musée Marc-Chagall

The Musee national Marc Chagall in Nice is the only French national museum ever dedicated to a single living artist. It opened in 1973 on Chagall's 86th birthday and shelters his monumental Biblical Message cycle: seventeen large canvases on Genesis, Exodus, and the Song of Songs that the artist gave to the French state. Architect Andre Hermant's low pavilion melts into a Mediterranean garden of olive trees, lavender, and cypresses; a purpose-built Elijah mosaic and a concert hall with Chagall stained-glass extend the visit. The intensely blue biblical scenes still draw pilgrims of modernism. A visit pairs naturally with the nearby Matisse Museum.