New Picasso room opening from May 14, 2023
In 2022, in order to pay tribute to Vincent Boeuf and his parents (his father was from Digne-les Bains), his universal legatee, Jack Chanon, chose the Gassendi Museum to house 7 works by Pablo Picasso (1881, Malaga-1973 , Mougins). This donation makes it possible to endow the museum with a set of works by the major artist of the 20th century, and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his death. The diversity of techniques in this corpus, drawing, engraving, ceramics, books, offers an overview of the prolific research undertaken by the artist to reinvent his art and that of the 20th century. Vincent Boeuf was an atypical man, loving the arts including music. Having lost his father at the age of four, he is raised by a gentle and refined mother who leaves him free to lead the life he wants. His first job as a spirits representative, in the footsteps of his father who had his own cellar in Coustellet, Vaucluse, allowed him to travel, a taste that he would keep all his life. In 1977, he opened his first real estate agency in Gordes, then others in the Luberon and the Alpilles, contributing intensely to the reputation of the entire region. Self-taught and very curious, he made his first acquisitions with old works, then quickly became a patron for the living artists whose works he bought. In 1990, Vincent Boeuf, Jack Chanon and Christine Ruiz-Picasso met. This will be the beginning of a true friendship that will be marked on different occasions by the generosity of Christine Ruiz-Picasso, a generosity that Jack Chanon therefore wishes to extend to the Gassendi Museum.