Villa Domergue
Émile Molinié and Charles Nicod · Cannes, France · 1929
Villa Domergue is a distinctive artist’s villa in the hills above Cannes, designed and built for the painter Jean-Gabriel Domergue and his wife Odette Maugendre-Domergue. Completed in 1929, the villa, formerly known as Villa Fiesole, draws inspiration from Venetian and Florentine models rather than the modernist vocabulary that was emerging elsewhere on the Riviera. Its architectural interest comes from the unity between house, studio, gardens, terraces, and scenographic views. Domergue conceived the estate as a complete artistic environment, with architecture, interiors, lighting, garden composition, and decorative details supporting a cultivated Mediterranean lifestyle. The villa later became owned by the City of Cannes and is used for cultural events, exhibitions, and seasonal programming. For visitors, it offers a different side of Cannes: not the public glamour of the Croisette, but a hillside world of art, landscape, historicist imagination, and carefully framed views. It is especially useful for understanding the Riviera villa as both residence and self-portrait.