Mattise Museum - Nice
 

Comments on the Mattise Museum in Nice?

The Matisse Museum in Nice, in the Cimiez district (north in the hills) has a good collection of biographical materials on Matisse, which gives a good grounding on the man and his works. The display of paintings is less satisfactory, as most of his major works are in other museums, but there are some very much worth seeing.

The most difficult thing about the museum is finding it AND finding a parking space.

Next to the park in front of the museum is the Franciscan Monastery, which is well worth a visit. In its cemetery are buried Matisse and Dufy.

I waited for years for the remodeling/renovation process to be completed and when I finally managed a visit was a bit disappointed. As Underhill has stated there are works worth seeing but the organization/lay out could be much better.

To avoid parking problems, I suggest you take the bus.

Sheesh, the best part is the walk from downtown and that is pretty boring. An alternative is the contemporary museum, but that is atrocious. I mean compared to museums of similar subject matter in similar sized cities. Naive art museum and archeo museum are more disappointing examples. Nice ought to sell a museum card that tells the staff to kick you out and enjoy Nice's main strength, which is out of doors.

If you are considering an journey out of town center, you'd do much better hopping the St. Paul d V. bus and sprinting up the hill to Fondation M*. Or the hilltop museum in Cannes, or the Rothchilde villa in Cap Ferat, or even the Auto museum in Monaco. Oh, maybe Nice's Beaux Arts museum, if you suddenly have to duck out of a rainstorm...

I really enjoyed the Volti museum in the Citadel in Villafranche sur Mer. The space is unique and I enjoyed the bronzes of female figures.

http://www.villefranche-sur-mer.com/accueil.htm

We took a tour through the TI office which included the old town and the museum. It was interesting to hear the comments by the tour guide.

I agree the Matisse is a disappointment and love the Meight Foundation, will go back for a third time this year.

Goodness my mind gets fuzzy now just a few years after our spring Riviera trip, but I did not think Matisse museum was worth it (we did walk up to it and although we thought the walk was a bit boring, it was yes much more interesting than the museum). We however did enjoy, unlike a previous poster, Nice's Modern Art Museum, mainly because of the special exhibits during our visit. One of them was a tremendous Nikki de Saint Phalle collection.

We truly will always remember the Chagall Biblical Museum. Now that is a true treasure. What spirit; what life!

There's a museum at the end of Menton--the Musee Jean Cocteau--that we loved. Tiny, tiny but darling representatives of his work.

The Picasso at Antibes was interesting, less from the perspective of his works (lots of pottery--who knew?) but from the artists that grew with him.

Loved the Fondation Meight. Would make a trip to France let alone St. Paul de Vence to see it again. However, the town of Vence has a special little jewel. No, not the Matisse Chapel--it was OK-- but instead a little Chagall baptismal area in the town center church.

I can't remember all the towns; I DO rembember the museums. There's the Renoir house--no paintings but tons of atmosphere. We feel so lucky we went there. We now look at Renoirs so differently as a result. And then there's this hilltop town (?) on the way to Grasse (we detested Grasse) with a wonderful photography museum of Picasso photoshots.

All in all, could have easily skipped the Matisse when compared to all of these (and by the way, so much more!)