Guide to the Musée de Montmartre Scientific and Editorial Director of this book: María González Menéndez Scientific Co-Director: Saskia Ooms Research and Coordination: Daiana Torres Lima Héloïse Trarieux Musée de Montmartre – Jardins Renoir Société Kléber Rossillon Chair: Kléber Rossillon Director: Aude Viart Head of Conservation: Saskia Ooms Curator 2016 of the museum’s permanent collections: María González Menéndez Book published under the direction of Somogy éditions d’art Publishing director: Nicolas Neumann Managing editor: Stéphanie Méséguer Editorial coordination and follow-up: Ana Jiménez Jorquera Graphic design: Audrey Hette Translation from French into English: Jonathan & David Michaelson Editorial contribution: Katharine Turvey Production: Béatrice Bourgerie and Mélanie Le Gros © Somogy éditions d’art, Paris, 2016 © Musée de Montmartre, Paris, 2016 © Adagp, Paris, 2016 for the works of Pierre Bonnard (p. 144-145), Charles Camoin (p. 156), Raoul Dufy (p. 32, 157), Georges Folmer (p. 65), Démétrius Galanis (p. 34, 164), Max Jacob (p. 158-159), František Kupka (p. 50-51, 162), Francisque Poulbot (p. 165), Henri Rivière (p. 28, 62, 89, 90-91), Maurice Utrillo (p. 36, 152-153), André Utter (p. 37, 47, 154-155), Jacques Villon (p. 163) and André Warnod (p. 49). © Hélène Bruneau 2016 for the works of Maurice Utrillo (p. 36, 152-153). © Fondation Fujita/Adagp, Paris, 2016 for the work of Marie Laurencin (p. 160). Legal deposit: september 2016 Printed in European Union
A GUIDE TO THE MUSÉE DE
MONTMARTRE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Kléber Rossillon would like to warmly thank: Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris Bruno Julliard, First Deputy Mayor of Paris, Responsible for Culture Éric Lejoindre, Mayor of the 18th arrondissement of Paris Carine Rolland, First Deputy Mayor of the 18e arrondissement, responsible for General Affairs, Culture, and Heritage Véronique Chatenay-Dolto, Regional Director, DRAC Île-de-France Sylvie Müller, Head of the Museums Department, DRAC Île -de-France, Ministry of Culture and Communication Pauline Lucet, heritage curator, museums advisor, DRAC Île-de-France Laurence Isnard, heritage curator, museums advisor, DRAC Île-de-France
Kléber Rossillon would also like to thank: the private collectors: Gérard Arnold François Binetruy Bernard Bois Gérard Jouhet Maryse and Max Marechal Yves Mathieu David E. Weisman and Jacqueline Michel the directors of museums and public institutions for their active participation: Bernard Blistène, Director, Centre Pompidou – Musée National d’Art Moderne/Centre de Création Industrielle, Paris Valérie Guillaume, Director, Musée Carnavalet, Paris Christophe Leribault, Director, Musée des BeauxArts de la Ville de Paris, Petit Palais, Paris
ADAGP (the French society for artists’ copyright) The Association Maurice Utrillo The Parisienne de Photographie – The Roger-Viollet photographic agency, Paris RMN – Grand Palais, Paris the authors: Jean-Manuel Gabert, Chair of the Le Vieux Montmartre society María González Menéndez, curator of the 2016 presentation of the Musée de Montmartre’s permanent collections Hubert Le Gall, artist, designer, and scenographer Sandrine Nicollier, conservation assistant Saskia Ooms, Head of Conservation at the Musée de Montmartre Kléber Rossillon, Chair of the Musée de Montmartre – Jardins Renoir Jeanine Warnod, art critic, author, and exhibition curator the museum’s team and everyone who has contributed to this catalogue, especially: Stéphane Pons William Beville Claire Cooper Angelos Drakogiorgos Isabelle Ducatez Maxime Ikezouhene Véronique Kaluila Julien Le Roy Thierry Nakache Camille Paget Marie Paret Alexia Peronnet Daiana Torres Lima Héloïse Trarieux
As well as Le Vieux Montmartre, the Société d’Histoire et d’Archéologie of the 9th and 18th arrondissements of Paris Chair: Jean-Manuel Gabert Vice Chairs: Alain Larcher Michèle Trante Treasurer: Éric Sureau Assistant Treasurer: Odette Borzic-Hatchadourian Secretary: Catherine Rousseau Honorary Chairs: Daniel Rolland Jean-Marc Tarrit Board of Directors: Thiery Aimar Laurent Bihl Chantal Bodère Odette Borzic-Hatchadourian Catherine Charrière Jean-Manuel Gabert Jean-Claude Gouvernon Alain Larcher Yves Mathieu Marie-France Moniot-Boutry Daniel Rolland Catherine Rousseau Éric Sureau Jean-Marc Tarrit Xavier Thoumieux Michèle Trante Administrative Department: Isabelle Ducatez
The entries in this guide are based on research and the Musée de Montmartre’s publications, in particular: Kléber ROSSILLON, Phillip Dennis CATE et al., Autour du Chat Noir. Arts et plaisirs à Montmartre, 1880-1910, exhibition catalogue (13 September 2012– 13 January 2013, Musée de Montmartre, Paris), Skira Flammarion, Musée de Montmartre, Paris, 2012. Kléber ROSSILLON, Philip Dennis CATE et al., The Spirit of Montmartre and Modern Art, 1875-1910 & Guide to the Musée de Montmartre, exhibition catalogue (17 October 2014–13 September 2015, Musée de Montmartre, Paris), Somogy éditions d’Art, Musée de Montmartre – Jardins Renoir, Paris, 2014. María GONZÁLEZ MENÉNDEZ (ed.), Saskia OOMS, Artists in Montmartre: From Steinlen to Satie (1870-1910), exhibition catalogue (15 April–25 September 2016, Musée de Montmartre, Paris), Somogy éditions d’art, Musée de Montmartre – Jardins Renoir, Paris, 2016.
CONTENTS MONTMARTRE ON THE MOVE: FROM HOUSE TO MUSEUM .............................9 Sandrine Nicollier
THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEW MUSÉE DE MONTMARTRE RENOIR GARDENS ....................................................................................15 Kléber Rossillon
THE RECREATION OF THE ATELIER-APARTMENT OF VALADON, UTRILLO & UTTER ................................................................................... 19 Hubert Le Gall
MONTMARTRE: FROM A VERITABLE VILLAGE TO AN ARTISTIC TOWN...........23 María González Menéndez
THE ARTISTS AT 12–14 RUE CORTOT ........................................................ 31 Saskia Ooms
THE BATEAU LAVOIR...............................................................................39 Jeanine Warnod
THE COLLECTIONS OF THE SOCIÉTÉ LE VIEUX MONTMARTRE .....................45 Jean-Manuel Gabert
MONTMARTRE SEEN THROUGH THE MUSEUM’S COLLECTIONS ................... 51 The History of Montmartre ............................................................................................ 52 Cafés, Dance Halls, and Cabarets ................................................................................. 66 The Chat Noir ..................................................................................................................74 Other cabarets ................................................................................................................. 92 Posters............................................................................................................................. 100 Entertainment Figures .................................................................................................. 106 The Moulin Rouge.......................................................................................................... 120
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859–1923) The Chéron Clinic, circa 1905 Lithograph mounted on canvas, 194 × 135.5 cm Proof print, unique print (Creuzat 511) Le Vieux Montmartre Collection, Musée de Montmartre, Paris, inv. no. R.001.663
MONTMARTRE ARTISTS ......................................................................... 129 Stanislas Lépine – Édouard Lefèvre – Fernand Pelez – Eugène Carrière – Henri Martin – Henri Bellery-Desfontaines – Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen – Adolphe Léon Willette – Eugène Delâtre – Henri-Gabriel Ibels – Pierre Bonnard – Félix Vallotton – Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – Émile Bernard – Suzanne Valadon – Maurice Utrillo – André Utter – Charles Camoin – Raoul Dufy – Max Jacob – Marie Laurencin – Amedeo Modigliani – František Kupka – Jacques Villon – Démétrius Galanis – Francisque Poulbot
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................166
7
SANDRINE NICOLLIER
MONTMARTRE ON THE MOVE FROM HOUSE TO MUSEUM
T
Photographer unknown 12 Rue Cortot, circa 1900 Modern print Le Vieux Montmartre Collection, Musée de Montmartre, Paris
he Butte Montmartre is 130 metres high. Its Tertiary Period formation is part of the marly limestone plateau of Saint-Ouen and the zones north of Paris. Quarries and the extraction of gypsum date from the Gallo-Roman period. Probably a place of worship dedicated to Mars or Mercury during Antiquity, it became the ‘Mont des Martyrs’ as a result of Christian influence. From the beheading of Saint Denis to the French Revolution, its history was dominated by religious issues—the domain of the Benedictine abbesses, the foundation of the Jesuit Order, among others—but also the establishment of drinking establishments from the end of the 18th century!1 The Revolution in 1789 accelerated the sale of land, stimulating a new bout of urbanization and enlargement of the quarries. In 1871 the Commune and the Bloody Week endorsed the spirit of struggle and incitement in Montmartre, an attitude that was to foster the emergence of the bohemians and avant-garde art movements. Incorporated into the 18th arrondissement in 1860, Montmartre had developed under the contradictory auspices of a centuries-old occupation by religious orders above ground, exploitation of the resources below ground, and the progressive sedimentation of revolutionary ideas. There are several Montmartres. Strategic in time of
Left: View of Suzanne Valadon’s studio and the Renoir Gardens. 9
KLÉBER ROSSILLON
THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEW MUSÉE DE MONTMARTRE RENOIR GARDENS
I
Photographer unknown The Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo Studio, 12-14 Rue Cortot, circa 1909 Period print, 14 × 13 cm Le Vieux Montmartre Collection, Musée de Montmartre, Paris
n November 2009, the Association Patrimoine-Environnement (the French National Federation of Associations for the Protection of Heritage, formerly the FNASSEM until 2013), published this appeal on its website: ‘Many prominent figures have come together to save the Musée de Montmartre. Ah, the wonderfully bucolic atmosphere on the Hill of Montmartre …. . Is the Hill going to descend into turmoil and become a place of contestation? It is a pertinent question given the threat of closure that is hanging over the Musée de Montmartre—a unique institution that retraces the history of the most famous village in Paris and its artists, albeit with a lack of funds. Indeed, at the end of October, the ‘Ville de Paris’ decided to cut all the museum’s funding, including any funding required for the year 2009. Expressing their concern over this decision, various prominent figures have come together in a group to challenge this abrupt, detrimental, and unjust decision.’ The Musée de Montmartre was located in the Maison du Bel Air (12 Rue Cortot), between two gardens; the lower garden was all but abandoned. Rainwater was entering the storerooms in the building on the street. An opening in the garden wall provided access to the neighbouring property, the Hôtel Demarne. Nothing about the building, which had been abandoned for thirty years and was dilapidated, suggested it had been a hotel apart from the façade, which had been built onto a small eighteenth-century lodging house. Squatters had recently moved in. A room overlooking the garden was used for the museum’s school-related activities. I had restored several historical monuments in France and opened them to tourists, and I was utterly amazed at this situation within walking distance from the Place du Tertre,
15
HUBERT LE GALL
RECREATION OF THE ATELIER-APARTMENT OF VALADON, UTRILLO & UTTER
W
Maurice Utrillo’s bedroom. Left: Suzanne Valadon’s studio.
hen Suzanne Valadon, Maurice Utrillo, and André Utter moved to 12 Rue Cortot in 1912, they left a lasting symbolic impression there. However, hardly anything material remained of their stay in the studio. Thanks to the Kléber Rossillon company and the refurbishment of the atelier, it is almost as if ‘the wicked trinity’ has reinhabited the studio. To convincingly recreate the atelier, the Kléber Rossillon company called on the services of the creator and designer Hubert Le Gall, who regularly works as a scenographer with, amongst others, the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée de l’Orangerie, and the Musée Jacquemart-André. All the studio’s contents had long since disappeared, so Hubert Le Gall had to hunt around for all the pieces of furniture that are currently in the studio, based—as far as possible—on what he was able to find in the various historical sources. The recreation of the apartment in which Suzanne Valadon and her son Maurice Utrillo lived is not only based on an in-depth analysis of the photographs of the atelier, but also on letters and pieces of writing, as described by Hubert Le Gall: ‘The only authentic vestige of the atelier of Suzanne Valadon, Maurice Utrillo, and André Utter at 12 Rue Cortot is the envelope, which has remained almost unchanged. Its successive inhabitants transformed the apartment during the 20th century. The Kléber Rossillon company sought to recreate
19
MAR A GONZ LEZ MENÉNDEZ
MONTMARTRE FROM A VERITABLE VILLAGE TO AN ARTISTIC TOWN
W
Henri-Gabriel Ibels (1867–1936) Café Scene, circa 1892 Lithograph, 63 × 45.3 cm Proof print, illustration for a Théâtre-Libre programme Private Collection, on permanent loan to the Musée de Montmartre, Paris
hen one walks along the lanes on the hill of Montmartre one can still find traces of the tranquil rural village and experience the very unique quality of the light that inspired so many artists at the end of the 19th century. Montmartre has maintained part of its former essence.1 Over the centuries, the Butte attracted abbesses, millers, Communards, and artists; churches, vineyards, quarries, and artistic cabarets were established there. The geological foundations of Montmartre are still marked by the interminable subterranean galleries that were dug in the hill over the centuries; the remains of the vineyards can be seen in Rue des Saules; and certain artists’ studios are still standing, such as the legendary Bateau Lavoir, and 12–14 Rue Cortot, which is now the Musée de Montmartre. The legendary hill, which, according to the Golden Legend (a thirteenth-century collection of saints’ lives) by Jacobus de Voragine, was the site of the martyrdom of Saint Denis, has undergone many transformations during the course of its religious, economic, and political history. But it was primarily after 1860, when Montmartre was annexed to Paris, that the district’s veritable metamorphosis began: the quarries closed because they threatened to undermine the Butte and because of urban speculation. The vineyards and windmills also ceased their activities. The windmills were adapted to new uses and were transformed into popular dance halls. The bloody period of the Commune in 1871 remained etched in the collective memory of Montmartre, which remained attached to its revolutionary and anarchic freedom, despite the construction of the Haussmannian avenues and the Basilica of Sacré-Coeur. Circa 1870, artists settled in Montmartre in ever greater numbers, considerably transforming the landscape of the Butte: cafés and cabarets proliferated in the 1880s and 1890s, artists’ studios were established, and a market was opened on the Place Pigalle where painters could hire models. Every artistic movement—the Realists, Impressionists,
23
SASKIA OOMS
THE ARTISTS AT 12–14 RUE CORTOT
A MAGICAL PLACE TO CREATE, ‘PROCLAIM AND DEFEND BEAUTY’ Émile Bernard
T
Suzanne Valadon (1865–1938) Woman Preparing to Take a Bath, circa 1908 (detail) Pastel and black chalk on paper, 26 × 29 cm Le Vieux Montmartre Collection, Musée de Montmartre, Paris Acquisition thanks to State pre-emption
he studios at 12–14 Rue Cortot brought artists into contact with one another and accommodated the leading figures of the new artistic movements, from 1876 to 1965. Artists who lived there include the Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the Pointillist and anarchist Maximilien Luce, the Fauves Émile-Othon Friesz, Raoul Dufy, and Charles Camoin, the Synthetist artist Émile Bernard, the Greek cubist artist Démétrius Galanis, the artist Francisque Poulbot, and the ‘wicked trinity’—Suzanne Valadon, Maurice Utrillo, and André Utter. This part of the book takes a look at some of the artists in the modern art and avant-garde movements who lived and worked in these studios. When the Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Limoges, 1841–1919, Cagnes-surMer) moved to Montmartre—he remained there for almost forty years—, he was a renowned artist who enjoyed much support from his friends. Renoir was a regular customer at the Nouvelle Athènes café, where he met up with Manet, Cros, Rivière, Desboutins, and Cézanne. In 1876, he rented two rooms at 12–14 Rue Cortot in the left street-side wing of the building, with space in the unused stable. His friend and biographer, the painter Georges Rivière, recounts this event: ‘One morning in May […], Renoir and I started out from Rue Saint-Georges to try to unearth the sort of place he had in mind. As soon as Renoir crossed the threshold, he was delighted with the sight of the garden, which looked like a beautiful, neglected park. Passing through the narrow hall of the little house, one found oneself facing a huge lawn of unmown grass dotted with poppies, convolvulus and daisies. Beyond, a beautiful walk planted with tall trees crossed the entire width of the garden, and behind this again, could be seen an orchard, a kitchen garden, then some bushy shrubs. The apartment she showed us, located on the second floor immediately below the roof, contained two
31
JEANINE WARNOD
THE BATEAU LAVOIR
T
Representation of the Bateau Lavoir window display, 2015
he ‘Bateau Lavoir’ (‘Laundry Boat’) would probably not have been mentioned in the history of art if Picasso had not painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon in his studio there in 1907; the work marked the beginning of his cubist period. The story of this famous and dilapidated building, which was destroyed by fire in 1970, has become part of the legend of Montmartre. The Butte, which was still essentially rural, was home to many artists, and, at the beginning of the 19th century, wooden shacks housed second-hand goods dealers, painters, and sculptors; and the Cabaret des Assassins, which later became the Lapin Agile (‘Agile Rabbit’), attracted poets, daubers, and crooks, under the watchful eye of Father Frédé, who played his guitar to entertain the talented misfits looking for company and artistic freedom. The Bateau Lavoir was another story. On the Place Émile Goudeau, at 13 Rue Ravignan, there stood a wooden building that in 1867 belonged to a locksmith called FrançoisSébastien Maillard, and initially a piano factory. The owner commissioned the architect Paul Vasseur to divide the shack into ateliers on the 1st of July 1889. Viewed from the front, the building looked as if it was only composed of a ground floor. But, when you entered the building, you found yourself on the third floor facing Rue Garreau. There were corridors at right angles to one another, a series of dilapidated doors, the stairs creaked, and the wooden walls oozed with moisture. In 1893, Maufra entertained Gauguin—whom he had met in Pont-Aven—in his studio there; and in this building that was then known as the Maison du Trappeur (the Trapper’s House), Paul Fort created his makeshift ‘Théâtre d’Art’, with little in the way of financial support; the theatre presented Symbolist plays by Verlaine, Laforgue, Rémy de Gourmont, and Maeterlinck. In 1904, Picasso and his Spanish friends revolutionised the ambiance there. He moved into the atelier that had been formerly occupied by the ceramicist Paco Durrio and progressed
39
JEAN-MANUEL GABERT
THE COLLECTIONS OF THE SOCIÉTÉ LE VIEUX MONTMARTRE Jean-Manuel Gabert would like to thank Isabelle Ducatez and Alain Larcher.
I
Édouard Lefèvre (1842–1923) Rue Marcadet, undated (detail) Watercolour, 29 × 22 cm Le Vieux Montmartre collection, Musée de Montmartre, Paris, inv. no. A.3692
n 1886, a small group of enthusiastic historians, journalists, and artists joined together to found the Société d’Histoire et d’Archéologie du Vieux Montmartre (the Montmartre Society of History and Archeology) with the purpose of protecting and perpetuating the wealth of culture, history, and charm that pertains to this famous hill in Paris. The twin purposes of the association, which are still present in its statutes, were to investigate and preserve all expressions of an artistic, historic or ethnological nature linked with Montmartre, while contributing to the protection and preservation of this remarkable district that had been incorporated into the capital in 1860. Since its creation, the society has built up a collection of more than 6,000 objects through gifts, bequests, purchases, and deposits from private individuals and public institutions. The collection comprises paintings, sculptures, posters, drawings, lithographs, photographs, objects, and furniture. The Vieux Montmartre collection, which are continually expanding, thus recount a long and wide-ranging history that embraces the arts, religion, politics, festivities, and folklore. These collections, amassed with the purpose of exhibiting them, are supplemented by more than 100,000 archive documents that relate above all to the history, artists, and life of Montmartre, its dance halls and cabarets. They include, in particular, an outstanding collection devoted to French songs, consisting of a library of 3,000 books and abundant documentation. Since 1960, the association’s collections have been displayed at the Musée de Montmartre and have benefitted from the classification ‘Musée de France’ from 2003. They have been placed at the disposal of the Société Kléber Rossillon responsible for the running and use of the building. These very diverse collections are divided into a number of categories: – A large number of original posters by the greatest designers of the genre ( Jules Chéret,
45
MONTMARTRE SEEN THROUGH THE MUSEUM’S COLLECTIONS
THE HISTORY OF MONTMARTRE M
ontmartre has undergone various transformations throughout its history. In the Middle Ages, an abbey, founded in the twelfth century, dominated the landscape with its vineyards and windmills. Little by little, the millers moved onto the Butte and the exploitation of the gypsum quarries intensified. It was only in the 19th century that Montmartre’s landscape began to undergo transformations. With the advent of industrialisation, the windmills stopped operating and the vineyards disappeared; likewise, the quarries, which threatened to undermine the Butte, closed in 1860. Montmartre was then officially annexed and integrated into the eighteenth arrondissement of Paris. Subsequently, the district underwent major developments that considerably altered its appearance. In 1875 the construction of the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur was perceived in Montmartre as an insult to its revolutionary spirit. The transformation continued with the disappearance of the Maquis (an area of waste ground) and the creation of large avenues. As of 1870, artists moved into Montmartre and artistic cafés and cabarets spread in the 1880s. Henceforth, the city overtook the countryside that had always been a part of Montmartre.
Photographer unknown Montmartre – The Maquis, 1904 Postcard, 11 × 44 cm Le Vieux Montmartre Collection, Musée de Montmartre, Paris
52 A GUIDE TO THE MUSÉE DE MONTMARTRE
Right: Views of Montmartre, circa 1900 (details) Set of postcards and photographs Le Vieux Montmartre Collection, Musée de Montmartre, Paris
CAFÉS, DANCE HALLS, AND CABARETS A
mong the many transformations that Montmartre underwent in the middle of the 19th century, the establishment of the cafés, dance halls, and cabarets marked a veritable turning point in the metamorphosis of this rural area. The opening of the café Le Moulin de la Galette in 1834 fulfilled the need to transform old Montmartre, which was known for its vineyards and windmills, into a place for festivities and entertainment. Traditionally frequented by the laboring classes and workers, the café—which had become one of the most popular dance halls in the capital in the 1870s, attracting both working-class and bourgeois customers and artists–was the symbol par excellence of this transformation. Montmartre became a centre for artists in the 1870s, which contributed to the opening of this new page in the district’s history: cafés, dance halls, and artistic cabarets proliferated, expressing the bohemian spirit of the Butte. The Au Lapin Agile cabaret, an inn frequented in the past by thieves, bandits, and laborers, subsequently became a rendez-vous for artists and poets such as Picasso, Apollinaire, and Modigliani. These new places for artistic exchange, festivities, and entertainment established Montmartre’s reputation as a fashionable district in the collective imagination.
Pierre de Belay (1890–1947) Couple in a Café, 1934 (detail) Oil on cardboard, 72 × 61 cm Le Vieux Montmartre Collection, Musée de Montmartre, Paris, inv. no. A.3621
THE CHAT NOIR T
he Chat Noir, founded by Rodolphe Salis in 1881, was the first avant-garde literary, artistic, and musical cabaret in Paris. More than just a café, the cabaret aspired to become an artistic and cultural landmark. Advertised as a ‘Louis XIII cabaret, founded by a fumiste [a type of fin-de-siècle humour]’, the Chat Noir was located at 84 Boulevard Rochechouart, in an old post office. When he renovated the premises, Salis employed a common architectural practice in Paris, which consisted of drawing inspiration from medieval France or Rabelaisian Renaissance. The furniture in the Chat Noir, which was in a pseudo-gothic Louis XIII style, attested to the nostalgia for Rabelaisian France. Eugène Grasset designed iron chandeliers for the interior; Adolphe Willette created the cabaret’s emblematic sign and the amazing monumental fresco entitled Parce Domine. The cabaret was quite small. Its two narrow rooms, one behind the other, could only house around thirty guests. Painters, writers, and musicians regularly met at the cabaret. In January 1882, Salis launched the bold promotion of his cabaret in the Le Chat Noir journal: ‘The Chat Noir is the most extraordinary cabaret in the world. You mingle with the most famous men in Paris, who meet there with foreigners from every corner of the globe … . It’s the greatest success of the age! Come in! Come in!’1
1 Text inspired by Phillip Dennis Cate, ‘Autour du Chat Noir’, 2012 (see bibliography, p. 167).
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859–1923) Poster, Tour of the Chat Noir, 1896 (detail) Lithograph, 60 × 39 cm Unique print (Creuzat 511) Le Vieux Montmartre Collection, Musée de Montmartre, Paris, inv. no. A.001.622
OTHER CABARETS O
ther artistic cabarets followed the example of the Chat Noir, such as Le Divan Japonais (1883–1900), L’Âne Rouge (1890–1905), the Concert des Décadents (1893–1896), and the Cabaret des Quat’z’Arts (1893–1914), thus contributing to the opening of a new page in the history of the avant-garde movements. These places of intellectual exchange and festivity proliferated in Montmartre in the 1880s and 1890s. Each cabaret had its own distinctive feature: Le Divan Japonais was influenced by Asian culture, the Concert des Décadents held exhibitions of works by little-known artists, the Cabaret des Quat’z’Arts created a wall-journal open to all forms of graphic expression, and Le Mirliton attracted people who, out of curiosity, came to see the provocative singer and songwriter Aristide Bruant. But despite their particularities, these cabarets were all modelled on the famous Chat Noir: they maintained the cabaret’s modern spirit and readiness to embrace new ideas, and, like the Chat Noir, they created art journals, and provided areas that encouraged encounters between artists, writers, and musicians in an effervescent environment that promoted intellectual freedom. These cabarets were often decorated by the artists who frequented them: Adolphe Léon Willette, Jules-Alexandre Grün, and Joseph Faverot, amongst others.
Jules-Alexandre Grün (1868–1938) Divan Japonais, undated (detail) Lithograph, 55 × 42 cm Le Vieux Montmartre Collection, Musée de Montmartre, Paris, inv. no. A.5353
POSTERS T
he artists of Montmartre played a key role in the production of posters at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. The new techniques and reproduction processes provided artists with a whole range of possibilities and were not only a source of revenue, but also a way of disseminating their modernist aesthetics. Posters enabled them to convey the essence of an image, without too much detail and in a highly effective spontaneous style that appealed to the viewer. The posters were often produced to advertise the various cabarets, concerts, and shows in Montmartre, and the journals, such as La Lanterne, books such as Guide de l’étranger à Montmartre (‘A foreigner’s guide to Montmartre’, 1900) by Victor Meusy, Edmond Depas, and Émile Goudeau, or, quite simply, domestic products. The proliferation of posters in Paris encouraged commissions, and artists such as Steinlen, Grün, and Toulouse-Lautrec readily devoted themselves to this type of work. Jules Chéret had excelled in the art of colour lithography since 1866 and was considered the ‘father of poster art’ by the painters of Montmartre. The Nabi artists who lived in Montmartre, such as Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, and Henri-Gabriel Ibels, turned these artistic techniques, considered to be minor, into a veritable art, thereby challenging the prevailing academicism.
Artist unknown Skating. The Tattooed Man, undated Lithograph, 61 × 45 cm Le Vieux Montmartre Collection, Musée de Montmartre, Paris, inv. no. A.5345
ENTERTAINMENT FIGURES I
n addition to the cabarets and cafés-concerts, various concert halls and the famous Fernando Circus, which later became the Medrano Circus, opened in Montmartre— places that were representative of the marginal culture in which the artists were particularly interested. Montmartre, which had become a centre for amusement par excellence, promoted men and women who were able to put on performances. Performances by male entertainers had to be laced with irony: Aristide Bruant’s songs, which he sang in an inimitable slang, were complemented by the antics of the clowns Footit and Chocolat, who made Parisian audiences laugh hysterically. The femmes fatales of Montmartre aroused as much fascination as they did concern: these actresses, dancers, and fictional characters were never saints, as Yvette Guilbert implied when she sang the song Les Vierges (‘The Virgins’) with cutting irony; but they were always the queens of Montmartre’s nightlife. Whether they were provocative, like Blanche Cavelli in the censured show ‘Le Coucher d’Yvette’, or audacious, like the cancan dancers, these women left a lasting mark on the history of the famous Parisian hill. Composers and musicians, such as Erik Satie and Gustave Charpentier, also played a part in this creative effervescence, by composing popular music and collaborating with the singers and songwriters, who were a sort of combination of poets and singers, and who embodied the Montmartre spirit.
Joseph Faverot (1862- ?) Circus Stage Manager, circa 1885 (detail) Oil on wood, 36 × 25 cm Le Vieux Montmartre Collection, Musée de Montmartre, Paris
THE MOULIN ROUGE I
n 1889, a new cabaret was opened at the foot of the Butte: the Moulin Rouge. The businessmen Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller commissioned the artist Adolphe Léon Willette to decorate the cabaret. He created a life-size magenta windmill on Boulevard de Clichy, an enormous dance floor, a whole series of mirrors, a life-size model elephant in the gardens (a vestige of the 1867 Exposition Universelle), and galleries to accommodate people who wished to watch the dancing. The cabaret was a resounding success. The Moulin Rouge was particularly remarkable because it revived the French cancan dance, created during the Second Empire. Better known in working-class circles and considered immoral at the beginning of the 19th century, the chahut (cancan) spread across Paris’ cabarets from the 1890s. Thanks to extremely talented performers like La Goulue (‘The Glutton’) and Jane Avril, who were famous for their high kicks, the cancan immediately became the symbol of a venue where relaxed casualness was synonymous with pleasure. This dance soon spread to all the dance halls on the Butte, from the Tabarin to the Moulin de la Galette. The Moulin Rouge remains the unrivalled symbol of fin de siècle decadence.
Photographer unknown Moulin Rouge Dancers, La Goulue and Grille d’égout, undated Silver gelatin prints, 16.3 × 10.9 cm Le Vieux Montmartre Collection, Musée de Montmartre, Paris
MONTMARTRE ARTISTS