, have tried to represent the warm and dazzling light, characteristic of Provence. They fix the cut-out character of the shores of Bormes and the variety of its reliefs. Others, preferring the charm of the perched village, painted its steep streets, scattering here and there an inhabitant depicted during his daily tasks.
The collection also includes thirty or so landscapes from Northern France, from the second half of the 19th century. The meeting of these influences, apparently heterogeneous in their execution, allows to present a diversity of techniques, currents and themes through the multitude of landscapes represented, from the North to Provence. It is also the result of exchanges between artists who rubbed shoulders at that time, through galleries, exhibitions or salons.
