Miraculously resisting attempts to raze the building, the idea to create a museum that would bridge the artistic gap between the Louvre and the National Museum of Modern Art was not studied until 1974, by order of Président Georges Pompidou. The result was the Musée d'Orsay opening in December 1986 by Président François Mitterrand. There is little I can add to what has been written about this great museum.
Upon exiting the museum turn left, away from the Seine, to rue de l'Université, then turn right. Continue all the way to Esplanade des Invalides. Cross the street and turn left, on your way to the Invalides Métro station. (Invalides is the final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte, among other things.) Walk takes around 10 minutes.
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| Napoleon at rest. |
Since the arrival of humanity, Montmartre has been a place of worship - from the Druids of ancient Gaul, through the Romans, with temples dedicated to Mars and Mercury (found beneath rue la Vieuville), to the Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur, erected at the end of the 19th century by the Knights Templar. But it was the Romans' beheading of Saint Denis (also known as Dionysius), the first Bishop of Paris, atop this very hill, along with untold other Christians executed around 272 C.E., that gave the name Mount of Martyrs (Mont des Martyrs - Montmartre).
Be it the Mount of Mars or of Martyrs, when I visit Montmartre, looking down on Paris from the north, I try to visualize how it used to be in Belle Epoch Paris. When the backside of the butte was still almost rural, dotted with windmills grinding their crop. What it was like before Baron Haussmann leveled so many neighborhoods of the city in order to build his grand boulevards, forcing the displaced to find refuge on the hillside of Montmartre.
Le Métro, in the eyes of the majority of the Parisians, will have hardly any excuse unless it absolutely rejects all industrial character to become entirely a work of art.
Using a system of prefabrication, Guimard developed five types of entrances ranging from the most elementary to the pagoda-like structures that formerly stood at the Bastille and Étoile stations. Built of cast iron, the sinuous design was symbolic of plant life, popular with Art Nouveau designers, and Guimard chose a green patina to reflect this as well. One hundred and forty-one entrances were constructed between 1900 and 1912, of which eighty-six are still in place.
Find avenue de Clichy and walk seven hundred feet and stop at No. 34. Here was the studio of Édouard Manet and I would like to share a story about Édouard and another Impressionist painter, Berthe Morrisot.
Édouard Berthe
Édouard was nine years older and married when he met Berthe while copying paintings at the Louvre in 1867. His wife was Suzanne Leenhoff, a Dutch piano teacher his father had hired. They wed soon after Father died, apparently to protect said father's reputation. It was not a good marriage and Édouard had several liaisons. But he was very protective of his family so even though Édouard and Berthe's friendship became more intimate, there was no hope for them.
Berthe, however, was unable to stay away from him. As friends, they shared an intellectual and artistic kinship. And it didn't help that he began to take an interest in another young art student, Eva Gonzales. Yet, they helped and encouraged each other. They inspired each other's artistic evolution. Once, Édouard complemented Berthe on a painting and then pulled out a brush and began touching it up. She did not object and sent it to le Salon, where it was accepted. One area in which they differed was when Degas, Pissarro and Monet wished to start their own Salon des Indépendentes in 1873, Manet refused to join them. He also advised Berthe to do the same, however, she did not and continued to show with the Impressionists.
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| Berthe Morisot with a bouquet of violets by Édouard Manet, 1972 |
In letters to her mother
and sisters, Berthe confessed strong feelings for Édouard, and the pain she
felt that it could not be more. Mother
feared for her daughter who pined and sometimes did not eat.
Eugène Julie
Édouard then suggested that she marry his brother, Eugène, which she did (at age 33) and gave birth four years later to her only child, Julie. Eugène must have realized Berthe's extreme fondness and probable preference for Édouard. It seems that once they were married, the older Manet stopped painting her. When Édouard died of syphilis (like his father) in 1883, Berthe was devastated:
You understand me, I am destroyed. I will never forget the days of friendship and intimacy spent with him, when I posed for him and his so charming spirit kept me awake for long hours ...
Eugène died in 1892, and then Berthe, while nursing Julie who had pneumonia, fell ill and died suddenly three years after Eugène. An orphan at age 16, Julie was left in the guardianship of Auguste Renoir and the poet Stéphane Mallarmé.
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| Édouard |
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| Victorine |
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At the Cafe (Au Cafe) by Édouard Manet, 1896
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| A Studio at Les Batignolles by Fantin-Latour, 1870 Scholderer, Manet painting, Astruc seated, Renoir, Zola, Maître, Bazille |
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| Zacharie Astruc |
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| Boulevard de Clichy by Vincent Van Gogh, 1887 |
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| Georges |
Georges was a native Parisian, and lived in various parts of the city, but in 1889
his model for the painting Jeune femme se poudrant, Madeleine
Knobloch, moved into
his studio here. They kept it a secret, but when she became
pregnant, they moved to 39 passage de l'Élysée-des-Beaux-Arts (now rue André
Antoine), where she gave birth to their son, Pierre-Georges, on February 16,
1890.
From
the beginning of March 1891, during an outbreak of diptheritic influenza, the hanging committee of the Société des Artistes
Indépendants consisting of Seurat, Maximilien Luce, Paul Signac and Toulouse-Lautrec had
worked feverishly day and night getting it done. When the Salon des Independents opened on
March 20th with 1,250 artworks by 253 exhibitors - it was the largest in their short
history. Nine days later, Seurat was
dead at age 31. It was some kind of respiratory ailment brought on by overwork and poor nutrition. Then his son died two weeks later from something similar.
Now, let's cross over and pick up the boulevard for just one block, then turn left onto avenue Rachel. At the other end is the entrance to Cimetière Montmartre. Grab a map and start exploring.Yesterday I went to Seurat's funeral. I saw Signac who was deeply moved by this great misfortune. I believe you are right, pointillism is finished, but I think it will have consequences which later on will be of the utmost importance for art. - Camille Pissarro to his son.
As part of the solution to a cataclysmic sanitary problem, Montmartre Cemetery was opened on January 1, 1825. It was initially known as Cimetière des Grandes Carrières (Cemetery of the Large Quarries), as it is in an abandoned gypsum (Plaster of Paris) quarry previously the site of a mass grave from the French Revolution.
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| Nijinsky |
The Académie Humbert is where Georges Braque met Marie Laurencin (age 20 in 1903-04). As well as Francis Picabia. Other students included Braque's friends Raoul Dufy and Othon Friesz. There were two sessions per day, but Braque attended only in the mornings, though the students in the evening session included women. Braque was quite the dude. A fashion trend-setter and natty dresser, he stood out among the students in his tweed suits, shiny white collars, heavy black silk cravats, bowler hat, and bamboo cane (pre-Charlie Chaplin).
Georges Braque
Humbert would appear for about a half-hour on Saturdays, deliver some gentle corrections, then disappear. On Tuesdays and Thursdays Albert Walker and Francois Thevenot were in charge. Live models of all ages wandered about completely unclothed. Classes were a melee, more or less creative. The students worked for forty-five minutes and rested for fifteen. The annual rate was 320 francs for all-day sessions.
Georges LePape (above) was in that class as well. Georges liked Marie (nicknamed her 'Coco,') whom he found fascinating.
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| Georges and his work. |
Coco is bubbly, witty, ironic, caustic, discriminating, unpredictable and charming…We begged her to show us some other studies. For all the chatter, no feather-brain.
And she and Braque kept company together.
I've been grumpy and disagreeable for four days. Braque thinks I'm a lesbian…I would have loved to run my hand over his skin - the skin of this throat.
But they did not sleep together. As far as I know.
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| Marie |
And though he retired to Nice in his old age, Chéret was buried in the Cimetière Saint-Vincent in Montmartre. The original Moulin Rouge, by the way, burned down in 1915.
Keep walking for another half-block and we will find Le Chat Noir at No. 68. This is the third and ultimate home of the old cabaret which originally opened around the corner at 84 boulevard Rouchechouart. It was opened on November 18, 1881 by the impresario Rodolphe Salis, and closed in 1897, not long after Salis' death. This place was much-esteemed for its excellent (and surprising) entertainments.
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| L'Apotheose de chats by Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen, 1884 |
Vincent Van Gogh's first exhibition of Art did not take place in an art gallery. Like so many of today's struggling artists, he hung his work on the walls of a café. In this case, The Café Tambourin. The owner was one Agostina Segatori, who came to Paris from Ancona, Italy. She also did a bit of posing for Manet (The Italian), Corot (The Picture of Agostina and Bacchante with Tambourines), Delacroix, and her lover, Edward Dantan. Toulouse-Lautrec created this portrait of Vincent at the café.
Turn around now, and take a right onto Coustou. Follow it to the other end, just two blocks, then turn right on rue Lepic. Follow Lepic, turning left on rue Constance, and proceed to the other end in search of No. 10. Famous as one of France's leading historical painters, Fernand Corman was well accepted by the All-Powerful Société des Artistes Français, which controlled the official Salon.
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| Toulouse-Lautrec, front left |
Turn right and walk up the hill on what is also rue Constance to the end, a quick right/left and we are back on rue Lepic. Much of this street is not all that picturesque, but it does pass Vincent van Gogh's House at Number 54, where he and brother Theo lived in 1886 and 1887.
As you may know, I am living with my brother Vincent, who is studying painting with indefatigable diligence. Since he needs quite a lot of space for his work, we are living in quite a large apartment in Montmartre which, as you know, is a suburb of Paris built up against a hill. The remarkable thing about our flat is that from the windows we have a magnificent view across the city with the hills of Meudon, St. Cloud etc. on the horizon, and a piece of sky above it that is almost as big as when one stands on the dunes. With the different effects created by the variations in the sky it is a subject for I don’t know how many paintings.
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| View of Paris from Vincent's Room in the Rue Lepic, 1887 |
He has painted a couple of portraits that turned out well, but he always does it for nothing. It’s a shame that he doesn’t have any desire to start earning, because if he wanted to he could do it here; but one can’t change a person.The next left is rue Tourlaque which leads to Toulouse-Lautrec’s studio, on the corner with rue Caulaincourt (27, now 21). Vincent often went to weekly artists’ gatherings Toulouse-Lautrec held at his home. Suzanne Valadon, model and soon-to-be-artist, as well as Toulouse-Lautrec’s lover, recalled:
I remember that Van Gogh came to our weekly meetings at Lautrec's. He arrived with a heavy cloth under his arm, put it in a corner, but well in the light, and waited until we gave him some attention. Nobody noticed it. He sat down in front of us, gauging the gaze, hardly participating in the conversation. Then he got tired of it and left with his newest work. But the following week he came back and started the whole ritual from the beginning.
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| Toulouse-Lautrec |
Though little is known about the friendship between Vincent and Toulouse-Lautrec, they must have worked together intensively in the early months of 1887. In July 1890, when Vincent was living in Auvers-sur-Oise and paid a visit to his brother in Paris (at 8 Cite Pigalle, where he moved after marrying Jo Bonger), Toulouse-Lautrec came to see him, and they had a good time together. After Vincent's death, Toulouse-Lautrec wrote to Theo that Vincent had been a good friend of his.
Daughter Cecile Éluard recalled:
The simplest thing to do now, is retrace our steps on Tourlaque, all the way to Lepic. Turn left on Lepic and follow as it bends right to the Moulin de la Galette at the corner of rue Girardon. Immortalized by artists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Kees van Dongen and Maurice Utrillo, Moulin de la Galette has a much richer history in Art than the Moulin Rouge. It is now a nice-looking restaurant.Ernst had painted on the walls of almost every room of our house. There was a duck on wheels just above my bed. In a dining room corner, Ernst had painted a big naked woman, whose body was sliced off. You could see her innards. That terrified me. There was also a red room in which another naked woman clasped her enormous breast. That frightened me beyond belief.
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| by Vincent |
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| by Toulouse-Lautrec |
We'll follow Junot around to No. 39, the former Hotel Alsina, where chanteuse Edith Piaf had a room and regularly received her lover, Yves Montand. Continue on Junot until we see a park on the left, and then turn left. Directly in front of you at No. 73 rue Caulaincourt was the home of Théophile Steinlen, well-known to all the Montmartre cats. Steinlen died here in 1923 and there is a large memorial to him across the street in the Square Joel Le Tac, and he is buried in nearby Cimetière Saint-Vincent.
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| Auguste |
The sculpture is by Jean Marais in 1989. Keep going on Girardon back to rue Lepic, take a left and climb to No. 108.
One of Amadeo Modigliani's last portraits was of a Swede named Thora Klinkowström. She was another in a string of women who posed for Modi and exposed themselves to his tuberculosis, his abuse, and his contempt.
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| Thora |
Thora had studied sculpture in Stockholm and Copenhagen, so
when her brother Harald, who was painting in Paris, convinced their parents that
it would be a good idea for her to come, she did not hesitate. She was to enroll in the Académie de la Grande
Chaumier with Antoine Bourdelle. Thora sailed in the fall of 1919 from
Göteberg, Sweden with friend, Astri Bergman (also a sculptor).
On board, she met fellow artist Nils Dardel, who was her guide in Paris.
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| Nils |
Upon arrival, thanks to Nils, she was thrust into the
artistic life of Montparnasse. When
meeting Thora for the first time, Modigliani asked Nils for his permission to
paint her. Thora agreed, in spite of the
misunderstanding, and went to his studio the next day. "He painted fast and drank a little from
a bottle of rum, 'against the cough' he said, and he really did cough a
lot."
Modi's girlfriend Jeanne Hébuterne
was seven months pregnant at the time and gaped at Thora suspiciously. When later Modi drew her friend, Amie Bjarme,
Thora went as chaperone. "There was
a knock on the door and Modigliani went to open it. I heard him say in French, 'It's good that
you arrived, your fiancée is here.'"
Thora was confused when she saw that there were two men, one she did not
know and the other was Nils. "I
tried in vain to tell Modigliani that I was not engaged to him."
Nils had been in Paris since 1910. Previously, he had studied at the Academy
of Arts in Stockholm and belonged to a group of Swedish painters, Der
Atta, led by Isaac Grünewald. But
now he was part of the Bohemian circle of Paris.
One spring, Wilhelm Uhde took Nils to Senlis, four miles from Paris,
where he discovered the naïve artist Séraphine Louis. She did the cleaning at Hôtel du
Nord, where they stayed. Self-taught,
faith-inspired, and a little eccentric, Séraphine's renderings were often taken
as holy messages. After Uhde 'discovered' her, he sent support until he had to leave France during
WWI.
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| Séraphine |
... I am out in the country and have started painting today. Hellström is here and then a little girl from Norrland who is like a guy and spits and drinks absinthe without sugar and water, wearing clothes and hat and has learned Hellström swear. She writes short stories and tells a lot of fun stories, so we are double of laughter.
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| Ulla |
I am fascinated by Nils' natural and experienced ways, that soon turns to charming compassion. Next to Gustaf, he seems strangely juvenile, a bit childish and gossipy. And to my delight, he is both funny and witty. We laugh a lot, until we have tears in our eyes.
It's not worth even thinking that after a single night I am head-over-heels in love with him. How is this possible?
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| Ulla |
Nils
divided his time between Paris and Senlis and during his stay in the capital he
wrote long letters to Ulla, who was still in Senlis. So was Gustaf, who
pushed his advantage in Nils' absence. A
jealous Nils wrote to Ulla:
I do not want you to marry Gustaf.
I feel terrible about Gustaf and you, Ulla my love.
I know how Gustaf is when he's with a woman,
Ulla, I want you to be saved from all that makes you sad ...
But Nils was
often confused. Because the next thing
he did was take off with Rolf de Maré and travel the world while avoiding the War. Briefly, Rolf, the son of a diplomat and an
artist, met Nils in 1912 and they soon discovered that they had much in
common: they were the same age, both
were Swedish, grew up in similar environments, had tuberculosis, and were
homosexuals. Rolf was introduced to the
artists' circles in Paris and he bought Nils' paintings as well as those from others
in the group.
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| Rolf |
When Nils and Rolf went to Japan in 1917, Rolf returned to
Sweden after one month. Nils stayed on and became secretly engaged to Nita
Wallenberg, the daughter of the Swedish minister in Tokyo. Back
in Stockholm, however, her father forbade his daughter's association with an 'ignorant
artist.'
When the War ended, Nils and Rolf returned to Paris. Rolf founded the Ballets Suédois, a modern ballet company invoking Swedish themes, that was inspired by Diaghilev's Ballet Russe. Nils, naturally, did the sets, while he got closer to Thora Klinkowström.
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| Nils and Thora |
One of the guests at rue Lepic was the novelist Raymond Radiguet. He stayed for six months, and then published his first novel in March of 1923, Le Diable au Corps (The Devil in the Flesh). In it, Svea, a married woman, seduces a teenage boy. Thora was obviously the model for Svea and Raymond was nineteen when he stayed with them. Nils denied Thora had an affair with Raymond, and insisted that she file a libel suit against him. Thora refused and returned to Sweden in 1932. They were divorced two years later.
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| Isidre Nonell |
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| Germaine |
Keep going one more block on rue des Saules until you reach Au Lapin Agile at No. 22. Originally opened as a tavern around 1860 with a variety of names on the sign and a rough-and-tumble clientele, this legendary cabaret was bought in the early twentieth century by the cabaret singer, comedian, and nightclub owner Aristide Bruant to save it from demolition.
Bruant, in turn, handed it over to Frédéric Gérard, an eccentric, kind-hearted musician and potter who understood the area well. He drove out the riff-raff and welcomed Montmartre’s artists, often taking paintings in exchange for drinks. In 1872, the artist André Gill painted a new sign, showing a cheerful rabbit jumping out of a saucepan. “Le Lapin à Gill” (Gill’s Rabbit) became “Agile” (agile or nimble, as the rabbit appears) and the name stuck.
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| Frédé on guitar |
Lolo was a favorite in the neighborhood, often invited to parties and feted by one and all. Roland Dorgelès was a writer and outspoken critic of the new art forms. So, as a joke, he tied a paintbrush to Lolo’s tail, then held various vegetables in front of his nose, causing the little donkey to swish his tail excitedly.
Double back on rue des Saules to rue Cortot, then turn left (just after Maison Rose) and go to No. 12, the Musée de Montmartre. Inside the courtyard you will find the gardens painted by Auguste Renoir when he lived on Cortot in 1875-76.
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Jardin de la rue Cortot by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1876 |
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| inside |
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| Tightrope Walker by Berthe Morisot, 1886 |
Degas said: "My girl, it’s done! You are one of us!”
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| Casting of the Net by Suzanne Valadon, 1914 |
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| Le theatre du chat noir by Maurice Neumont, 1895 |
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| Suzanne, Maurice, and André |
When you are finished with the museum, exit and turn left on rue Cortot (at the next right-bend Cortot becomes Mont-Cenis), continue to rue Norvins. On your left is the Basilica de Sacré Coeur. Built in 1870 by the Knights Templar, it is a very beautiful church.
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| The funicular has been updated. |
Double back to rue Norvins and find the place du Tertre. This is where all the present-day artists do portraits for tourists.
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| Can-Can by Louis Icart, c 1933 |
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| Pablo |
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| Max |
Yesterday afternoon the atmosphere was really oppressive before the storm. The sky was black, and when the clouds suddenly broke we had to rush for shelter. The Spanish painter had a little kitten in his arms which he held out to me, laughing and preventing me from going past. I laughed with him. He seemed to give off a radiance, an inner fire, and I couldn't resist this magnetism. I went with him to his studio, which is full of large unfinished canvases-he must work so hard, but what a mess!
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| Fernande |
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| Pablo and André |
Their mission was to liberate order and bring order to liberation. Among their friends and foes, they became a creative force to contend with – a gang of movers and shakers, pranksters, and dedicated disrupters, destined to be the voices of their generation.
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| Guillaume at Pablo's studio. Hey, what's in that pipe? |
Fernande said that Picasso smoked opium two or three times a week between the summers of 1904 and 1908. Rather than go out, he purchased his own equipment and invited others over to le Bateau Lavoir for a smoke. It was in 1907 that Picasso completed Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, the painting that launched Cubism.
At this point the street name becomes rue Ravigne and at No. 13, we find the aforementioned Le Bateau Lavoir, homes and studios of Pablo, Max, André, Juan Gris, Kees Van Dongen, and a of list thirty-three artists and writers who called it home, on both sides of the turn of the century. Damaged by fire, only a portion of the original façade remains.
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| around 1900 |
Henri
There are people who go through life as if they were special guests on earth; and then there are those whose joy it is to give, rather than receive. These latter are few and far between. One of them was Henri Rousseau. Wilhelm Uhde
They were doing it to make fun of the old guy. I admire the man. Robert Delaunay, who had been invited, but refused to go.While the event did, in fact, take place, there are a few strange things about that night which I would like to address. For example, the commonly believed purpose for the event was Picasso's purchase of a painting of Rousseau's from "Sagot's Junk Shop." Not so. The reason for the affair was this: One day, Leo Stein (Gertrude's brother) was visiting with Fernande Olivier at le Bateau, when Henri Rousseau stopped by to rest. You see, although he received a minuscule pension from his career as a clerk, he had to give violin lessons for his bare necessities. Trudging about on the hillside of Montmartre is enough to make even a young man tire. But this is the first time Stein met Rousseau, who had been quite eager to meet the American because he not only had a degree from Harvard University, but also had his paintings accepted for the Salon.
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| Leo |
But Pablo thought it would be a great joke to roast Rousseau and so invited many of his friends to come to le Bateau for a party. After all, hadn't they been playing cruel tricks on him from the beginning? Misdeeds like replacing the old man's heart medicine with plain powder. Or telling him that he had won a great award when it was Theodore Rousseau who received the honor. But no one said a word when he went to the Grand Palais to claim his prize. Or how even the nickname 'Douanier,' which means 'Customs,' was a joke since he did not work for the Customs service at all.
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| Homage to Rousseau by Manuel Blasco Alarcîn, 1908 |
And while the specifics vary, it was discovered that Picasso told the caterer Felix Potin the wrong date, so there was no food. And so, depending on whose story, either Pablo and his crew, or Gertrude and Alice went out and bought tins of sardines, cream pies, and more, to save the day. Another constant is Fernande's announcement that she made 'a large riz Valenciennes.' Tricky without cooking facilities available.
First, I would have to ask where the money to hire a caterer came from? These are dirt poor artists, living in squalor. As much as they claim to want to honor the old man, this does not seem likely. Nor does the ensuing foraging for food.
Further claims that the evening began at the Lapin Agile,with Marie Laurencin getting drunk, make it difficult for the artists to round up provisions, so it must have been Gertrude. She, at least, had the money with which to buy said food. These artists were notorious for exchanging drawings for a meal, or just not paying at all.
André Salmon stood on a bench and assumed the duties of master of ceremonies.
We are gathered to celebrate
your fame
And so let us drink the wine
Picasso is pouring
To honor you, for it is time
to drink it
Crying all in chorus, 'Long live!
Long live Rousseau.'
Everyone began to chant, Long Live Rousseau.
Do you recall, Rousseau, the
land of the Aztecs
the forests where mango and
pineapple grow?
Where monkeys spill red blood
of the pastecos
and the fair-haired Emperor
was harried and slain?
Your painting captures what
you saw in Mexico-
Red sun and green banana
leaves
Hereafter the brave soldier's
uniform, Rousseau's
You changed for the Douanier's
upright blue.
More speeches were made and Rousseau began to play his violin, as he had promised Stein. At some point our illustrious emcee placed a piece of soap in his mouth until it foamed, so he could go all crazy having spasms in an attempt to convince the Americans that he was having the DTs. Very classy.
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| Alice B. |
Lastly, I would like to ask who really believes that Rousseau ever said to Pablo, as is consistently reported?
You and I, sir, are the two greatest painters of our time. You in the Egyptian style, and I in the Modern.And then the statement is repeatedly quoted verbatim? Really, André? Perhaps it was the opium talking.
From here we will begin to retrace the steps of Gertrude Stein who claimed she made more than 90 trips on foot from her apartments on the Left Bank (27 rue de Fleurus) to Picasso's studio at le Bateau while he painted her portrait. It could take about one hour, but that is if you choose the shortest route and didn't dawdle. We will be going down the hill, which is good, but it is very difficult not to stray down some side street or passageway. But that's really okay.
Start by walking through place Emile-Goudeau and find a set of stairs going down to the street. Cross over and continue on rue Ravignan. On the right, at No. 7, was the abode of Max Jacob, whom we know was one of Pablo's cronies. It looks nice now, but I have read some harrowing tales of the conditions in which Max lived. And then he died on the way to the extermination camp at Treblinka. When you get near the end of the street, turn around and look.
We will now jog to the right, then left and continue down rue Germain Pilon to boulevard de Clichy. Turn left. On the corner at No. 36, was home of Honoré Daumier, the caricaturist, painter, lithographer and sculptor, from 1869 to 1873.
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| Honoré |
No. 36 was the studio of Jules Pascin: The Prince of Montparnasse. Yes, I did say Montparnasse, though I cannot say why he chose to stay in Montmartre when the action had shifted south. But be it at le Dôme or one of the other Montparnasse cafes, Pascin was always Mr. Popularity. Among his circle of Parisian friends was Ernest Hemingway, whose memoir A Moveable Feast includes a chapter titled With Pascin At the Dôme.
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| Jules |
But Pascin struggled with depression and alcoholism. It was here that he committed suicide one evening in June 1930. He cut his veins and wrote with his blood "Adieu Lucy" (Krohg, his mistress). Then he tried to hang himself but fell on the floor and broke his neck instead.
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| Jules' models, Paquita and Ceasarine |
Go to the next corner and turn right onto rue des Martyrs. We will be on this for a little over a half-mile. As we proceed, I would like to point out rue de Alfred Stevens (with a fountain at the end), named for a highly-respected Belgian artist. Two blocks later we come to rue Victor Massé on the right. You may remember that Theo van Gogh had a tiny apartment here when it was called rue Laval. But there's more here, so let's take a little side trip.
12 Site of the second le Chat Noir
13 Old studio of Degas
25 Berthe Weill had her first gallery here. Same address as Theo's apartment.When Berthe Weill opened her gallery on December 1, 1901, she not only became Paris' first woman art dealer, but she had the only gallery specializing in the work of the young artists. She was the first to buy and sell Picasso's and Matisse's output, and gave many artists their first show. And while I would normally rather not just list the artists, in this case it is justified as she launched the major artists of the twentieth century, including Raoul Dufy, André Derain, Maurice deVlaminck, Diego Rivera, Georges Braque, Kees van Dongen, Maurice Utrillo, and several women painters like Suzanne Valadon, Émilie Charmy, Marie Laurencin, Jacqueline Marval, and Valentine Prax.
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| Berthe Weill and her painters (Chagall, Vlaminck, Braque, Picasso and Léger) by César Abin |
Back on rue Victor Masse,
29 Maurice Ravel and family lived here from 1880-1886
32 Edvard Munch stayed here in 1885, but we'll talk about him later.
37 Degas lived here for twenty-two years, 1890-1912, third & fourth floors. Now demolishedBack at Martyrs, go two more blocks to rue de Clauzel, where Père Tanguy had his shop at No. 14. One of the area's more colorful characters, Julien Tanguy, also known as Père, sold supplies to artists. That included canvas (that he stretched), paints (that he ground), brushes, and other materials, as needed. In addition, he hung the Art of the young painters who hung around his shop: Paul Cezanne, as well as Van Gogh, Pissarro, Gauguin, Renoir, Monet, Manet and others. Sometimes he bought or traded for paintings, selling them for little profit and only just making a living himself. Claude Monet explained:
This is where we began, each of us, to exhibit our paintings. On Monday, Sisley, Tuesday, Renoir, Wednesday, Pissarro, me on Thursday, Friday, Bazille, and Saturday Jongkind (Johan). This is how everyone in turn spent a day in the shop of Father Tanguy.Vincent painted Julien Tanguy three times. The first retaining much of how he painted The Potato Eaters. But as he was being exposed to new uses of paint, brush, color, and light, he painted him again, and again. Père chose to keep the first painting for himself. Upon hearing of Vincent's death, Tanguy exclaimed: "Ah! Poor Vincent! What a misfortune, Monsieur Mirbeau! (the reporter), what a great misfortune! Such a genius! And so good boy!"
Tanguy died in 1894, and following his death, his daughter sold the second Portrait of Père Tanguy to sculptor Auguste Rodin, which remains at the Musée Rodin.
Keep going on Martyrs until you run into the backside of Notre Dame de Lorette. George Bizet and Claude Monet were both baptized here. Turn and look down rue Saint-Lazare. No reason to walk out of our way, but I wanted to let you know that Edgar Degas was born there, a long block away at No. 8 rue Saint-Georges. So far today, we have seen where he is buried, where he died, where he lived, and now, where he was born. But think about all the places his Art has gone. Rue Degas, in the 16th arrondissement, is named for him.
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| Edgar |
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| Gustave |
Moreau was a Symbolist painter whose emphasis was the illustration of biblical and mythological figures. Oedipus and the Sphinx, one of his first Symbolist paintings, was exhibited at le Salon of 1864, which earned him a reputation for eccentricity. One critic said his work was "like a pastiche of Mantegna created by a German student who relaxes from his painting by reading Schopenhauer." That painting currently resides in the permanent collection of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Moreau became a professor at Paris' École des Beaux-Arts where among his students were fauvist painters Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault.
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| Musée national Gustave Moreau |
47 The painter Louise Abbéma (1858-1927) had her studio at this address from 1883 to 1908. While she exhibited regularly at le Salon, was decorated with the Legion of Honor, and was part of the French delegation to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, she is remembered mostly for the portrait she did of her lover, Sarah Bernhardt. Bernhardt herself actually carved a bust of Louise, which is now in the Orsay.
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| Louise |
Sarah by Louise Louise by Sarah
46 Clovis Sagot established his art gallery here in the early years of the twentieth century. He called it, Galerie du Vingtieme Siecle. Apparently, Clovis got all the training he needed as a clown in the Médrano Circus before buying an old pharmacy in 1906, and becoming an art dealer. It was at Sagot's that Marie Laurencin met Picasso in 1907, who, in turn, introduced her to Apollinaire a few days later. This was also the site of Berthe Weill's gallery from 1920-1937.
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| Clovis |
45 Claude Monet was born here in 1840. (Not sure if anything to see.)
39 Ambroise Vollard needed more gallery space, so moved here in April 1895. The inaugural exhibition was dedicated to Vincent van Gogh. The next to Paul Cézanne. (Nothing to see.)
37 Ambroise Vollard opened his first gallery here in September 1893, and the first exhibition was devoted to Manet's drawings and sketches.
36 The Fouquet house - confectionery, chocolate factory and delicatessen whose origins date back to 1852. (I had to leave the chocolate place in.)From here on everything has been rebuilt so none of these addresses are what they were. Further directions to follow.
20/22 Hotel Byron where Victor Hugo resided in the autumn of 1871 while waiting for his apartment at 66 rue de la Rochefoucauld to be ready.
20 Lucien Moline, art dealer, opened a gallery here in 1895, and for a while had the attention of the Neo-Impressionists. One of his first shows was an homage to Seurat (Feb-March) that included twenty-four paintings and thirteen drawings, along with work of other artists. That same year, Theo Van Gogh's widow, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, sold Vincent's The Cypress along with six other paintings to Moline for three hundred, eighty-four florins.
16 Art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel opened his gallery here in 1867.
12 Art dealer Alexis Febure lived here around 1880.
11 Composer Jacques Offenbach resided here from 1859 to 1876.
10 In 1848, Louis Adolphe Beugniet opened a gallery of art and restoration.
8 Alexandre Bernheim-Jeune had his first Galerie Bernheim-Jeune here in 1863 until 1906, when he moved to No. 25 boulevard de la Madeleine (pictured below). His specialty was painters from the Barbizon School (Millet, Daubigny).
boulevard de la Madeleine location
6 In May 1896, Ambroise Vollard opened a gallery at the corner of boulevard des Italiens. He also rented a room at Number 2 and 4 on the same street to store the very important stock he owned. He remained there until 1918, and during that time organized sixty-two exhibitions for artists from Cézanne to Picasso, through le Nabis and les Fauves.
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| Paul, 1906 |
The famous art dealership of Goupil & Cie established was on boulevard Montmartre in 1850, first at Nos. 12 and 15, then here at 19, though Adolph Goupil had been in business in other locations previously. He concentrated on buying, selling and editing prints, until 1861,when he expanded into selling paintings as well.
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| Adolphe |
But our story begins a few decades earlier in The Netherlands where Vincent van Gogh opened his art business in 1840. No, not that Vincent. It was his 'Uncle Cent,' who began with shop in The Hague, selling supplies and the work of contemporary Dutch painters. In 1846 he began doing business with Adolphe Goupil and in 1858 moved to Paris, where he was invited to be a partner.
On July 3, 1869, nephew Vincent began working at The Hague as G&C's youngest clerk. He was responsible for packing and shipping photographs and etchings. Uncle Cent retired in 1872, while retaining his interest in the business. In 1873, Vincent was transferred to London, and younger brother Theo began working at The Hague branch. After a temporary assignment to Paris, Vincent was fired at the start of 1876. Theo, however, transferred to Paris in 1884, eventually managed the gallery here at No. 19, and become a very important and influential dealer. And I do not know anything about 'Cie.'
Walk back on boulevard Montrmartre and enter the Passage des Panoramas (opposite Jouffroy).
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| Looks like gawking to me. |
Success led to opening additional studios until a total of seventeen locations were established, seven of which were devoted to women. Philadelphian Cecilia Beaux quickly learned that some locations had better students than others and discovered that the Russian Marie Bashkirtseff was at the Passsage des Panoramas. Beaux looked forward to competing with her more accomplished peers, but she also found it too frustrating to try to paint without enough elbow room.
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| Cecilia by herself, 1894 |
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| Marie |
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| In The Studio by Marie Bashkirtseff, 1881 |
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| Louise, self-portrait |
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| Kamilah Gibran, Kahlil's Mother |
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| The Bourse |
Soon after, on your left at 61-59, is the entrance to the Galerie Vivienne. If the weather is nice, you might want to stay outside, otherwise, duck inside. As you stroll through the arcade, you will notice Passage Colbert on the right. You can go that way, but I think it is nicer if you continue on Vivienne which turns right paralleling both Passage Colbert and rue Vivienne. When you get to the other end of either passage, cross rue des Petits Champs, turn right and then left onto rue Vivienne. One short block and you are at rue de Beaujolais. Across the street on the left is No. 7. This was the residence of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, best known by her last name only. And while not a visual artist, her apartment is right there and she was quite a lady.
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| Colette with Toby |
Beginning as a topless artist's model, Colette believed she had two complimentary gifts, "one on the stage and the other on the page." Exhibitionism was not only an attitude for Colette, it was her manifest destiny; breaking barriers by baring her body for all of Paris. Then she used her pen to describe and defend her actions.
The Chair was a melodramatic tale involving a cuckolded husband, a beautiful wife, and a dashing young officer. When the husband discovered her infidelity, he lunged with his knife to kill her, but instead tore her dress. In rehearsal, however, the director wanted more. "It's not naked enough," he demanded.
"What do you want?" asks Colette.
"Let out a breast," he replied. So, when the husband lunged, thereby exposing her boob, the audience went wild. One exuberant Belgian critic described the "admirable gesture, this violent ripping of the tunic that lets gush out the tasty fruit of the bosom." Others were more direct: "When one knows her breasts, one adores them." This marked the first time a female bosom was exposed on stage.
And here is just one more story I would like to share. You see, Colette had an affair with a well-known French aristocrat named Mathilde de Morny, known as the Marquise de Morny, niece of the emperor, and ex-wife of the Marquis de Belbeuf, but called 'Missy' by some and 'Uncle Max' by others. When the two first met, Mathilde was dressed like a man with boots, cane, and top hat. She fell for Colette and they were lovers for six years. They also appeared onstage together at the Moulin Rouge on January 3, 1907 in another pantomime.
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| Colette as "mummy" |
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| Colette and Missy |
It's time to cross the street and enter the Palais-Royal. This passage dates from 1784. In 1807, it was described this way:
This passage, which is not eight feet wide, contains twelve small shops; booksellers, fashion traders, buns and cakes store, fixed price haberdashery, scraper artists, etc.It's a bit more upscale now. Once the palace of the infamous Cardinal Richelieu, completed in 1639, this building has seen much more history than I can relate here. Today, the Palais-Royal houses the Conseil d'État, the Constitutional Council, and the Ministry of Culture.
Enjoy a stroll through the jardin, but if it's raining, take an arcade on either side. When you get to the other end, turn right and head for the exit, left on Galerie de Montpensier.
Once outside, make a quick left-right onto Galerie du Chartre and go to the end, then right on rue de Saint-Honore. On our right is the place Colette Métro entrance, Le Kiosque des noctambules designed by Jean-Michel Othoniel in 2000.
On the left is le Louvre. Not a place for Modern Art, but this is where so many artists came to learn by copying the Masters. My favorite item there is the Code of Hammurabi.
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| Art Students and Copyists in the Louvre gallery by Winslow Homer, 1868 |
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| Guillaume |
On our right are Les Jardins des Tuileries, created by Catherine de Medici in 1564, and painted by many artists, such as Manet and Pissarro. There are literally tons of sculptures throughout the garden, including twenty-one by Maillol. But save this for later.
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| La Musique aux Tuileries by Édouard Manet, 1862 |
Go straight around the Carrousel and over the Seine. Notre Dame Cathedral (and the more beautiful Saint-Chapelle) will be on your left. On the othe side is the Left Bank.
END OF PART ONE