Painters [*/ ) Bateau Lavoir / Rue Schoelcher | Studios of Picasso in Paris 1900-16
< Pablo Picasso, Montmartre, 1904 / Le Bateau Lavoir, Montmartre, Paris
where Picasso’s studio was during the summer of 1907 when he painted
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon in 1907.
Pablo Picasso: Self-Portrait with Portrait of a Man and Roofs of Barcelona at the Rue Schoelcher Studio, Paris, 1915-16 / Pablo Picasso – Portrait de Carles Casagemas, 1900
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In 1900 Picasso got his first studio in Montmarte, Paris, together with his friend and artist Carlos Casagemas, whom he had met in Barcelona.
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The tragic themes and expressive style of Picasso’s Blue Period began after the suicide of Picasso’s friend Carlos Casagemas in Paris. During this time, the artist was sympathetic to the plight of the downtrodden and painted many canvases depicting the miseries of the poor, the ill, and those cast out of society. He too knew what it
was like to be impoverished, having been nearly penniless during all of 1902.
Pablo Picasso, La Vie, 1903 Pablo Picasso, Evocation (The Burial of Casagemas), 1901
Pablo Picasso in boxing shorts in his rue Schoelcher studio, Paris,1915-16 Pablo Picasso in his studio in the Rue Schoelcher, Paris.
Pablo Picasso, Self-portrait, in front of “Man leaning on a table” in his studio in the Rue Schoelcher, 1915/1916 Paris.
Picasso wearing a metal worker’s jacket in his rue Schoelcher studio, Paris, ca. 1915-16. “Guitar and Clarinet on a Mantelpiece” is visible on the floor at left. Photograph by Pablo Picasso
Le Bateau-Lavoir
A building in the Montmartre district of the 18th arrondissement of Paris, that housed Pablo Picasso's studio, from about 1903 to around 1914. It's where he painted many of the Blue and nearly all of the Rose period pictures, and where Cubism was first unveiled to an astonished and skeptical world. The name was coined by French painter Max Jacob. The building was dark and dirty, almost seeming to be scrap pile rather than a dwelling. On stormy days, they swayed and creaked, reminding people of washing-boats on the nearby Seine River, hence the name. It has been suggested that the structure was a manufacturing facility in the previous century
Germaine Pichot
Germaine Pichot was an attractive artist’s model in Paris. She also worked as a laundress and seamstress. When Picasso and his friend Carles Casagemas moved to Paris in 1900, the first people that the two friends befriended were Louise Lenoir [known as Odette] and Germaine. Picasso began having an affair with Odette while Casagemas fell in love with Germaine. During this time Casagemas found out he was impotent which threw him into a deep depression from which he never recovered from. Picasso hoped to revive Casagemas and erase all thoughts of Germaine from his head so he took his friend on a tour through Spain.
Early in 1901, Casagemas returned to Paris without Picasso. He threw a party for seven people at the restaurant L’Hippodrome, which was located in the building he lived in. One of the guests was Germaine. During dinner, Casagemas stood up, delivered a speech in French, then pulled a gun out of his pocket and aimed it at Germaine. She was able to dodge the bullet’s full impact by diving under the table and suffered only a flesh wound to her upper body. Casagemas, on the other hand, angry at his failure to shoot Germaine, turned the gun on himself. He died of the bullet wound to his head almost immediately.
When Picasso returned to Paris after his friend’s death he upset many of his friends by ending his relationship with Odette and starting up an affair with Germaine, who did not seem too affected by Casagemas’s death. After a while, Germaine and Picasso split up and Germaine married Ramon Pichot, a friend of Picasso’s. Evidently, Germaine was not faithful to her new husband and had many affairs with men from the circus.
http://www.geocities.ws/cyberdramaturg/picasso/germaine.html
Two neighborhoods—Montmartre and Montparnasse—helped shape Picasso and a generation of innovators.
Montparnasse hosted an avant-garde collective that was dominated by foreigners. The sport of American boxing took the place of the circus and cabaret in captivating the interest of the avant-garde. Even the collector and writer Gertrude Stein, another resident, attended the matches, while the eccentric Cocteau liked to splash in the athletes’ leftover bathwater. As foreign style replaced bohemian influences, Picasso went on to design stage sets for the Ballets Russes and the exiled impresario Serge Diaghilev.
Why Paris? / James Panero / Humanities / Dec 2010
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