The Bateau-Lavoir ("Washhouse Boat") is the nickname of a building in the
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 Ca ...
district of the
18th arrondissement of Paris
The 18th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''dix-huitième''.
The arrondissement, known as Butte-Montmartr ...
that is famous in art history as the residence and meeting place for a group of outstanding early 20th-century artists, men of letters, theatre people, and art dealers. It is located at No. 13 Rue Ravignan at Place Emile Goudeau, just below the
Place du Tertre.
A fire destroyed most of the building in May 1970 and only the façade remained, but it was completely rebuilt in 1978.
History
Formerly a ballroom and piano factory, Bateau Lavoir was
squatted and divided into 20 small workshops in 1889. Distributed along a corridor, small rooms were linked without heating and with a single point of water.
The name "Le Bateau-Lavoir" was coined by French poet
Max Jacob. The building was dark and dirty, almost seeming to be scrap pile rather than a dwelling. On stormy days, it swayed and creaked, reminding people of washing-boats on the
Seine River, hence the name.
The building stands on a small cobblestone square that was known as Place Ravignan. In 1911, it was rechristened Place Émile Goudeau for
Émile Goudeau (1849–1906), a popular novelist, poet, and journalist who founded
Les Hydropathes, a renowned and famous literary club. The square now has a
Wallace fountain and is planted with
horse chestnut trees.
Maxime Maufra
Maxime Maufra (17 May 1861 – 23 May 1918) was a French landscape and marine painter, etcher and lithographer.
Life
Maufra first began painting at 18. He was encouraged to do so by two artists from Nantes such as the brothers Charles Ledu ...
(1863–1918) was the first noted artist to take up residence in Bateau-Lavoir, around 1890.
Kees van Dongen
Cornelis Theodorus Maria "Kees" van Dongen (26 January 1877 – 28 May 1968) was a Dutch-French painter who was one of the leading Fauves. Van Dongen's early work was influenced by the Hague School and symbolism and it evolved gradually into a r ...
and
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
took up residence between 1900 and 1904. After 1904 more artists and writers moved in, including
Otto van Rees,
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (, ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and ...
,
Pierre Mac Orlan,
Juan Gris,
André Salmon
André Salmon (4 October 1881, Paris – 12 March 1969, Sanary-sur-Mer) was a French poet, art critic and writer. He was one of the early defenders of Cubism, with Guillaume Apollinaire and Maurice Raynal.
Biography
André Salmon was born in ...
,
Pablo Gargallo,
Max Jacob and
Pierre Reverdy.
It became an unofficial club that included artists
Henri Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prim ...
,
Georges Braque
Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1905, and the role he play ...
,
André Derain
André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse.
Biography
Early years
Derain was born in 1880 in Chatou, Yvelines, Île-de-France, just outside Paris. In ...
,
Raoul Dufy,
Marie Laurencin, Modigliani,
Jean-Paul Laurens,
Maurice Utrillo
Maurice Utrillo (), born Maurice Valadon; 26 December 1883 – 5 November 1955), was a French painter of the School of Paris who specialized in cityscapes. Born in the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous pain ...
,
Jacques Lipchitz,
María Blanchard
María Blanchard (born María Gutiérrez-Cueto y Blanchard;
spanish-art.org; accessed 4 August 2015. ...
,
Jean Metzinger
Jean Dominique Antony Metzinger (; 24 June 1883 – 3 November 1956) was a major 20th-century French painter, theorist, writer, critic and poet, who along with Albert Gleizes wrote the first theoretical work on Cubism. His earliest works, from 1 ...
and
Louis Marcoussis
Louis Marcoussis, formerly Ludwik Kazimierz Wladyslaw Markus or Ludwig Casimir Ladislas Markus, (1878 or 1883, Łódź – October 22, 1941, Cusset) was a painter and engraver of Polish origin who lived in Paris for much of his life and became ...
; writers
Guillaume Apollinaire,
Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry (; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play ''Ubu Roi'' (1896). He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics.
Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, ...
,
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...
,
Gustave Coquiot
Gustave Coquiot (24 September 1865 – 6 June 1926) was a French art critic and writer. A collector of paintings by Maurice Utrillo, he also was one of Auguste Rodin's secretaries.
Theatre
* 1904: ''Deux heures du matin, quartier Marbeuf'', ...
, Cremnitz (Maurice Chevrier),
Paul Fort, André Warnod,
Raymond Radiguet, and
Gertrude Stein; actors
Charles Dullin
Charles Dullin (; 8 May 1885 – 11 December 1949) was a French actor, theater manager and director.
Career
Dullin began his career as an actor in melodrama:185 In 1908, he started his first troupe with Saturnin Fabre, the ''Théâtre de Foire ...
,
Harry Baur, and
Gaston Modot; and art dealers
Ambroise Vollard
Ambroise Vollard (3 July 1866 – 21 July 1939) was a French art dealer who is regarded as one of the most important dealers in French contemporary art at the beginning of the twentieth century. He is credited with providing exposure and emotio ...
,
Clovis Sagot,
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, and
Berthe Weill.
While residing at the Bateau-Lavoir, Picasso painted works such as ''
Young Girl with a Flower Basket
''Young Girl with a Flower Basket'' (French: ''Fillette à la corbeille fleurie'' or ''Jeune fille nue avec panier de fleurs'' or ''Fillette nue au panier de fleurs'' or ''Le panier fleuri'') is a 1905 oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso fro ...
'', and ''
Garçon à la pipe
''Garçon à la Pipe'' (English: ''Boy with a Pipe'') is an oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. It was painted in 1905 when Picasso was 24 years old, during his Rose Period, soon after he settled in the Montmartre area of Paris. The painting ...
'' (''Boy with a Pipe'') in 1905, and one of his most noted works, ''
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'' in 1907, considered by art historians as a
proto-Cubist painting (the precursor of a movement that became known as
Cubism
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
).
Following the outbreak of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
in 1914, creative artists living at the Bateau-Lavoir and in the neighbourhood began moving elsewhere, mainly to
Montparnasse.
Notable residents
*
Guillaume Apollinaire
*
Georges Braque
Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1905, and the role he play ...
*
Jose De Creeft
José Mariano de Creeft (November 27, 1884 - September 11, 1982) was a Spanish-born American artist, sculptor, and teacher known for modern sculpture in stone, metal, and wood, particularly figural works of women. His 16 ft bronze ''Alice i ...
*
Tibor Csernus
*
Kees van Dongen
Cornelis Theodorus Maria "Kees" van Dongen (26 January 1877 – 28 May 1968) was a Dutch-French painter who was one of the leading Fauves. Van Dongen's early work was influenced by the Hague School and symbolism and it evolved gradually into a r ...
*
Otto Freundlich
*
Pablo Gargallo
*
Juan Gris
*
Auguste Herbin
*
Max Jacob
*
Pierre Mac Orlan
*
Maxime Maufra
Maxime Maufra (17 May 1861 – 23 May 1918) was a French landscape and marine painter, etcher and lithographer.
Life
Maufra first began painting at 18. He was encouraged to do so by two artists from Nantes such as the brothers Charles Ledu ...
*
Ksenia Milicevic
*
Igor Mitoraj
Igor Mitoraj (Polish pronunciation: ; 26 March 1944 – 6 October 2014) was a Polish artist and sculptor. Known for his fragmented sculptures of the human body often created for large-scale public installations, he is considered one of the most i ...
*
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (, ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and ...
*
Fernande Olivier
Fernande Olivier (born Amélie Lang; 6 June 1881 – 29 January 1966) was a French artist and model known primarily for having been the model and first muse of painter Pablo Picasso, and for her written accounts of her relationship with him. Pic ...
*
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
*
Augusta Preitinger
*
Adya van Rees-Dutilh
*
Otto van Rees
*
Pierre Reverdy
*
Endre Rozsda
*
André Salmon
André Salmon (4 October 1881, Paris – 12 March 1969, Sanary-sur-Mer) was a French poet, art critic and writer. He was one of the early defenders of Cubism, with Guillaume Apollinaire and Maurice Raynal.
Biography
André Salmon was born in ...
*
Ardengo Soffici
Ardengo Soffici (7 April 1879 – 19 August 1964) was an Italian writer, painter, poet, sculptor and intellectual.
Early life
Soffici was born in Rignano sull'Arno, near Florence. In 1893 his family moved to the latter city, where he stud ...
*
Marie Laurencin
Notable events
In 1908,
a celebration banquet for
Henri Rousseau was organised in Picasso's studio in the Bateau-Lavoir.
One night,
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (, ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and ...
destroyed a number of his friends' paintings while in an alcoholic rage in the Bateau-Lavoir, according to memoirs of his daughter,
Jeanne.
In popular culture
The Le Bateau-Lavoir is a featured setting in the 2018 season of ''
Genius'', which focuses on the life and art of Pablo Picasso.
It is also featured in the 1995
Eric Rohmer film ''
Les Rendez-vous de Paris
''Rendezvous in Paris'' (french: Les Rendez-vous de Paris) is a 1995 French romantic comedy anthology film written and directed by Éric Rohmer.
The film consists of three loosely connected episodes revolving around chance meetings in Paris: "Le ...
''.
See also
*
La Ruche, in Montparnasse, Paris
References
External links
"Cubism Birthplace Bateau-Lavoir"BlogSpot article with additional photographs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bateau-Lavoir, Le
Buildings and structures in Paris
French art
History of Paris
Painting in Paris
Buildings and structures in the 18th arrondissement of Paris
Montmartre
Pablo Picasso
Amedeo Modigliani
Guillaume Apollinaire
Burned buildings and structures in France