Les collections de la Ville de Menton

The historic Jean Cocteau collection

Ville de Menton — 2023-10-27T14:30:15Z

History of the collection
It was in 1957 that the project for a museum dedicated to Jean Cocteau's art was born, in the disused fort which guards the entrance to the port of Menton. This was Mayor Francis Palmero's way of thanking the artist for his work in the wedding hall of the town hall and renewing his patronage. The idea appealed to Cocteau, who saw it as a solution to the problem of the conservation and visibility of his works: “When I look for any written sheet in the studio I come (…)

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Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Menton

Ville de Menton — 2023-10-27T14:25:34Z

Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the Mediterranean pied-à-terre
From the spring of 1950, Jean Cocteau moved into the villa Santo Sospir at the invitation of his friend and patron Francine Weisweiller. The magnificent villa, located near the tip of the Cap Ferrat peninsula, near Nice, offered the artist an idyllic setting with a breathtaking view of the Mediterranean. Cocteau was welcomed there as a distinguished guest and a member of the family in his own right.
In this happy and convivial (…)

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Jean Cocteau's Mediterranean period

Ville de Menton — 2023-10-27T14:13:19Z

Jean Cocteau, a “true Mediterranean” by adoption
In his youth, Jean Cocteau had already frequented the shores of the French Riviera in the interwar period, during more or less brief stays at Cap Martin, in Grasse, in Monte-Carlo, then in Villefranche-sur-Mer. But it was from 1950 that he settled there much more permanently. While shooting his film Les Enfants Terribles, Cocteau met an admirer, Francine Weisweiller, who immediately became his friend and patron. At her invitation, he stayed (…)

- Explanatory room cards in English

Studies for the Menton wedding hall

Ville de Menton — 2023-10-27T14:02:23Z

The project
In 1955, the Menton town Council decided to redevelop its town hall, and in particular to transform the old courtroom into a wedding hall. On August 4 of that same year, Jean Cocteau discovered the town on the occasion of the Music Festival he had been invited to attend: shortly after this first contact, the mayor, Francis Palmero, showed Cocteau the hall and suggested entrusting the decoration to him. Already engaged in another decoration project, that of the Saint-Pierre (…)

- Explanatory room cards in English