The French Riviera town of Antibes has grown since Picasso stayed here in 1946.

There wasn't much in life that satisfied the demanding genius of Pablo Picasso. However, the sun-drenched city of Antibes not only placated the master of modernism -- it completely seduced him.

Arriving shortly after the end of World War II, he spent one of the most creative periods of his eight-decade-long career here, eagerly absorbing Antibes' vivid light and colors into his unique palette. Another creative force weighing in for Antibes, writer Graham Greene, said of Antibes, "It's the only city on the French Riviera to have kept its soul so well."

Despite such famous residents and its location on one of the most celebrated ribbons of coastline in the world, Antibes today has somehow escaped the brash limelight that its more glitzy siblings like Cannes and St. Tropez seem to thrive on. That suits the locals just fine, who seek a more sybaritic pace that moves as gracefully as a sloop returning to the town's Port Vauban from the blue Mediterranean.

Having seen it all and outlived the conflicts of mere mortals since being founded as "Antipolis" by Greek traders around 400 BC, Antibes seems to have cultivated an air of quiet composure over the centuries.

In fact, except for a few notable incidents -- like the time the city closed its gates on Napoleon (talk about nerve) -- Antibes dwelled in obscurity until the beginning of this century. That's when moneyed Parisians and Russian princes began arriving to build villas and throw parties. And let's not forget the Americans, who brought jazz and gambling in the 1920s.

Picasso was searching for something entirely different when he arrived with his new companion, Francois Gilot, as the country was healing from the scars of war. He came looking for solitude -- and a place to create.

The Bay of Cannes (1958)

Picasso Museum
One of the most enduring symbols of the city remains the Palace Grimaldi and the imposing promontory on which it rests. Overlooking a cobalt blue sea, the site and Palace are living testimonies to the town's history. Pulling duty as everything from a Roman fort in antiquity to a medieval bishop's residence, the Palace ended up in the hands of the Grimaldis (ancestors of Monaco's ruling family) after a royal squabble in the 17th Century, before eventually becoming a museum in the 1920s.

It was in the summer of 1946 that the cranky Catalonian arrived. He told a photographer friend he was looking for studio space. The photographer, Sima, mentioned the Palace, with its vast, sun-splashed second-floor salon.

A meeting was arranged with the resourceful director of the modest museum and the rest -- as they say -- is history. Picasso returned to Paris that winter, a deal was struck and the art remained behind.

Now one of the crown jewels of Antibes, the Picasso Museum houses a thought-provoking collection including the artist's rarer ceramics. Viewing this remarkable oeuvre in context, it becomes obvious that this luminous work was ignited by the pure light of the Mediterranean and the bright, open spaces of the palace.

Walking this upper gallery today, it's easy to imagine Picasso in his striped sailor's jersey, intently dabbing paint as the warm sun flooded his studio. If one then pauses to look out the large windows, past the tiled roofs below towards where the yachts sway at anchor, the source of his inspiration becomes as apparent as the salty breeze.

The Kitchen (1948)

His work is even more impressive -- and evocative -- when you consider that because of post-war shortages, Picasso made due with boat paint, asbestos board and plywood instead of canvas and oils. From them he summoned effusive depictions of nature and mythic elements such as satyrs, bulls and Maenads. One of his most famous paintings in the collection, Joie de Vivre, is a huge piece over 8-ft long that celebrates a pagan bacchanalia. A centaur plays a flute to the delight of a well-endowed dancer as fawns leap about. Echoing the classical Greek and Roman roots of the region, it was also a case of art imitating life: It has been documented that his six months here were some of the happiest periods of the artist's life. Francoise, good friends and working days that started after long ocean swims and went late into the night inspired the artist.

The result was a prodigious amount of work, including oil paintings, frescos, ceramics, lithographs and sculptures. Using symbols and characters of myth and magic, they conveyed emotions for loved ones, friends and the intoxicating environment of the Mediterranean he loved so well.

In fact, Antibes put such an indelible stamp on Picasso that when he left, he decided to leave behind all the works created there. Moreover, a condition of his deal with the museum was that the pieces were never to be loaned out. It was as if Picasso was determined to leave a part of himself here: Ulysses and the Sirens, The Oak Tree, the triptych Satyr, Faun and Centaur and the rest would remain in the castle by the sea forever. As he put it succinctly at the time, "If you want to see the Picassos of Antibes, you will simply have to come to Antibes." That's straight advice, even from a former Cubist.

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