Le Chat Noir (;
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
for "The Black Cat") was a nineteenth-century entertainment establishment, in the bohemian
Montmartre
Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue C ...
district of
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
. It was opened on 18 November 1881 at 84
Boulevard de Rochechouart
The Boulevard Marguerite-de-Rochechouart is a street in Paris, France, situated at the foot of Montmartre and to its south. Like the neighbouring street, it is named after Marguerite de Rochechouart de Montpipeau (1665–1727), abbess of Montmar ...
by the
impresario
An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer.
H ...
Rodolphe Salis, and closed in 1897 not long after Salis' death.
''Le Chat Noir'' is thought to be the first modern
cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dinin ...
: a nightclub where the patrons sat at tables and drank alcoholic beverages while being entertained by a variety show on stage. The acts were introduced by a master of ceremonies who interacted with well-known patrons at the tables. Its imitators have included cabarets from
St. Petersburg (''
Stray Dog Café'') to
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...
(''
Els Quatre Gats
Els Quatre Gats (; ) is a café in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain that famously became a popular meeting place for famous artists throughout the modernist period in Catalonia, known as ''Modernisme''. The café opened on 12 June 1897 in the famous Ca ...
'') to London's ''
Cave of the Golden Calf
The Cave of the Golden Calf was a night club in London. In existence for only two years immediately before the First World War, it epitomised decadence, and still inspires cultural events. Its name is a reference to the Golden Calf of the Biblica ...
''.
In its heyday it was a bustling nightclub that was part artist
salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon ...
, part rowdy
music hall. From 1882 to 1895 the cabaret published a weekly magazine with the same name, featuring literary writings, news from the cabaret and Montmartre, poetry, and political satire. It was the subject of an iconic
Théophile Steinlen poster
A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. ...
in 1896.
Early history
The cabaret began by renting the cheapest accommodations it could find, a small two-room site located at 84 Boulevard Rochechouart, which is now commemorated by a historical plaque.
Its success was assured with the wholesale arrival of a group of radical young writers and artists called ''Les Hydropathes'' ("those who are afraid of water – so they drink only wine"), a club led by the journalist
Émile Goudeau
Émile Goudeau (29 August 1849 – 18 September 1906) was a French journalist, novelist and poet. He was the founder of the Hydropathes literary club.
Life
He was born in Périgueux, Dordogne, the son of Germain Goudeau, an architect, and c ...
. The group claimed to be averse to water, preferring wine and beer. Their name doubled as a nod to the "
rabid" zeal with which they advocated their sociopolitical and aesthetic agendas. Goudeau's club met in his house on the ''
Rive Gauche
The Rive Gauche (, ''Left Bank'') is the southern bank of the river Seine in Paris. Here the river flows roughly westward, cutting the city in two parts. When facing downstream, the southern bank is to the left, and the northern bank (or '' Rive ...
'' (Left Bank), but had become so popular that it outgrew its meeting place. Salis met Goudeau, whom he convinced to relocate the club meeting place across the river on rue de Laval (now rue Victor-Massé).
Second site
''Le Chat Noir'' soon outgrew its first site. In June 1885, three and a half years after opening, it moved to larger accommodations at 12 Rue Victor-Massé. The new venue was the sumptuous old private mansion of the Belgian painter
Alfred Stevens, who, at Salis' request, transformed it into a "fashionable country inn" with the help of the architect Maurice Isabey.
Soon a growing crowd of poets and singers was gathering at ''Le Chat Noir'', which offered an ideal venue and opportunity to practice their acts before fellow performers, guests and colleagues.
With exaggerated, ironic politeness, Salis most often played the role of ''conférencier'' (post-performance lecturer, or master of ceremonies). It was here that the ''
Salon des Arts Incohérents'' (Salon of Incoherent Arts),
shadow plays
''Shadow Plays'' is a solo piano album by Craig Taborn. It was recorded in concert in March 2020 and was released by ECM Records the following year.
Background
Taborn's previous solo piano album, '' Avenging Angel'', was recorded in 2010. Since ...
, and comic monologues got their start.
Famous men and women to patronize ''Le Chat Noir'' included
Jane Avril,
Franc-Nohain,
Adolphe Willette
Adolphe Léon Willette (30 July 1857, Châlons-sur-Marne4 February 1926, Paris) was a French painter, illustrator, caricaturist, and lithographer, as well as an architect of the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret. Willette ran as an "anti-semitic" ca ...
,
Caran d'Ache,
André Gill,
Émile Cohl,
Paul Bilhaud, Sarah England,
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine (; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' in international and F ...
,
Henri Rivière,
Claude Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most infl ...
,
Erik Satie
Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an un ...
,
Charles Cros,
Jules Laforgue,
Yvette Guilbert, Charles Moréas,
Albert Samain, Louis Le Cardonnel,
Coquelin Cadet Coquelin is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Benoît-Constant Coquelin (1841–1909), French actor
* Charles Coquelin (1802–1852), French economist
* Ernest Alexandre Honoré Coquelin (1848–1909), French actor, brot ...
,
Emile Goudeau
Emil or Emile may refer to:
Literature
*''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life
*''Emil and the Detective ...
,
Alphonse Allais,
Maurice Rollinat
Maurice Rollinat (December 29, 1846 in Châteauroux, Indre – October 26, 1903 in Ivry-sur-Seine) was a French poet and musician.
Early works
His father represented Indre in the National Assembly of 1848, and was a friend of George Sand, who ...
,
Maurice Donnay, Armand Masson,
Aristide Bruant
Aristide Bruant (; 6 May 1851 – 11 February 1925) was a French cabaret singer, comedian, and nightclub owner. He is best known as the man in the red scarf and black cape featured on certain famous posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He ...
,
Théodore Botrel,
Paul Signac
Paul Victor Jules Signac ( , ; 11 November 1863 – 15 August 1935) was a French Neo-Impressionist painter who, working with Georges Seurat, helped develop the Pointillist style.
Biography
Paul Signac was born in Paris on 11 November 1863. ...
, Porfirio Pires,
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty ...
,
George Auriol
George Auriol, born Jean-Georges Huyot (26 April 1863, Beauvais ( Oise) – February 1938, Paris), was a French poet, songwriter, graphic designer, type designer, and Art Nouveau artist. He worked in many media and created illustrations for the c ...
,
Marie Krysinska
Marie may refer to:
People Name
* Marie (given name)
* Marie (Japanese given name)
* Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973
* Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in Tro ...
, and
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the l ...
.
The last shadow play by Salis' company was staged in January 1897, after which Salis took the company on tour. Salis was talking of plans to move the cabaret to a location in Paris itself, but he died on 19 March 1897.
The death of Rodophe Salis in 1897 spelled the end of ''Le Chat Noir''. By that time the fascination with Montmartre had already diminished, and Salis had already disposed of many of the club's assets and facilities. Soon after Salis' death, the artists dispersed, and ''Le Chat Noir'' slowly disappeared.
Last location
Ten years later, in 1907, Jehan Chargot opened an eponymous café in an effort to resurrect, modernize, and continue the work of his illustrious predecessor. This new ''Chat Noir'', located at 68, boulevard de Clichy, remained popular into the 1920s.
Today a neon sign which incorporates Steinlen's iconic Chat Noir image is on display at 68, Boulevard de Clichy, now the site of a hotel by the same name.
Other cabarets successfully copied and adapted the model established by ''Le Chat Noir''. In December 1899,
Henri Fursy
Henri Fursy or Furcy (real name Henri Dreyfus, 26 February 1866 - 14 April 1929) was a French cabaret singer, director and lyricist.
Life
Henri Dreyfus was born on 26 February 1866 in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris.
Under the stage name of Henr ...
opened his ''Boîte à Fursy'' cabaret in the former ''Chat Noir'' hotel on rue Victor-Massé. He claimed to have inherited the mantle of Salis, and said his cabaret "has thanks to Fursy become once again the goal of all who 'climb Montmartre' to hear their favorite ''chansonniers'' (singers)..."
Shadow play
From its opening, ''Le Chat Noir'' was thought of as a meeting point for artists, with an interior design in the style of
Louis XIII
Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown ...
. In the beginning, poets, musicians, writers, and singers performed on the stage, but they were quickly replaced as the shadow play medium developed at ''Le Chat Noir'' and spread from there. The cabaret is still remembered for these.
The shadow play had already been established in France in the 18th century and made popular by
Dominique Séraphin
"Dominique" is a 1963 French language popular song, written and performed by the Belgian female singer Jeannine Deckers, better known as SÅ“ur Sourire ("Sister Smile" in French) or The Singing Nun. The song is about Saint Dominic, a Spanish-born ...
, but it had disappeared from the art world during the 19th century. ''Le Chat Noir'' was the major cause of the shadow play's renewed popularity in France, as
Lotte Reiniger was in Germany by her linking of such shows to the cinema by creating characters from cutout figures and projecting them as shadow puppets.
The birth of the shadow plays in ''Le Chat Noir'' took place in a peculiar way. By the end of 1885, the painter Henry Sommer and the illustrator
George Auriol
George Auriol, born Jean-Georges Huyot (26 April 1863, Beauvais ( Oise) – February 1938, Paris), was a French poet, songwriter, graphic designer, type designer, and Art Nouveau artist. He worked in many media and created illustrations for the c ...
built a puppet theater there, intended for adults-only performances. One day
Henri Rivière placed a white napkin in front of the opening of the small puppet theater and moved a cardboard puppet behind the white screen with lighting from behind, while Jules Jouy sang, accompanying himself on piano. This was the first shadow play in ''Le Chat Noir''.
In 1887 Rivière replaced the puppet theater with a proper shadow theater, with a screen 44 inches high and 55 inches wide, held by a huge frame. Artists such as cartoonist
Adolphe Willette
Adolphe Léon Willette (30 July 1857, Châlons-sur-Marne4 February 1926, Paris) was a French painter, illustrator, caricaturist, and lithographer, as well as an architect of the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret. Willette ran as an "anti-semitic" ca ...
, painter
Caran d'Ache,
Henri Rivière and
George Auriol
George Auriol, born Jean-Georges Huyot (26 April 1863, Beauvais ( Oise) – February 1938, Paris), was a French poet, songwriter, graphic designer, type designer, and Art Nouveau artist. He worked in many media and created illustrations for the c ...
created the cabaret's shadow plays. They used zinc to create the silhouettes of a few characters (although initially they used cardboard), which they used as puppets, projecting their shadow onto a white screen which was illuminated from behind with electric lights. This was an evolutionary development in the art of shadow plays.
Writers who frequented the club wrote stories for the shadow theater that
Rodolphe Salis, the owner of the cabaret, would read out loud after the performance. Thanks to the collaboration of many of the artists of that time, the stories were accompanied by some very complex colour, sound, and movement effects, making them more dynamic and exciting, as well as piano accompaniment.
Over an eleven-year span these plays were presented nightly in the Shadow Theater, totaling more than forty. The Montmartre museum still has a few zinc shapes that had been used in the plays.
The spread of this type of show became successful because of
Théophile Steinlen's poster announcing "''la tournée du Chat Noir avec Rodolphe Salis"'', a Shadow Theater tour from ''Le Chat Noir.''
''Le Chat Noir'' made many tours with the Shadow Theater. These started in 1892, basically around France during the summer, although Salis and the company went to Tunis, Algeria, and other French-speaking countries such as Belgium. Some of the artists who played in Salis' performances became so famous that they founded their own cabarets or shows. ''Le Chat Noir'' was supposed to have its last show and tour in January 1897, since Salis died just after that. However, it was his wife who took the charge of the cabaret and organised other tours. During these shows, Dominique Bonnaud replaced Salis and became the storyteller. Although he did it well, the quality of the performances declined. By then, other establishments had become popular by copying ''Le Chat noirs techniques, shows and decor.
Under the management of
Rodolphe Salis, ''Le Chat noir'' produced 45
''théatre d'ombres'' (
shadow play
Shadow play, also known as shadow puppetry, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated cut-out figures (shadow puppets) which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen or scrim. The cut-o ...
) shows between 1885 and 1896, as the art became more popular in Europe. Behind a screen on the second floor of the establishment, the artist
Henri Rivière worked with up to 20 assistants in a large,
oxy-hydrogen backlit performance area and used a double optical
lantern
A lantern is an often portable source of lighting, typically featuring a protective enclosure for the light sourcehistorically usually a candle or a wick in oil, and often a battery-powered light in modern timesto make it easier to carry and h ...
to project backgrounds. Originally cardboard cutouts were used, but zinc figures took their place after 1887. Various artists took part in the creation, including
Steinlen,
Adolphe Willette
Adolphe Léon Willette (30 July 1857, Châlons-sur-Marne4 February 1926, Paris) was a French painter, illustrator, caricaturist, and lithographer, as well as an architect of the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret. Willette ran as an "anti-semitic" ca ...
and
Albert Robida
Albert Robida (14 May 1848 – 11 October 1926) was a French illustrator, etcher, lithographer, caricaturist, and novelist. He edited and published '' La Caricature'' magazine for 12 years. Through the 1880s, he wrote an acclaimed trilogy of fut ...
.
Caran d'Ache designed around 50 cutouts for the very popular 1888 show ''L'Epopée''.
Cultural associations
*French-Colombian street artist
Chanoir chose his nickname in reference to the poster.
*A poster of ''Le Chat Noir'' may be seen prominently in the crime scene photographs from the 2001 death of
Kathleen Peterson.
*A poster of ''Le Chat Noir'' may also be seen prominently in the movie ''
Breakfast at Tiffany's'' hanging on the wall over the staircase.
*''Le Chat Noir'' is the name of the nightclub where
Frank Sinatra and
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood ( Zacharenko; July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress who began her career in film as a child and successfully transitioned to young adult roles.
Wood started acting at age four and was given a co-starring r ...
rekindle their relationship, in the 1958 movie ''
Kings Go Forth''. There is also the famous cat painting with blinking eyes on the entrance wall.
*''Le Chat Noir'' was referenced in ''
Sakura Taisen''.
*A ''Le Chat Noir'' painting is noticeably a background piece in the movie ''
The Secret Life of Pets''.
*A poster of ''Le Chat Noir'' is seen hanging in the bedroom of Claire Carlin, played by
Maude Apatow, in the 2020 film ''
The King of Staten Island''.
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
External links
''Le Chat Noir'' 1882-1891at
BnF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chat Noir
1881 establishments in France
Companies disestablished in 1897
Cabarets in Paris
Montmartre