The Villa La Californie is a series of paintings by the English artist Damian Elwes (born 1960).[1][2][3] They link together to describe almost the entire ground floor of the Pablo Picasso's Villa La Californie in Cannes, Southern France.
In the series, architectural forms portrayed in one painting continue into the next, thereby inferring that as the eye of the viewer moves from painting to painting that you are physically moving from room to room in the master's studio. As such, this group of paintings functions as an installation. Elwes envelops the viewer as a way of enhancing the experience of what it would have been like to be in Picasso's studio in Cannes in 1956. He has assembled all extant documentation on any and every item that Picasso surrounded himself with. These include all the notebooks, sketches, African masks, works in production (such as paintings, prints, ceramics, and sculpture), as well as gifts from friends, articles of clothing and even artworks by his own children. All of these elements have been included in Elwes’ work with the goal of accurately documenting Picasso's working process. During this period in Picasso's life he was fascinated by the old masters. Picasso thought that his own studio looked like Velasquez's studio in Las Meninas. While creating this series of paintings, Elwes discovered that Picasso was intentionally placing objects in his studio in order to recreate Velasquez's studio. Then he left everything in place and went upstairs to create 58 versions of Las Meninas.
- ^ Damian Elwes: Inside Picasso's Studio[dead link], Daily Breeze, 17 March 2006.
- ^ Damian Elwes: A painter in search of the roots of inspiration Archived 2009-10-11 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent, 2 July 2006.
- ^ Damian Elwes, Picasso's Villa La Californie I & II, 2006 Archived 2009-10-13 at the Wayback Machine, M+B Fine Art.