Villa des Arts
A Paris arts community
Past and Present
Tucked away on a tiny crook of a tiny rue near the Montmartre cemetery you’ll find an iron gate announcing “Villa des Arts”. If you peer through the wrought iron gaps, you can see a grassy courtyard but not the amazing arts scene housed here for over a century. This hidden village of artists well represents the blending of past and present in Paris. A glance at the cement wall plaques at the entrance gives a clue to its past.
“The painters Paul Cezanne (1839-1906, Paul Signac (1863-1935) and Louis Marcoussis (1878-1941) lived and worked in this house.”
“Here lived the painter Eugène Carrière (1849-1906). In this atelier, Verlaine posed for him.”
The plot of land was carved away from the Montmartre cemetery and artists lived there under the protection of King Louis XV. By the 1880’s, Montmartre was still rural; there were fields and vacant lots and the open-air gypsum quarry from which the famous Plaster of Paris was made*. On the other side of the cemetery was the Maquis of Montmartre, a labyrinthine hodgepodge of shacks, cabins and shanties housing the poor, the seedy, artists, scrap-dealers and hide-outs from the law and society. Somewhere between a bucolic village and a slum, laced with alleys and rustic stairways, artists were drawn to painting and living on the Butte and around the Maquis.
*as opposed to the underground limestone quarries in Paris from which building stone was made.
The Guéret family acquired the land where the Villa is located in 1888. They hired a popular architect of the time, Henri Cambon to redesign the cluster of old buildings then there. Cambon created many elegant apartment buildings in this area as well as the enormous Hippodrome at Place Clichy which could seat 8,000 people and whose stables held 200 horses. Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show appeared there on its European tour. The Hippodrome is now a Castorama, a sort of French Home Depot store.
The construction of Villa des Arts is linked with the Exposition Universelle of 1889, the World Expo of its era. The centenary of the French Revolution was that year. The Expo celebrated the Machine Age and especially French Industry, French art and French colonization. The Eiffel Tower, which was initially unpopular and denounced by spokesmen of the day like Guy de Maupassant, was built for this Expo.
Cambon repurposed materials left-over from the Exposition in the construction of the Villa to spectacular effect, specifically a monumental double staircase and female statue, as well as art nouveau structural girders to buttress building walls.
He conceived of three main buildings, next to an existing pavilion, around a rectangular courtyard secluded from the street, initially named rue de la Villa des Beaux-Arts and now rue Hégésippe-Moreau. The buildings house 65 studios, some that are live-work studios. They have large windows providing the light so precious to artists.
Villa des Arts nurtured a spectacular array of artists over the years from many different art movements.
Renoir worked at the Villa from 1892 to 1896.This was his Nacrée (Pearly) period, known for transparent, luminescent effects and a more sensual and fluid style than evident during his previous Sèche (dry) or Ingresque period, marked by more linear and classical compositions.
Young Girl Combing her Hair 1894
The poet Stéphane Mallarmé, famous for his epistolary relationships, immortalized Renoir’s time at the Villa with one of the rhyming limericks he composed and used as addresses to his correspondants.
« Villa des Arts, près l’avenue
De Clichy, peint Monsieur Renoir
Qui devant une épaule nue
Broie autre chose que du noir.»
“At the Villa des Arts near the avenue
De Clichy, paints Monsieur Renoir,
Who, in front of a shoulder that’s nude,
Feels something other than blue.”
Stéphane Mallarmé, Les Loisirs de la poste, 1894
Cézanne lived and painted at the Villa in 1898 and 1899 on the 4th floor. Here he painted his friend, renowned art dealer Ambroise Vollard who sat 115 times for the portrait.
Eugène Carrière was a French Symbolist painter who taught at a private art school, the Académie de la Palette, located nearby on Boulevard Clichy, close to the Moulin Rouge. He painted the French Symbolist poet Verlaine, notorious for his scandalous affair with (and subsequent shooting of) Rimbaud.
Verlaine by Carrière
Carrière lived and worked at the Villa from 1898 to his death in 1906.
The list of artists who have worked at the Villa is a long one and the list of famous visitors is even longer (among them you find Picasso, Dali, Breton, Miro, Gertrude Stein).
The Villa was classified as an historical monument in 1994. In 2005 the orignal family owners sold the Villa in the face of costly but necessary preservation work. It was purchased by a developer with an eye to selling off the units piecemeal as luxury apartments. The community rallied around the historical mission of the Villa and it was bought by the City of Paris in 2007 and later gently renovated.
The live-work units have a mezzanine with living quarters over studio space.
Today the Villa still houses a vibrant community of artists as well as some public housing units (known in France as HLM, Habitation à loyer modéré). There are painters, photographers, sculptors, poets, writers, filmmakers,actors and graphic artists living and working here. They have an active association and an adjoined gallery with events and exhibitions open to the public.
Villa des Arts
15 rue Hégésippe-Moreau
75018 Paris
www.lavilladesarts.org
Photo Caption Give Away
Lovers of Paris often say the city ‘speaks’ to them. Now you can profit from those conversations by adding a caption to a Paris photo. What does the photo below say to you?
On Christmas day 2015 there will be a random drawing of all newsletter subscribers who have entered a caption in the comments section.
The drawing is for this Paris Metro bag. It is 18 inches wide, 13 and one half inches high and has a 10 and one half inch handle drop. It is made of gray canvas, with a zippered top and is quite sturdy. No more fumbling for your Metro map. Just look down at your bag!
Feeling lucky?
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Wit is not a prerequisite….
Does Paris speak to you?
Speak back to win!
16 Dollar Store Travel Hacks – Paris Edition
The Dollar Store is your unlikely best friend when packing for Paris. Visit a dollar store before leaving the US to avoid overspending on travel supplies with. The Dollar Store is cheaper than the Travel aisle in your local pharmacy or discount store.
Their price point allows you to ditch items if you need room in your luggage on the return trip. The stock at the Dollar Store changes and they might not have all of these items all of the time, so buy them when you see them!
#1 – Travel Umbrella
Travel umbrellas tend to get lost or forgotten in restaurants, museums, etc. Unless you are a frequent traveler with a meticulous memory I would go with a Dollar Store umbrella.
#2 – Daily Pill container
If you’re d’un certain âge, you probably take a medication or two or three.
#3 – Over-the-Counter Medications
You will be walking more than you usual, trudging through endless corridors in the Louvre and distracted by the beauty of Paris streets. The Dollar Store is a good place to stock up on pills and unguents for the aches and pains inherent in travel.
#4 – First Aid Kit
You can’t beat a dollar for this.
#5 – Personal Care
You can pick up hygiene and beauty supplies and your TSA liquids container and bag here.
#6 – Sewing Kit
#7 – Drain Cover
Will you be sink-washing undies? I travel with a drain cover because hotel and apartment sink plugs often don’t work.
Picnic Items
Break up the hectic tourist pace with a leisurely meal in a park or on a quai by the Seine. Experience Paris like a Parisian and visit a grocery store, marché, or the food section of a Monoprix store. Pick up a bottle of wine, a baguette or prepared deli item and appreciate the panorama of daily life in Paris.
#8 – Reusable folding bag
When you shop at grocery stores or marchés you’ll notice that the French bring their own sacs and bag items themselves. Bring your own picnic bag.
#9 – Bottle opener
Wine is a good buy in Paris; be prepared to sample a bottle on your picnic!
#10 – Disposables
Bring a few plastic knives, forks, spoons, napkins, and baggies for picnic leftovers. Side note: ‘doggie bags’ are not available in French restaurants. They serve normal portions that can be finished in one sitting. Supersizing is an American phenomenon.
#11 – Sticky notes and arrows
For marking maps and guidebooks and noting observations you want to remember.
#12 – Clothespins
These come in handy when you least suspect and I always pack a couple from the dollar store.
#13 – Carabiners
I use these to clip my keys inside my bag for handy access and to hang laundry bags.
#14 – Portable Flashlight
The French have timers on hallway lights and they can turn themselves off while you are still fumbling for your keys. I also use the ever-handy carabiner to hang one inside my bag for easy access.
#15 – Earplugs
Are you traveling with someone who snores? Don’t lose sleep; throw a couple earplugs in your bag!
#16 – Batteries
And last but not least, don’t forget to put fresh batteries in your various devices!
Guide to the Doors of Paris
Amongst the free eye candy visible to anyone strolling the streets of Paris are doors of astounding beauty and history. No need to stand in a long museum line or shell out a fistful of euros to view this spectacle. The only requirement: slow down and look around!
Doorways hold symbolic power as gateways or as portals to the unknown. The historic doors of Paris invite us to travel into the past and imagine musketeers and nobles, Belle Èpoque beauties and gents, writers, painters and flappers.
Doors may be the only remnant of an ancient building. Facades get remodeled over the centuries. Doorways can be a convenient method of dating a building.
Older doors are often porte-cochères, carriage entrances into the courtyards lying beyond. Look for doors dating to the 1600’s in the Marais and on Île-Saint-Louis. They are wooden with two leaves.
Usually one of the leaves will have a door knocker indicating the pedestrian entrance. Studded nails affix wooden plaques arranged in decorative grids. The earliest nails were round headed. Nails were not only decorative; they protected the wood from damage by carriages knocking against it.
As the century progresses, the designs evolve. Moldings and ornamental carvings appear.
The door is from the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan at 71 rue du Temple. It was built in 1640 and named for the Duc de Saint-Aignan after he purchased it in 1687. He was a favorite of King Louis XIV and became Minister of State.
Two carved Medusa heads by Renaudin on the door of 47 rue Vieille-du-Temple are oft photographed images in the Marais.
Notice how dramatically these porte-cochères have morphed during the 1600’s.
By the 1700 and 1800’s the style had become more ornate and rococo.
Wrought iron began being used in doors in the late 1700’s and flourished in the 1800’s as new and easier handling processes developed during the Industrial Revolution. Initially small wrought iron grids were inserted into the upper part of doors.
In the mid-1800’s, Renaissance elements became popular.
The sinuous lines of Art Nouveau made their appearance in doorways of the late 1800’s up to World War I.
The last great historical era for Paris doors is the post World War I Art Deco period. This lasted into the 1930’s when the depression and then World War Two took its toll.
Try taking an evening walk to look at doors. Entryway lighting highlights the details of glass and iron doorways.
The doors of Paris represent a beautiful and accessible part of the city’s artistic patrimony. Seize the opportunity to appreciate the free historical panorama visible from the sidewalks of Paris.