Collioure: A City of “Special Light” for Artists

Solo in Collioure

Looking for vacation ideas traveling alone? A small town along the Mediterranean, close to Spain, is one of my favorite “finds” in France: Collioure. It’s not a place you hear about very often, which is good. There are enough tourists already. Just not the vast crowds.

When approaching the coastal area near Collioure, the scenery is rather mundane. Rocky fields and scraggly bushes lead down to the sea.

It is just about the beauty of the area itself.

In Collioure, nature, architecture, and history blend to create a magical place.

Sticking out in the Mediterranean with supreme majesty is the Royal Castle. Its mere existence hints there is history here that must not be ignored. Somehow, it seems unfair that the beach is nearby to lure you away.

As if sitting on the beach and daydreaming or contemplating history isn’t enough to entertain you in Collioure, you notice there are artists and galleries everywhere.

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Collioure has always been a source of inspiration for artists. Known as the “City of Painters”, Picasso, Derain, Dufy, Chagall, Matisse and Marquet have all spent time here. Its distinctive landscape, panorama, and blend of colors and lights are reflected in major works such as “Boats at Collioure” by Derain or “The Open Window” by Matisse. These two artists were drawn to the town because of its “special light.”

“Special Light”

Between the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees mountains on the only east-facing coast of France, Collioure experiences exceptionally long hours of sunshine. The Mediterranean has almost no tides, so when the sun rises over the water, there is no surf to break the sun’s reflection off the sea — which is deep blue — nor to diminish the green and red colors of the Pyrenees.

Andre Derain commented that “Collioure has no shadows.”

The light exposure, natural scenery, and historic monuments drew Paul Signac, Matisse, Derain, Chagall, Dali, Picasso, and hundreds of others to the site. It is here that Matisse experimented with colors. It is a fact that Collioure is the “birthplace of Fauvism,” the 20th-century art movement led by Matisse that liberated the concept of color. His work introduced vibrant colors and vigorous brushstrokes in a way never seen before.

“When I put a green,” Matisse would say, “it is not grass. ”

When I put a blue, it is not the sky.”

Matisse saw color as a tool to  “interpret nature and submit it to the spirit of the picture,” he said.

Collioure continues to host artists from all over the world. More than 40 art galleries and a Museum of Modern Art are active with hundreds of exhibitions. Visitors can tour on a trail in the village where famous Fauvist works were painted or drawn.