montmartre

They don't call Montmartre the Butte for
nothing ---believe me it is steep, so you can
get a taxi, walk up or get the Metro to
Abbessess. This Metro stop alone is worth
seeing as it is one of the most picturesque in
Paris. From there a stroll up rue Lepic,
passing the house where Van Gogh used to
stay with his faithful brother Theo, and onto
the maze of streets, bars and shops, always
overlooked by Sacre Coeur, which is the
Butte.

Cynics will tell you that Montmartre has been
ruined by tourism but I don't subscribe to that
belief --tourists are smarter than is given credit
for and they go where things are worth seeing.
Certainly, the Butte is crowded but it still
retains that village atmosphere. Place du
Tertre on the right is the central square where
all the artists congregate --there's no obligation
to buy and it's a great place to people-watch.

The streets wander up and down
and round about with places of
interest on every corner. The
ancien cabaret Au Lapin Agile is
full of pictures of the artists who
used to inhabit the place --
Picasso, Lautrec, Van Gogh,
Manet, Apollinaire. The name
Lapin Agile is a bit of a joke
really because it used to be
owned by a certain Gill and was
called Lapin a Gill ---you can
work the rest out for yourself. I
read somewhere that it was once
the ancestral home of Gabrielle
D'Estrees which dates it at 15th
century.

The name Montmartre is derived from a possible two legends. The first that it was the site of a Roman Temple, hence
Mont de Mercure and the second Mont des Martyrs from the time when St.Denis and his pals were beheaded here ---
Mont des Martyrs { you just can't get away from a decapitation anywhere}. during the Revolution it was named Mont
Marat.

Gustave Courbet was an ardent
member of the Commune and he led
the group of sailors who pulled down
the Vendome Column in 1871. His
punishment was to replace the
Column out of his own funds which
ruined him financially for the rest of
his life. He was lucky --most of his
companions were shot.

Montmartre is of course all about painters and never have so
many gifted artists been in one place all at the same time. Not
only painters but writers like Zola congregated in the many
cafes and there is no doubt that they inspired each other.
Renoir, Lautrec, van Gogh, Manet, Monet,Cezanne, Pisarro
and many more debated and argued and produced works of art.

Most of the denizens of the Butte were inspired to paint scenes of Montmartre at some stage in their careers, leaving
a record of the Butte in its heyday. The Moulin de la Galette is still there and the windmill can be seen from the
road. Vincent painted La Guingette while seated at the terrace of La Bonne Franquette while Utrillo painted so any
pictures of Montmartre that he is known as "the artist of Montmartre".

The steps run parallel with the funicular so if you are feeling
energetic you can walk up to the Sacre Coeur and take in all
the scenery. Most people ride up and walk down and go
straight on to Pigalle and never notice the inauspicious, little
square at the bottom of the steps. There's no reason why
they should because as squares go this one is no prize but
up on the wall is the name PLACE SUZANNE VALADON
and like so many place names in Paris there is a story to
tell.

The portrait is Suzanne Valadon as Renoir saw
her. Suzanne was at one time a mistress to Renoir
as she was to Lautrec and many others of the
painters of Montmartre and her life was as
colourful as the paintings she later produced
herself.

Born circa 1865 to an unmarried laundress,
Suzanne became a circus acrobat at the age of 16
until a fall ended that particular career. Her
stunning looks then led her to model for Renoir
and Lautrec in whose studios she began her first
faltering steps at painting --aided by Degas at one
stage.

She persevered at painting and eventually came to produce canvasses such
as the one on the left but in the meanwhile she had also produced a son.
Undaunted by her new responsibility, Suzanne now painted feverishly ---
still-life, floral art, landscapes, female nudes --- and like all the best
painters became even more eccentric than she had ever been. It's strange
how some unknown law of nature makes eccentricity and art go hand in
hand and what would be unacceptable to us in others becomes just an
affectionatetrait of the artist --- obligatory in fact. So, when Suzanne
wears a corsage of carrots and keeps a goat in her studio and feeds her
cats caviar on Fridays we just smile ---as long as she doesn't live next
door.

Unlike many artists, the art of Suzanne Valadon was acclaimed in her
lifetime and she adapted to a life of wealth just as easily as she had adapted
to her years of poverty.

She had many lovers but as unusually discreet and finally married a
friend of her son who was 21 years her junior.

Suzanne Valadon never disclosed the name of her son's father and it was a
Spanish friend who gave him his name of Utrillo and it was as Maurice
Utrillo that Suzanne's son also became famous.

Maurice Utrillo painted more scenes of Montmartre than any other artist
of the time and while that's not all he painted, it is as the Artist of
Montmartre that he has become famous. Most of his paintings are scenes
but when he does occasionally bring figures into his pictures I always
think they look like Lowry meets Beryl Cook.

In her overwhelming compulsion to paint, Suzanne left a great deal of
Maurice's upbringing to his grandmother. It is not for me to be
condemnatory about this, but it is said that his grandmother, impatient for
him to sleep at night, gave him wine mixed with milk nightly which
contributed to his downfall later in life. Whether or not there is any basis
of fact in this, sadly Maurice succumbed to alcoholism in adulthood. The
sale of the now banned absinthe in the bars at that time hardly helped.
Maurice must have tried to escape his addiction because he went from
asylum to asylum and later in life was little heard of.

Anyway, far more important than all that is the legacy he left behind him ;

So, here's a little gallery of Utrillo's for no other reason than I like them.

I once sat with an old lady at a cafe in St.Lazare. She told
me that she was in the same class at school as Utrillo and
during their lunch times he would sit and draw on
anything in sight ---tablecloths, napkins, handkerchiefs -
- she wished that she had kept some of them as they would
have kept her in her old age.

Utrillo died in 1955.

This trio of old photos is worth
looking at just to compare to the
paintings and how they look today.

The Moulin de la Galette is not a
great deal different today apart from
looking too posh to ask for a pint.

The Rue st Vincent is essentially
the same country lane at the side of
Lapin Agile but today has a tarmac
road and is spoilt by the traffic.

Not sure of the age of these pictures
but at a guess I would say they were
not later than turn of the century.

The photo of the Lapin Agile at first
glance looks the same and I suppose it
is apart from a few subtle differences ;

There's a lamp on the corner where
there never was one before and the
name Lapin Agile is displayed on the
side and front of the building. But the
most interesting feature is the tree at
the front of the building ---in Utrillo's
painting it is quite small and in the
picture above has grown a little if you
see it now it looks quite gnarled and
ancient. I think it is the same tree
because if memory serves me right it's
a Robinia and these are qiute long-lived.