24/07/2022
Are you in Paris right now or are you going to visit the French capital sometime soon? Take one of our audio tours (or both!) in Montmartre or Montparnasse. You'll find the audio tours, that take you along addresses of Dutch artists who have worked in Paris in the izi.TRAVELapp.
One of the 'stops' in the audio tour "Montmartre: Van Gogh and Other Dutch Painters" is Bateau-Lavoir. The story we tell here is as follows:
"Bateau-Lavoir at number 13 was made famous above all by Pablo Picasso, who from 1900 to 1909 had his studio at the rear of the building, on the ground floor. The studio complex was named by French author and painter Max Jacob. The building reminded him of a Parisian laundry boat (bateau-lavoir), several of which were moored on the Seine until the mid- to late nineteenth century. He therefore dubbed the building Bateau-Lavoir – and the name has stuck to this day.
Other artists lived and worked here besides Picasso. They included Juan Gris and the Dutch artist couple Otto van Rees and Adya van Rees-Dutilh. Kees van Dongen also had a studio here from late 1905 to 1907, to the left of the front door.
Bateau-Lavoir became a hotspot for artists, collectors and writers like Guillaume Apollinaire, Gertrude Stein, Max Jacob, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque and Henri Rousseau. It was famous – or infamous – for the parties held there. Picasso once bought a painting by Rousseau, who worked in a naïve style mocked by other artists. But Picasso thought the painting so bad it was actually good. He and Apollinaire organised a dinner party in Rousseau’s honour. After the cafés on the Butte had closed, more and more people flocked to the party, including Frédéric Gérard, owner of Au Lapin Agile, accompanied by his flatulent donkey. Another guest was so drunk that while dancing he fell onto the cake that was to have been served for dessert.
Bateau-Lavoir was a breeding ground for new ideas in literature and painting. It was there that Picasso experimented with Cubism and Kees van Dongen evolved into a Fauvist, using vibrant, unmixed colours in his work."