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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.

Provence Glory

When you’re born here, it’s everything.
Nothing else will do.

Paul Cézanne

From cities to quaint towns and everything in between, Provence has something for everyone. Swim in the crystal clear waters of the Calanque de Sormiou in Marseille. Drive with the top down through fields of lavender in Valensole. Experience a bite of just-out-of-the-oven fougasse, a Provençal classic. Stand in awe of the beautiful, white Camargue horses native to the area. Located in the South of France, Provence is uniquely positioned to be a cultural blend of the Mediterranean. Roman landmarks still prevail from the 1st century AD alongside châteaus from medieval times—a varied legacy brightened by the indigenous mimosas and cypresses.

Perhaps since the region is well-known for its ability to inspire, it’s home to a plethora of festivals such as Rencontre d’Arles, Festival d’Avignon, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and more, all celebrating the arts. Artists who have praised the unique Provençal light include Cézanne, Van Gogh, Matisse and Picasso. Alexandre Dumas and Jean Giono are among the writers who were drawn to write in the shade of the plane trees.

François Simon is a French author and food critic who spent many years writing for Le Figaro. Simon has contributed to GQ, Casa Brutus and Le Monde and writes novels. He previously collaborated with Alain Ducasse on the 2001 Assouline title, The Provence of Alain Ducasse.

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

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.

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.