Studio: international art (35.1905)

Montmartre

fimile Friant, portraitist to the Coquelin family,
had studios within a few minutes’ walk along the
wide Boulevard de Clichy. Henner, whose smooth
work is so curious a blend, as regards the subjects
he chooses, of the religious and pagan, lives on the
Place Pigalle, where on Monday mornings models
of all ages and types foregather in hope of employ-
ment. In the same block Puvis de Chavannes had
his studio, and a little further along the boulevard
is that of Tattegrain, the painter of sand dunes and
fisher folk. And there are many others within a
stone’s throw.

Of the famous draughtsmen who have become
more particularly known as illustrators and de-
picters of Paris life and of Montmartre subjects
and types, the Butte as a place of residence can
claim the best.

In the steep and tortuous Rue Lepic dwells
Louis Morin, bearded and wavy locked (who has
been called the Watteau of the modern illustrated
press), once a leading spirit of the famous shadow
pantomimes of the “Chat Noir”; with Ibels, the
impressionist; and Leandre, the mordant cari-
caturist, hard by. At the back of the Butte, in the
airy and comparatively modern Rue Caulaincourt,
dwells Steinlen, that masterly depicter of the life of
Montmartre—of the little dressmakers, peasants, of
the destitute and the starving, for all of whom
(even for the ruffians and “ Macs ” of the dark
streets of the Butte and Moulin de la Galette) he
is able by his genius to evoke a meed of sympathy.

In others of the steep, winding, irregularly-built
streets dwell men who have conquered or who
are conquering fame with their pencils and brushes,
whose names it is unnecessary
to recapitulate.

It is, however, on the northern
slopes of the Butte that the
artist and antiquarian, and those
in search of the picturesque
will find the greatest reward for
their rambling investigations.

Out of the famous Rue Lepic,
under the shadow of the last
of the ancient “Moulins” of
Montmartre, Le Moulin de la
Galette, famed for its balls and
grisettes, runs the ill-paved,
picturesque Rue Giradon, on
the right-hand side of which
are several little ascending
by-ways, leading to a lingering
rusticity and tumble-down old
houses, set back from the
blocks of modern flats and
studios which have arisen
during the last decade to
partially modernise the street.
On the left are still, happily, a
few houses picturesque from
age, with grey, weather-stained
encompassing walls and iron
gateways, through which gar-
dens, full in summer-time of
flowers and gay with colour,
can be seen—gardens to which
their artist-owners cling with a
fearful devotion ; for even now
there are rumours of other flats
and more destruction of the
picturesque.

RUE ST. VINCENT WITH PART OF FROM A PHOTOGRAPH

LA BELLE GABRIELLE’s CHATEAU BY CLIVE HOLLAND