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An American in Provence

Art, Life & Photography

An American in Provence is a beautiful collection of exquisite portrait, scenic, and still-life photography from wildly popular and award-winning photographer Jamie Beck. Looking to slow down from her fast-paced life in New York City, Beck moved to the French countryside documenting her life as “An American in Provence.” What started as a one-year getaway became five as she continues to chronicle her life there through her photography on Instagram @JamieBeck.co, including the birth of her daughter, Eloise, all in the most breath-taking way.

In An American in Provence, Beck shares her tips and techniques for creating incredible photos and details her transformational journey as an artist and woman. Beck also includes farm-to-table recipes she’s learned along the way, including Braised Beef Stew, Spring Chicken with Herbs de Provence, Fresh Tagliatelle Pasta with Spring Asparagus, and Lemon Meringue Tart. This stunning visual journey is sure to delight anyone who wishes to escape reality and immerse themselves in life in Provence.

About the Author

Jamie Beck took her first photograph at the age of thirteen and soon after began earning her living as a professional photographer. By twenty-eight, she opened her own commercial photographic studio in lower Manhattan. Jamie has shot campaigns and editorials for some of the world’s most famous brands, including Chanel, Donna Karan, Nike, Oscar de la Renta, Google, Samsung, and Microsoft. Her work has appeared under the mastheads of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, on Netflix, and in digital ad displays for Disney. She has been commissioned by luxury brands such as Chopard, Cartier, and Volvo and has twice been named by Adweek magazine as one of the industry’s top 100 creatives, with numerous features written about her body of work in Communication Arts, WWD, and Time. With her camera never leaving her side, Jamie has spent almost twenty-five years traveling the world, one photographic frame at a time. In 2016, she took what was to be a one-year sabbatical to create a personal body of work in the South of France, which changed the entire course of her life, one that blossomed into a career as an art photographer and delivered her a French-born baby girl named Eloise. Jamie lives in Provence with her husband and daughter. Follow her on Instagram @JamieBeck.co.

Chateau La Coste

WINE, WINE SHOP, WINE TASTING, THE ART OF WINE MAKING & APPRECIATON, BOOKSHOP, RESTAURANT, CAFE, ART & ARCHITECTURE WALK

THE WINE
Adhering to biodynamic principles, Château la Coste strives to preserve the terroir, protecting its fertility, safeguarding the essence of the soil. The alchemy of blending lives on in a state of the art ‘cuverie’ designed by French architect Jean Nouvel and inaugurated with the grape harvest of 2008. This latest technology ensures the natural expression of the wine and brings new life to a long tradition.
In 2009 our wines were given the French organic label “AB” in recognition of the respect shown to the land along with the methods used which are in perfect harmony with nature.

THE WINE SHOP
Housed in a 19th-century farmhouse, the Wineshop of Château La Coste invites you to discover the different ranges of red, white and rosé wines produced on the domain.
Share a convivial moment and enliven your senses with a wine tasting, accompanied by local delicacies.
Throughout the day, our team is at the ready to answer your questions and give advice on food and wine pairings.
In season, our olive oil and honey can also be tasted.
The wineshop offers an original selection of products for the wine enthusiast as well as tableware, glassware and books on wine.

THE ART OF WINE MAKING AND WINE APPRECIATION
La Revue des Vins de France awarded Château La Coste the prize of Best Wine Destination in France 2015. Our team of wine experts offers you the chance to deepen your knowledge of wine-making and wine-appreciation. With a visit to the Chai de vinification of Jean Nouvel, visitors will gain a preliminary introduction to the winemaking process at Château la Coste. Also on offer are sensory workshops and in-depth courses on winemaking and wine-tasting.

THE BOOKSHOP
The bookshop offers specialist works on each of the artists and architects whose installations are on the Domain. Academic books, monographs, essays and DVD’s on principal figures and movements in contemporary art and architecture are also available.
Volumes on wine, gastronomy and Provencal garden design are included as well as a selection of creative books for children. We are proud to propose a range of rare titles which will appeal to those looking for a more in-depth knowledge.

THE TADAO ANDO RESTAURANT
The team in the Tadao Ando Art Centre restaurant welcomes you every day. In this wide open luminous space, enjoy lunch at the water’s edge accompanied by Château La Coste wines, or sit on the terrace in the late afternoon with a cup of genmaicha tea and watch the sun go down across the vines.
The in-house menu highlights seasonal produce from the organic vegetable garden specially designed by Louis Benech. Provençal and Mediterranean dishes are freshly prepared in our kitchen and served throughout the day.

THE TERRACE
“La Terrasse” is our outdoor café situated in the heart of the old domain. Using ingredients from the kitchen garden, “La Terrasse” offers fresh salads, chilled soups, home-made tarts, farmers cheeses and organic charcuterie, accompanied by the wines of the domain.
With live music throughout the summer, “La Terrasse” is a little bit of Provence to be enjoyed in the company of friends or family.

ART & ARCHITECTURE WALK
Château La Coste is a vineyard where Wine, Art & Architecture live in harmony. Artists and architects were invited to visit the Domain and discover the beauty of Provence. In turn, they were encouraged to choose a place in the landscape that spoke directly to them and were given the freedom to create a work that would live there. Château La Coste will continue to evolve as new projects and installations are developed.
Walk at your leisure through wooded hilltops and valleys, alongside olive groves and vine fields, discovering the many installations of contemporary art on your way.

THE ART CENTRE
Tadao Ando conceived the Art Centre for Château La Coste. The building adopts many of the Japanese master’s signature elements to create an extraordinary experience of light and space in nature. A vast infinity pool of water hides an underground car park and provides a spectacular stage for an upper level that is laid out on a V-shaped plan. Flanked by entire elevations of glass, one wing of this ‘V’ houses our welcome desk and bookshop, while the other wing includes a restaurant which overlooks the water and vines.
Tadao Ando’s uniquely smooth concrete walls are marked by a series of conical points and are organised into tatami proportions. His sculptural use of this medium creates strong geometric lines, framed points of view and a variety of reflections throughout the day. The interplay between interior and exterior spaces is seen everywhere in the building and this integration into the landscape is perfectly highlighted by the colonnade that disappears beyond the building into the vines.
“What I tried to do here, because of the presence of Cézanne in Aix, is create new works close to nature.” Tadao Ando says. “I wanted to capture the same, very humble spirit of a Cézanne painting.”

Special prices on all wines, books, food and courses for L’e Marquis clients

Context Travel: for the intellectually curious traveller

Private Guides and (Very) Small Group Tours

Context Travel is a network of passionnate local experts who organize and lead in-depth walking tours in cultural destinations around the world.

In Provence, Context offers an array of tours on topics ranging from art history to oenology. Whether viewing Cézanne’s Aix-en-Provence with a practicing artist, exploring the origins of Marseille with a historian, or discovering local wine with a credentialed sommelier, with Context you’ll have the opportunity to see the region through the eyes of a true connoisseur.

With no more than six people on a tour, you’ll participate in an intimate, hands-on, conversational experience.

Context is a Wendy Perrin Trusted Travel Expert and a Condé Nast Traveler Top Travel Expert. Travel + Leisure has called Context one of the top European tour companies for its innovative approach to travel and the depth of its programs.

Van Gogh

Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings by Rainer Metzger (Author), Ingo F Walther (Editor)

TASCHEN BOOKS

Tortured talent: The genius and the angst of an Expressionist master Vincent van Gogh s story is one of the most ironic in art history. Today, he is celebrated the world over as one of the most important painters of all time, recognized with sell-out shows, feted museums, and record prices of tens of millions of dollars at auction.Yet as he was painting the canvases that would subsequently become these sell-out modern masterpieces, van Gogh was battling not only the disinterest of his contemporary audiences but also devastating bouts of mental illness, with episodes of depression and paralyzing anxiety which would eventually claim his life in 1890, when he committed suicide shortly after his 37th birthday.This comprehensive study of Vincent van Gogh (1853 1890) pairs a detailed monograph on his life and art with a complete catalogue of his 871 paintings.

About the Series: Bibliotheca Universalis Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe at an unbeatable, democratic price! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, the name TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible, open-minded publishing. Bibliotheca Universalis brings together nearly 100 of our all-time favorite titles in a neat new format so you can curate your own affordable library of art and anthropology.

Van Gogh’s Ear : The True Story by Bernadette Murphy

PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE July 2016

On a dark night in Provence in December 1888 Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear. It is an act that has come to define him. Yet for more than a century biographers and historians seeking definitive facts about what happened that night have been left with more questions than answers.

In Van Gogh’s Ear Bernadette Murphy sets out to discover exactly what happened that night in Arles. Why would an artist at the height of his powers commit such a brutal act? Who was the mysterious ‘Rachel’ to whom he presented his macabre gift? Was it just his lobe, or did Van Gogh really cut off his entire ear? Her investigation takes us from major museums to the dusty contents of forgotten archives, vividly reconstructing the world in which Van Gogh moved – the madams and prostitutes, café patrons and police inspectors, his beloved brother Theo and his fellow artist and house-guest Paul Gauguin. With exclusive revelations and new research about the ear and about ‘Rachel’, Bernadette Murphy proposes a bold new hypothesis about what was occurring in Van Gogh’s heart and mind as he made a mysterious delivery to her doorstep that fateful night.

Van Gogh’s Ear is a compelling detective story and a journey of discovery. It is also a portrait of a painter creating his most iconic and revolutionary work, pushing himself ever closer to greatness even as he edged towards madness – and one fateful sweep of the blade that would resonate through the ages.

Follow Van Gogh in St Remy and Arles. Have these books and others delivered to your villa in Provence.

Annick McKenzie in Provence

“Painting gives me a way to inspire and touch people’s lives. This is why I paint.”

I was born in France and after spending some time in Canada, New York City and Taplow in the UK, I have now come back to live in France in the beautiful Sainte-Maxime-sur-Mer in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.My passion for colour was born out of a visit to Musee du Jeu de Paume in Paris when I was very young and where I discovered the works of Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, Derain and many other colour masters.

I started to paint later in life when I met the right teacher in 1994. I never looked back!

I studied at the Berkshire College of Art and Design and Amersham Art College in Buckinghamshire (1995-1998).

My sense of colour is intuitive and my work is about an emotional ‘coup de coeur’ to places and an expression of feeling. It is all about the energy and the wonder of life and my aim is to communicate its essence.

I work from sketches drawn en ‘plein air’ or take photographs and re-create in my studio the magic feeling of the moment.

I create original, inspiring and vibrant paintings mostly in acrylics on canvas or wood panels.

♥♥♥♥

Annick McKenzie, artiste peintre française, réside à Sainte Maxime depuis 2011.

Elle a vécu au Canada, aux Etats Unis et 30 ans en Grande Bretagne où elle a principalement étudié le dessin et la peinture aux Beaux-Arts de Amersham College of Arts (Buckinghamshire près de Londres).

Annick a découvert sa passion pour la couleur dès l’âge de neuf ans lors d’une visite au Musée du Jeu de Paume à Paris. Elle fut époustouflée, conquise et touchée par le travail de Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, André Derain , Paul Gauguin et de tous les grands maitres de la couleur.

Elle utilise la couleur de manière intuitive. Ses inspirations étant toujours des coups de coeur, son intention profonde est de pouvoir transmettre son ressenti du moment et l’énergie de la vie.

Elle compte plusieurs expositions seule ou collectives, principalement en Grande Bretagne. Elle a également exposé à Agora Gallery (New York City) en 2005, participé à plusieurs salons de peinture à Londres, Battersea Art Fair (2004 et 2006), Untitled Art Fair (2009).

Les deux salons de peinture de Windsor et Reading où elle a exposé en 2007, 2008 et 2010 lui ont passé commande de deux oeuvres, devenues les images logos de ces deux salons.

En 2001, la compagnie américaine ‘”Starbucks Coffee Company” lui a demandé de réaliser un tableau pour l’un de leur “coffee shop”. Cette peinture est maintenant exposée à leur siège de Londres.

Annick est inscrite à la Maison des Artistes à Paris.

En Mai 2015, Annick est devenue membre de la Foundation Taylor à Paris, dénommée “Association des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs, Architectes, Graveurs et Dessinateurs, fondée en 1844 par le Baron Taylor.”

Please have a look at Annick’s website: http://annickmckenzie.com/

L’e Marquis clients will get a special rate on purchases of Annick’s paintings, and all purchases qualify for BEARMILES.

Cezanne

Paul Cezanne: Drawings and Watercolours by Christopher Lloyd

THAMES & HUDSON. August 2015

Drawing was central to Cézanne’s indefatigable search for solutions to the problems posed by the depiction of reality. Many of his watercolours are equal to his paintings, and he himself made no real distinction between painting and drawing. This book’s six chapters are arranged thematically covering the whole range of Cézanne’s œuvre: works after the Old Masters such as Michelangelo and Rubens; his period as one of the Impressionists; his exploration of both portraiture and the human figure, including the magnificent bathers; his interaction with landscape, particularly in his native Provence and the dominating form of Mont Sainte-Victoire; and finally the magisterial still lifes. In the Introduction, as well as throughout the book, Lloyd sets the drawings and watercolours in the context of Cézanne’s life and overall artistic development. The result is a greater understanding of the process that led to some of the most absorbing art ever produced.

Cezanne: A Life by Ale Danchev

PROFILE BOOKS October 2013

Today we view Cézanne as a monumental figure, but during his lifetime (1839-1906), many did not understand him or his work. With brilliant insight, drawing on a vast range of primary sources, Alex Danchev tells the story of an artist who was never accepted into the official Salon: he was considered a revolutionary at best and a barbarian at worst, whose paintings were unfinished, distorted and strange. His work sold to no one outside his immediate circle until his late thirties, and he maintained that ‘to paint from nature is not to copy an object; it is to represent its sensations’ – a belief way ahead of his time, with stunning implications that became the obsession of many other artists and writers, from Matisse and Braque to Rilke and Gertrude Stein.

Beginning with the restless teenager from Aix who was best friends with Emile Zola at school, Danchev carries us through the trials of a painter tormented by self-doubt, who always remained an outsider, both of society and the bustle of the art world. Cézanne: A life delivers not only the fascinating days and years of the visionary who would ‘astonish Paris with an apple’, with interludes analysing his self-portraits, but also a complete assessment of Cézanne’s ongoing influence through artistic imaginations in our own time. He is, as this life shows, a cultural icon comparable to Monet or Toulouse.

“it repeatedly dazzles……unlikely ever to be surpassed” Frances Spalding, The Independent.

These and other books can be delivered to your villa. Cezanne cultural tours can be organised by L’e Marquis. Visit Cézanne’s workshop and follow in his footsteps.

Caumont Centre d’Art Aix

An elegant 18th century hôtel particulier in Aix’s historic and aristrocratic Mazarin Quarter, the Hôtel de Caumont has been converted into a sumptuous new gallery space under the banner of the Caumont Centre d’Art.

Located close to Cours Mirabeau, visitors will discover two annual exhibitions dedicated to great masters of the past as well as to contemporary artists. A film on Cézanne’s life in Aix screened daily, as well as concerts and lectures will complement the programming of the Hôtel de Caumont that aims at becoming a major cultural centre in Aix: a place where we discover and share art with passion.

But the Caumont Centre d’Art is really much more than an art gallery. The house itself has been stunningly restored: it’s one of very few 18th century hôtels particuliers in town which is open to the public.

And, unusually for a private residence right in the heart of Aix, it has large and lovely formal French gardens on two levels.

There’s an auditorium and several tea rooms decorated in rococo style, which turn in the evenings into a bar, open even after the period rooms and galleries are closed.

These can also be visited separately from the house and gallery rooms, under certain conditions. The plan is to turn the Caumont Centre d’Art into a buzzing social hub. And, just a year after it opened, it has already enhanced Aix’s cultural scene.

The first stone was laid on this site exactly three centuries ago, in 1715, and it was to become one of the largest and most lavish of Aix’s bourgeois houses. Hôtel de Caumont was originally conceived by Robert de Cotte, the chief architect for King Louis XIV, the Sun King.

The tea room and gardens offer a haven of peace in the heart of the Mazarin district.

Ibo Maraca in Provence

Hand painted hats and bags by distinguished artists

Elegant, artistic, and quality craftsmanship – Ibo-Maraca is known for premium handcrafted Panama hats. The intricate hand paintings, the classic silhouette, the quality of a straw – everything is created with the individuality and lifestyles of those who are always looking to wear something unique in mind.

The name of the brand is an anagram of the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo, which is the birthplace of Effie Vakaki, one of Ibo-Maracas founders. Born in Venezuela and raised in Greece, and inspired by her exotic roots and the vibrant spirit of the Mediterranean, Effie set off to create a brand that combines classic with contemporary style. In 2014, Effie and her daughter Christina founded Ibo-Maraca and dedicated themselves to the creation of high quality hats.

The hats are handmade in Ecuador, home of Toquilla straw, which is the primary material used during the production process. Crafted meticulously and with a passion for detail, the hat weaving process can take up to 8 hours. Once woven, each piece is hand-painted by renowned Greek artists, who create unique illustrations. Our signature new hat shape is exclusively designed for Ibo-Maraca, one more unique feature of our brand.

This rare result is a combination of artists’ craftsmanship, along with Effie’s and Christina’s inspiration, which has derived from travelling around the world, collecting beautiful images and memories. This collaboration is what makes an Ibo-Maraca hat a unique piece of art. Elegance and attention to detail are the brand’s essence.

“All of our senses are released through designs in cooperation with our famous painters.”

All purchases of these beautiful hats made through L’e Marquis qualify for BEARMILES.