© Royal Academy
© Royal Academy
Painting the French Riviera
2 October 2026 to 31 January 2027
Critic score
The Royal Academy traces how the light and landscape of the French Riviera transformed painting — bringing together 160+ works by Monet, Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne and others, alongside literature, cinema and fashion that defined the Côte d'Azur's golden allure.
From Royal Academy
To Monet, it was like "swimming in blue air." To Braque, a "joyful revelation." Derain compared its cerulean hues to "sticks of dynamite….primed to discharge light." The radiance of the French Riviera left an indelible mark on artists. It roused the imaginations not only of the 19th and 20th centuries' greatest painters – among them Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir and Klein – but giants of literature, cinema and fashion,...
Read more at Royal Academy →Critic Reviews (5)
The Guardian
Jonathan Jones
About as erotic and glamorous as a wet day in Margate
"The Riviera is left looking about as sublimely erotic and glamorous as a wet day in Margate. Tender Is the Night this is not. I don’t know whether the problem is pretension or, more depressingly, pandering to visitors the RA thinks want nice sunsets without the disturbing desires."
Read full review →The Independent
Mark Hudson
This dazzling Royal Academy exhibition is a near-miracle of light and colour
"At a time when blockbusters become ever more costly and difficult to stage, and the omniscient impact of the internet kills any sense of revelation about anything, an exhibition like this one feels almost miraculous. And in the first four rooms, at least, I felt genuinely humbled."
Read full review →The Telegraph
Alastair Sooke
Jewels of French art drowned out by dross
"An inadvertent revelation of this exhibition, neatly organised by curator Ann Dumas, is how rapidly formulaic artistic visions of the French Riviera became. Paul Signac’s Storm at Saint-Tropez (1895) looks too dry and tame. Raoul Dufy became incapable of painting anything but modernist cliché."
Read full review →The Times
Laura Freeman
A mixed beach bag of a show
"The more than 120 paintings, sculptures and drawings gathered by the Royal Academy are a decidedly mixed beach bag. We open with Paul Cézanne’s austere hillsides, the lushness of the setting given edge by his lean eliminations. Next to Cézanne, however, are some particularly revolting Renoirs with all the charm of a dropped ice cream."
Read full review →The Observer
Laura Cumming
Sun, sea and nudes in a spirits-lifting show
"It is high summer at the Royal Academy and will remain so all through the bleak midwinter. Never was a blockbuster more reliably designed to lift the spirits."
Read full review →Visit
Mayfair, London·View on artmap
Sunday10am–6pm
MondayClosed
Tuesday10am–6pm
Wednesday10am–6pm
Thursday10am–6pm
Friday10am–9pm
Saturday10am–6pm
