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Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec in Place Pigalle Neighborhood

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Posted by in Artist's Studios, Artists in Paris, Artists' Graves, Paris

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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec shifted his attention to the Moulin Rouge, 82 Boulevard de Clichy, when the can‑can dancers became all the rage in the 1890s. Dozens of dancers still kick their booties to the rafters on the Moulin Rouge stage, the “greatest cabaret in the world.”

Steps away, rue Frochot, which runs between Place Pigalle and rue Victor Masse,  was home to the Dihau family at number 6.  Monsieur Désiré Dihau, the family patriarch, was a cousin of Toulouse-Lautrec.  The artist designed and illustrated the covers of published new songs by Désiré Dihau, who was a bassoonist with the Paris Opera

Side view of a man in dark 19th c. top hat and coat, seated in a garden, reading a newspaper.

Désiré Dihau. painted by H. de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Orchestra. Toulouse-Lautrec painted his portrait at least twice.  Edgar Degas also painted M. Dihau.

Toulouse-Lautrec was a frequent visitor their third floor flat at number 6, rue Frochot, a small cream-colored building, now with a theater at street level.

Toulouse-Lautrec’s last art studio was at number 15 ave. Frochot,  a private tree-shaded cul-de-sac that takes its name from rue Frochat which is nearly parallel.  Elaborate locked wrought iron and stained glass doors secure this enticing street with an artistic history.

Ave Frochot Paris

Iron gates to private street in Paris.

Gate to ave. Frochot, Paris 9eme.

Famous residents of the gated street (or its more travelled namesake – sources are difficult to verify)  include Alexandre Dumas (père) and Apollonie Aglaé Sabatier, a friend of the poet Baudelaire.  Victor Masse, the composer, died at number 1 ave. Frochot, which is partly visible from outside the secured gates.

 

Artists knocked on the door of the third and fourth floor studio-museum-apartment duplex at 37, rue Victor Masse just off ave. Trudaine. They sought the advice and approval of the master.  His friends, the painters Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, visited to discuss their evolving styles and exploration into other genres.  Degas also regularly spent time with the Manet-Morisot family in Passy, then a suburb of Paris, now the 16th arrondissement.

Degas moved to number 6, Blvd. de Clichy, where he died September 26, 1917 at the age of 83.  A short film of Edgar Degas walking in Paris in 1914 is available on YouTube.

Degas is buried in Montmartre Cemetery, (20, ave. Rachel or walk down the steps from rue Caulaincourt) in Division 4 along ave. Montebello, one of several streets inside the Cemetery.

François Truffaut grave stone in Montmartre Cemetery.

François Truffaut grave stone in Montmartre Cemetery.

 

Company there includes Zola, Berlioz, Offenbach, Heinrich Heine, the artist Fragonard and 20th c. film director Francois Truffaut.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec died at the Chateau de Malromé
in the Gironde on September 9, 1901 at the age of 36. He was buried about 2 kilometers from the Chateau in the cemetery at Verdelais.
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A Walk in Montparnasse

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Posted by in Artist's Studios, Artists in Paris, Artists' Graves, Hotels in Paris, Nightclubs and bars in Paris, Paris, Restaurants in Paris, Study Art in France, Writers in France

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Walking Around Montparnasse, Paris

The name was a bit of a joke, a sly reference to Mont Parnassas, the highest point near Delphi, mythic seat of the god Apollo and the Muses, inspiration of poetry and song.  The topography south of the Seine is considerably flatter than Delphi, but the high-minded notion matched the aspirations of the writers and painters who scrambled to Paris to follow their muse.

It wasn’t until the 20th century that Montparnasse suffered the contractions and upheavals that changed parts of the right bank so radically during the 19th century.  When the boulevard construction directed by Baron  Haussmann churned neighborhoods on the right bank, Montparnasse was too sleepy to be included in the revamping.  The hidden neighborhoods, rustic stables and factory lofts offered quarters an artist could afford well into the 1960’s.  But then, the post World War II boom claimed low-rise blocks for office towers, shopping centers and transportation hubs, a process that accelerated during the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Some of the artists’ hideaways in Montparnasse still exist, despite construction of office towers, roads and apartment complexes.  Recently, a friend and I discovered an impasse off Ave. du Maine, one of those dead-end alleys lined with artists’ studios and galleries.  We were in search of a photo exhibition announced in ‘Time Out Paris,’ but the show was still being hung and not yet open to the public.  Instead, we prowled along the passageway, peeking into vacant studios, eyeing the one used by a floral arranging business and wondering what type of social pull it took to rent one of these historic spots. Surely, we realized, this was the same artists’ courtyard at 21, Ave. du Maine where Marie Vassilieff opened her studio as a canteen for artists in 1915.  Vassilieff served soup, dinners, fellowship and a helping hand during the terrible war years.

La Ruche, Artists' Studios. Montparnasse, Paris

La Ruche, Artists’ Studios. Montparnasse, Paris

Another remnant still standing is the curious building called La Ruche.  An early artists’ collective, La Ruche, (‘the Hive’) hides in the rue de Dantzig  (Metro: Convention, 15th arr.) a studio-refuge for artists and artisans.  The space was inaugurated in 1902 by Alfred Boucher who had salvaged small round wooden structures made by Gustave Eiffel for the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition. The recycled wooden buildings were remade into miniscule studios stacked on top of each other.

Art Academies and Immigrants

Montparnasse was a neighborhood for art students, dealers and shops selling pigments and other supplies for the students enrolled in nearby art academies.  Henri Matisse opened an art academy in 1908 at 33 Blvd. des Invalides.  Matisse was a busy teacher, impresario and artists during those years.

The Colarossi School, established in the 1870’s, took over the Academy Suisse and moved to the courtyard of 10 rue de la Grande Chaumiere.  The Academy Julian differed from other art academies: women were admitted to the school and permitted to draw nude males in life study studio classes.

In the Studio. Academy Julian, Paris. by Marie Bashkirtseff, 1881.

In the Studio. Academy Julian, Paris. by Marie Bashkirtseff, 1881.

During the years of revolution, hardship and war, Paris provided the flame of salvation for Europe’s refugees.  As the city of light and reason, the city drew immigrants from troubled countries to the east, people fleeting from failing monarchies, war and repressive governments.

Some left the Russia and the territories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before World War I.  During the war and following the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, the floodgates opened to immigrants.  An international wave of immigrants from dozens of countries arrived after the Armistice in November, 1918 bringing artists, sculptors, writers and political poets.  The international community settled in Montparnasse. A list of these artists reads like a museum collection: Chagall, Dobrinsky, Epstein, Rivera, Matisse, Leger, Modigliani, Laurencin. Some are lesser known:  Indenbaum and the Polish-born Moise Kisling form the nucleus of the Ecole de Paris, the melting pot of all the refugees and émigrés.

Writers who lived in Paris at the time note in their memoirs that  Montparnasse was different after World War I.  The streets were lit up with

theater and cinema marquees.  The “Triangle of Gold of Montparnasse,” as it was called, was marked by three beacon-cafes: La Closerie des Lilas, La Rotonde and Le Dome.

While the big cafes attracted big spenders, the artists hung out there too.   When La Coupole opened, people wandered in and out round the clock.  La Rotonde attracted art dealers, writers, journalists and politicians.  Modigliani frequented Le Dome café intent on selling drawings to anyone with money.  Henry Miller caged meals from friends who willingly bought him dinner for his entertaining conversation.

Paris Cafe. Photo © P. Mikelbank

Paris Cafe. Photo © P. Mikelbank

The cafes became second homes for the artists and writers who didn’t have the space, seats or heat to accommodate clutches of friends.  Exhibitions were organized in the cafes to attract customers and newspaper attention.  The first exposition in a cafe was organized by Auguste Clerge, in the Cafe du Parnasse.  At just about the same time, a group of artist friends organized a show in Montmarte and in a Latin Quarter cafe called la Comete.  Cafe Petit Napolitain mounted a show called “Boite a Couleurs” and another show was held at Cameleon.  Once these art shows in cafes proved the artists could make a little money and the cafe owners would increase traffic, other cafes followed suit.

In due time, dealers snapped up the work of the best artists.  One of the most successful gallery owners, Berthe Weill steadily expanded her clientele, befriending artists and clients in the grand cafes. At first working out of her home, she moved through successive stores in rue Victor Masse, rue Taitbout and rue Lafitte. Showing women artists as well as men, she celebrated her 25th anniversary in 1926 when her artists held a huge fete for her at Dagorno.

Zadkine Museum, 100 bis, rue d’Assas, in the 6th arrondisment, demonstrates that even as late as the 1920’s and 1930’s there were areas of Montparnasse with real gardens, stately trees and outbuildings.  Cubist sculptor Ossip Zadkine constructed a folly in the backyard atelier, his sylvan corner in the middle of Montparnasse.

The neighborhood revolved around the Gare Montparnasse.  Trains departing this station headed to Brittany so it’s no surprise that the artists who lived in Montparnasse turned to the Atlantic for en plein air painting during the 1880’s and afterwards.  The Bretons and other western country people brought their fish and victuals to the city.  Bistro de la Gare, 59 Blvd. Montparnasse dates to that time period, with Art Nouveau features that gave it a place on the historic monuments registry.

 

Footsteps of the Artists :: Impressionists in Paris

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Posted by in Artists in Paris, France Travel, Paris, Restaurants in Paris

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Passageway to hidden artists’ studios in Paris.
© L Peat O’Neil

 

Footsteps of the Impressionists in Paris


Montmartre

Vincent Van Gogh lived in Paris at 56 rue Lepic, from 1886 to 1888 with his brother Theo.  He painted rooftop scenes from that room and also painted at a friend’s studio, 10 rue Constance.

Sink into the slightly seedy atmosphere of a bohemian artist’s bistro at Au Virage Lepic,  61 rue Lepic. This bar/restaurant is run with an off-hand nonchalance that suggests the boozy haunts of more than a long century ago that attracted Toulouse-Lautrec and other artists to Montmartre. Arrive after late for dinner, or in the morning for a wake-up glass of red.  A group of Parisian mates and I dined there in the mid 1980s. I’m cheered to see the bistro continues to prosper.

Tattered posters cover walls dimmed yellow by clouds of cigarette smoke. Rules about smoking in Montmartre’s restaurants and bars may have changed during the 21st century.  The chef at Au Virage Lepic relies on grilled meat and fried potatoes, timeless staples that no doubt nourished Vincent and Theo Van Gogh and their pals. Late in the evening a chanteuse drops by to pay homage to Edith Piaf.

Luxembourg Gardens

Ponies awaiting riders outside Luxembourg Gardens.
© L Peat O’Neil

While he lived in the Luxembourg quarter, James McNeill Whistler strolled rue Notre Dame des Champs and at sundown, modern pedestrians evoke his vague street scenes with daubs of colorful clothing on a grey dusk background. When he returned to Paris from London in 1892, Whistler painted in a studio on the sixth floor at 86 rue Notre Dame des Champs. The building cornerstone is dated 1880, so it was relatively new when Whistler leased space.  The exterior is painted pale peach with white trim.

Whistler’s aura lives in the building where his British pals — dubbed the “Paris Gang” — had studios in the building at 53 Notre Dame des Champs and Jamie Whistler, the expat American,  was a frequent visitor. Today, the building is called Lucernaire and serves as an arts center, with cinema, theaters, galleries and cafes. Lucernaire was founded by Christian Le Guillochet and Luce Berthomme for actors, writers and cinematographers during the 1960s to reanimate the French cafe-theater movement.

Montparnasse

Art Studios known as La Ruche or Beehive.
© L Peat O’Neil

At 8 rue de la Grands-Chaumiere, off rue Notre Dame des Champs, a brass plate marks Atelier Modigliani, the artist’s last studio. “Modi”, as his colleagues called him, lived and worked there until friends transported him to the charity hospital at 47 rue Jacob where he died a couple of days later from tuberculosis January 24, 1920.

Gauguin also lived and worked in that building and next door, at number 6, a classic artist’s studio with wrought iron art nouveau windows in the style favored at the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts.

Other remarkable people called this area their own. The literary critic and cultural historian Charles Sainte-Beuve lived at 19 rue Notre Dame des Champs while befriending Victor Hugo’s family who lived at number 11, decades before the Impressionists and their contemporaries arrived in the neighborhood.  Dozens of other artists worked in the area which makes an interesting walk from Metro station Notre-Dame-des-Champs.

Though only 137 meters long, rue Grands Chaumiere was an artists’ street throughout the 19th century and retains its reputation for its fine art schools, student residences, studios and painter’s supply stores. Restaurant Wadja, next to Atelier Modigliani exudes arty atmosphere.

Both Gauguin and Rousseau painted at studios in the Montparnasse neighborhood, but few vestiges of the artistic life endure. A meagerly stocked art supply store that I noted in 1988 at 26 rue Vercingetorix, not far from Paul Gauguin’s studio at number 6, is a decorator’s shop in the shadow of high rise towers like most of the neighborhood. Nearby at number 2 rue Penrel, Henri Rousseau lived for years, but street widening swept away his cottage and the lane is now part of a children’s playground.

Notre Dame du Travail

In the shadows of these pale post-modern office buildings is a unique church, Notre Dame du Travail de Plaisance at 59 rue Vercingetorix. Exposed iron girders like those used by Gustave Eiffel for his tower, replace the masonry buttresses one expects in a gothic style church. Instead of the usual painted images of saints on the chapel walls, the inspirational figures are white washed and decorated with art nouveau borders, like the edges of a page.

Latin Quarter

Artists have long been associated with the left bank and Latin Quarter near the Sorbonne and l’École des Beaux-Arts. Picasso lived and worked at 7 rue Grands-Augustins from 1936 until 1955. He painted his mural “Guernica” there. A plaque on the wall proclaims his tenancy. The house is within a minutes’ walk of rue Christine where Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas lived at number 5 where ivy covers the square pillar at the base of the stairs, obscuring the house number. When my father studied and worked in Paris after the Liberation of France in 1945, he and other Army chaps paid homage at the Stein-Toklas house.

Picasso’s Barcelona heritage is reflected in the Catalan bookstore that anchored rue des Grands Augustins where it intersects rue St. Andre des Arts for decades. As the neighborhood has experienced an influx of upmarket tenants, the bookstore faced closure with a brave face. Picasso is said to have enjoyed the fare at the restaurant Jacques Cogna, 14 Grandes Augustins, which is still in business in the 21st century.  Browse the used bookstores along rue St. Andre des Arts.

Todays posers and painters may drink at Bar Mazet, 61 Rue St. Andre des Arts, which was a rough and tumble cafe and beer-hall in the early 1990s and is now an Irish sports pub.  Or, head around the corner to  23 rue de l’Ancienne Comedie which was once the Relais Odeon, but in its 21st century incarnation is a fancy bakery.

In the heart of the busy, golden Blvd. Saint Germain, Café de Flore was Picasso’s hangout, along with distinguished writers and intellectuals of the late 1920s and 30s. Sartre and de Beauvoir wrote and played footsie there. One can assume that Picasso doodled on menus or matchbooks and Hemingway plotted conquests.  The waiters are consummate professionals; show your sophistication with humility for the grand tradition.

Also on the left bank, the rue de l’École de Medecine still exists, but a textbook store and part of the medical school claim the space that was once Brasserie Andler at 24-30 rue de l’École de Medecine, where during the last two decades of the 19th century, Courbet, Baudelaire, Corot and the older impressionist painters and symbolist writers congregated and traded toasts. Painter Rosa Bonheur lived at number 24 from 1864 to 1866.

Right Bank

Though not part of the Impressionist Movement, Eugene Delicroix developed a painting style that evoked light and movement through innovative brushwork and a complex color palette. The Delicroix Museum at 6 rue de Furstenberg facing a calm residential courtyard, is a gem of a small museum preserved by the Musees Nationaux. The painter’s house and studio are open for view and an array of his works are displayed.

In the posh area near the Champs Elysee, the American painter Mary Cassatt lived on the fifth floor at 10 rue de Marignan, a quiet side street. The fifth floor is at the top level of the building. Twentieth century tenants include a life insurance company and a gynecologist’s office.

In the fashionable 16th arrondissement, painter Berthe Morisot and her husband Eugene Manet, brother of painter Edouard Manet, built the house at 40 rue Paul Valery, known as rue de Villejust before 1945. In her diary, their daughter Julie Manet records the frequent visits of other impressionist artists — Degas, Claude Monet, Renoir and others.

Le Bal Mabile painted by Jean Beraud

The public dance halls and outdoor dancing parks such as Bal Mabille provided artists their choice of comely models.  They picked up dancers to be pose for them, and some became their companions. For 2 francs entrance fee, people could dance the waltz, quadrilles, mazurkas and polkas.  Toulouse-Lautrec was fond of painting the dance hall girls and singers at Thermes Saint Honore, which, alas, was destroyed.

In the Odeon neighborhood, Cafe Voltaire is history. In Montmartre, the country lanes Renoir, Gauguin and Van Gogh strolled are trimmed and paved. Montmarte Cemetery is a peaceful reminder of the past.  But elsewhere artist’s garrets rent for a fortune and gallery owners want to see a deep resume before considering paintings. Paris has changed in at least one aspect as hometown for the world’s artists; it costs more.

Montparnasse Cemetery with windmill built by Les Frères de la Charité (Brothers of Charity). © L Peat O’Neil

Walking where the famous artists did, seeing their rooms and studios (or whatever has replaced those structures) or visiting their graves, nurtures deeper understanding of their lives and work. Following their footsteps and imagining their daily lives, where they created, drank and talked transposes time and stretches one’s own vision.

Address Book

Artist’s Cafes — Almost any cafe or bar near an art school has “artists-in-residence”. Be aware that not all restaurants, bars or cafes are open on Sunday and in Paris many establishments lock their doors during August.  The places listed below may well offer menus far more expensive than students or emerging artists could afford.

Café de Flore, 172 Blvd. St. Germain. Metro: St. Germain des Près.

La Palette, 43 rue de Seine. Metro: Mabillon.

Le Petit Zinc, 11 rue Saint-Benoit.  Metro: St. Germain des Près

Restaurant Wadja, 10 rue de la Grande-Chaumiere. Metro: Vavin.

Study Art in Paris

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Posted by in Artists in Paris, France Travel, Paris, Study Art in France

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Step into the Paris that seduced artists from all over the world — the Paris of your dreams.  We’ll show you around Paris of the 21st century with an eye to the traces of decades and centuries past. Like the bumbling hero in Woody Allen’s clever film Midnight in Paris, you can step through the veil of time and paint yourself into a living reverie.  Let us be your guide while you experience the captivating scenes and mysteries of the City of Light.

We’ll follow the Footsteps of the Artists all around France, and visit resort locations where artists and writers gathered to savor nature and revive their enthusiasm.

Research for Footsteps of the Artists covers four decades of living and walking through French cities and towns.  We’ll start with a particular focus on Paris by visiting the academies and studios of artists who created in the city that is sometimes called everyone’s hometown of the heart and soul.

Make your dream of painting in France come true.  Explore these selected art study opportunities and create your trip.  Studying art in Paris is possible!

Art Study in Paris

Wice,  an Anglophone organization in Paris, offers art history tours, painting classes and French lifestyle orientation for visitors and residents.

Montparnasse was once the heart of alternative living in Paris.  Écoles de Condé, a design and graphic arts academy, provides an innovative avant-garde atmosphere that echoes the the eras that attracted international artists to Montparnasse from the 1880s to the current day.

Led by a faculty of internationally acclaimed artists, the Parsons in Paris program provides entree to galleries and art collections. Continuing education courses offer a chance to study fashion design, illustration or art.  Experience the best of the world’s art capital by attending one-week drawing and painting sessions tailored for adult learners at the Parsons Studios, 14, rue Letellier on the left bank near the Eiffel Tower.

The American University in Paris offers summer art courses for degree and non-degree students.

Region:  Gascony – Southwest France

The Nadaï Advanced School in Decorative Painting offers high quality teaching in decorative techniques such as  faux marble, patina, murals and trompe l’oeil. Courses are taught by accomplished masters and renowned artists, notably Michel Nadaï, designated a Meilleur Ouvrier de France (best fine artist) by the French government. The courses are taught at the  atelier in the bucolic Southwest region of France.

The Painting School of Montmiral offers courses for small groups of serious students at all levels, beginner to professional.  Students work in the medium of their choice.  The school leader — artist Francis Pratt — has done research into how we use our eyes when painting and drawing and has published widely.

Region: Provence – Southern France

Lacoste, now part of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), is a unique artistic community located in the medieval village of Lacoste in the Luberon area of Provence. Lacoste’s faculty are part of SCAD. Teaching assistants and visiting artists are chosen for their ability to share their knowledge, skill and personal attitudes.

The Marchutz School offers courses in Painting, Drawing, and Art Criticism for undergraduates and non-traditional students.  The school’s location in Aix-en-Provence offers incomparable landscapes; this is region where Cezanne lived and painted. Students travel around the region and beyond to take full advantage of the landscape, architecture and museums.

Region: Brittany – Northwest France

The Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art is an international academy of studio arts and art history in the historic artist colony of Pont-Aven in Brittany, on the Atlantic coast west of Paris. Courses focus on the history and avant-garde traditions of the area as well as the ancient standing stones of Carnac.