Le Bateau-Lavoir

Le Bateau - Lavoir was a neglected house on Montmartre in Paris, located in 13 Rue Ravignan (now 11bis Place Emile Goudeau ). The name of the house went down in the history of art since the turn of the 20th century, a group of famous artists later lived and studios had rented.

The house and its inhabitants

Maxime Maufra was the first tenant in the house, which was at that time still called " Maison du Trappeur " (House of the trapper ) in 1892. This was followed by Spanish and Italian artists within the collector and painter Paco Durrio ( 1868-1940 ).

The German painter Friedrich Ahlers - Hester man, student of the Académie Matisse, described the studio building as " an incredibly large wooden hut in which to story after the Place Ravignan, the back five floors stretched deep on the slope. " Its name means "laundry boat " because the house boats of washerwomen resembled on the Seine; the writer and painter Max Jacob gave him his name.

Beginning of the 20th century lived a number of well known artists and writers in the Bateau - Lavoir. One of the residents was Picasso, who took over the studio of Paco Durrio and lived there from 1904 to 1909 with his dog Frika. In 1905 he met here his first girlfriend Fernande Olivier. In this studio, he painted his first Cubist works, created in 1906 Gertrude Stein's portrait and the following year his painting Les Demoiselles d' Avignon. The studio building Bateau Lavoir can therefore be described as the birthplace of Cubism.

The art collector Gertrude Stein describes the frequent meetings in Picasso's studio for her portrait in her book, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas: "There was a bed, where everyone sat and slept, there was a small kitchen chair where Picasso was sitting in painting, there was a large easel and as many pictures and there was a small fox terrier were ... "So they are not bored, read Picasso's companion Fernande Olivier to her from the Fables of La Fontaine.

In addition, Kees van Dongen, Otto Freundlich, Pablo Gargallo, Juan Gris, Max Jacob, Amedeo Modigliani, Pierre Reverdy and André Salmon found here its affordable accommodation in the otherwise expensive Paris.

Furthermore, the house was a meeting place of many famous people of the avant-garde, such as Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse and Jean Cocteau, who visited the resident artists.

After the beginning of World War I in 1914, many artists moved to the settlement to La Ruche in Montparnasse Quarter of Paris.

On May 12, 1970, the building was destroyed by fire and replaced by a new building which is home to artists' studios. Today the town is a destination for foreign art lovers.

The banquet for Rousseau

In 1908, a banquet for Henri Rousseau found in Picasso's studio place in the Bateau - Lavoir, which was attended by all the Montmartre artists. This banquet is also a part of art history. The occasion was the sale of the first image of Rousseau, the way to Picasso, who had purchased the Portrait de femme 1907 for five francs. This painting took Picasso with all parades and kept it until his death.

Participants of the festival were known, among other things Apollinaire, Braque, Salmon, Marie Laurencin, Modigliani, the gallery owner Wilhelm Uhde, Gertrude and Leo Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude's girlfriend. Rousseau was so completely convinced of the value of its Malwerke that he beside him just let Picasso are among the contemporaries, whose painting he " Egyptian" held inexplicably for. "We are the two greatest painters of this period ," he said at the banquet to Picasso, "you in the Egyptian style, I in the modern. "

About this historic food, one of the most famous events in the childhood of modern art, there are at least five witnesses reports, but significantly contradict each other. According to the hostess, Picasso's former companion Fernande Olivier, the tax collector was sitting on a "throne", a chair, standing on a box; the studio was decorated with flags and lanterns, and on a banner stand: " Long live Rousseau" The writer Ursula von Kardorff reported in her book " Adieu Paris " on the feast that Rousseau stirred thanked the speakers and his violin fetched to play on it: " he did not notice the wax of the candle dripping down on his bald head and formed a small hill. Braque played accordion, all danced. Everyone was nice blue. Fasting remained only the siblings Gertrude and Leo Stein and Toklas friend Alice. [ ... ] The feast ended, when the sun was in the sky. "