By 1946, Pablo Picasso was probably the most famous artist in the world. His career had stretched from the turn of the century to now, nearly 50 years of periods blue, rose, cubist, and surrealist. He had changed art, had mastered all forms he tried, and had achieved the professional acclaim most artists hadn’t found in their own lifetimes, with the money that came with it.

But personally, life was a struggle. He had spent the last decades living through war, both the Spanish Civil War and World War Two. That had taken a toll on his mental health. He was married, although he had been separated for years, and instead found himself in a series of relationships with much younger women. 1944 brought the newest of those, an art student 40 years his junior (he was 63) named Françoise Gilot, with whom he began to reside at the expense of his prior mistress.

So when Picasso received a call from an obscure museum in a small town along France’s Mediterranean coast, he was intrigued, and looking for change. This museum, the Chateau Grimaldi (yes, that same Grimaldi family we have spoken about from both Genoa and Monaco over the past months), was similarly floundering. The building, a former castle and fortress, was acquired by the city of Antibes in 1925, and desperately wanted some direction. So they reached out to the most famous artist in France, Pablo Picasso, with an offer. Come here, live here, work here, and see what happens.

So he did.

For two months, Picasso and Gilot moved here to Antibes, and a room at the top of the castle was converted to be the artist’s workshop. And for two months, he painted. His work was chronicled by photographer Michael Sima, who took both pictures of the artist posing with his works and candid photos of Pablo Picasso at work, or just enjoying life with his partner.

It would be a very productive period, with numerous paintings and drawings produced. Themes of Greek mythology – specifically fauns, nymphs, and centaurs – were his focus for much of it. Most importantly, for someone coming out of war years and depression, it was filled with joy, especially since it was during their time in Antibes that the couple found out they were to have a child. Indeed, his most important work created in Antibes is called The Joy of Life.

The following year, in 1947, Chateau Grimaldi officially relaunched itself as the Picasso Museum, spurred by Pablo Picasso donating the works he created during the prior year. Over the following decades, he and his family would make additional donations to the museum that now shared his name, and he would make trip after trip for new exhibition openings. And the castle itself, dating back centuries, would continue to inspire him and his love of mythology and antiquity as themes. “Each time I arrive in Antibes, I am again taken by this slice of Antiquity,” he wrote.

Today, the museum occupies nearly the entirety of the castle, and even includes a terrace overlooking the sea walls and the Mediterranean beyond. (A sculpture gallery there is also impressive, though none are from Picasso himself.) A visit can take anywhere from an hour to three, depending how much time one wishes to spend staring at each work, and how much of the non-Picasso exhibits one truly cares about. (Note: the museum does close for lunch, so a long visit will either necessitate arriving at opening, staying all afternoon, or breaking in the middle of the day.)

Visitors pass through the non-Picasso exhibits first, and then move upstairs to what was Pablo Picasso’s workshop. The first portion of that is a room of Michael Sima’s photographs. Picasso at work. Picasso and Gilot. Picasso posing with a finished painting. It is a remarkable insight into the artist in an incredibly short period of time, and from these, one can see a man working hard, but happy. He appears often shirtless, most likely enjoying the Mediterranean sun, and smiling.

The main workshop now exhibits The Joy of Life (La Joie de Vivre) and smaller works Pablo Picasso painted around it with similar themes as he tried to get his mythological characters right. In the scene, four main figures (a centaur, a nymph, and two fauns) play on a beach, each smiling simply. There is a bird, and there is a boat, and the blues and yellows – along with musical instruments and smiles – evoke the happiness Picasso found here among legends of the Mediterranean and the shore itself.

(For a more complete visit, take another opportunity to see the photo exhibit after visiting this room, to see Picasso with specific paintings in various forms of completion.)

Other rooms are dedicated to simple pencil and crayon drawings of those same mythological creatures, showing a true devotion to their study in different forms. It is similar to his earlier obsession with the Minotaur. (Visit the archaeological museum in Naples, Italy to see those works. It is amazing.)

As mentioned, life here in Antibes, both in 1946 and during future visits, was good to Picasso. In addition to his mythological scenes, he painted more traditionally-Picasso (read: cubist) versions of local still life like fish and fruit, portraits of sailors, and his ever-present nudes, likely inspired by sun-bathers. Most tend toward pleasant colors and smiling individuals.

The final room is one of later donations made by the artist’s second wife (no, not Gilot, whom he never married but did father two children with). This rooms includes two remarkable sculptures, and dozens of ceramic plates from a period he had obsessing over that art form.

And it also holds Ulysses and the Sirens, one of my personal favorite paintings of Pablo Picasso.

I always say that it is amazing how much even a short period of travel, of altering perspectives for even the briefest of periods, can change a person. Visiting with Pablo Picasso in Antibes, it can easily be seen how true that was for him. Here, surrounded by the volume of work he created in a mere two months, we see a completely different man than just a few years before, the Picasso of Guernica and war. Here is a man happy, at peace, pensive on positive topics.

And stepping out of the museum into the Mediterranean sunshine overlooking the bright blue of the Côte d’Azur, it is easy to see how even two months can have had that remarkable effect, and why this place would continue to hold incredible meaning for Picasso for the remainder of his life.

Pablo Picasso came to Antibes to escape war, depression, and instability. It is safe to say that he was successful in that effort.

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