Le Lapin Agile

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Au Lapin Agile , 2014
Le Lapin Agile , 1890 based on a painting by Pierre Ernest Prins
Le Lapin Agile , painted in 1987 by Raphaël Toussaint

Le Lapin Agile , or Au Lapin Agile , is a small traditional Parisian cabaret on rue des Saules (No. 22) on the Montmartre hill in the 18th arrondissement , where small artists have been writing their own poems in a family atmosphere since the 19th century and recite songs.

history

André Gill : The nimble rabbit , 1875

In the place of the later cabaret and popular meeting place for the artists of Montmartre, there was already a tavern in 1860, at the time of the incorporation of Montmartre. This changed the name several times. Initially known as "Au rendez-vous des voleurs" ("To the meeting place of thieves"), it was then called - after wall paintings or paintings that depicted the gruesome deeds of various serial killers, including those of Troppmann - "Cabaret des Assassins" ("Cabaret the murderer ") and later" Ma Campagne ". Finally, the cabaret took on its current name according to a sign (1875) by André Gill , a copy of which is still attached to the facade and contains a play on words. It shows a rabbit ( French: lapin ) jumping nimbly (French: agile ) out of the pan, and is at the same time an allusion to the fact that this “Rabbit by Gill” (French: lapin à Gill ) was painted. Aristide Bruant acquired the establishment in 1902 and had it run by Frédéric Gérard, known as "Père Frédé". At that time unknown artists like Picasso and writers gathered around the evening playing guitar and cello , who played, recited or sang together. In 1922 Bruant sold the cabaret to his son Paul, called Paulo, who continued to run it in the spirit of his father.

In 1904, Picasso portrayed Marguerite Luc, called Margot, Gérard's stepdaughter in the painting La Femme à la Corneille (The Woman with the Crow). In 1905, the painting Au Lapin Agile followed , in which he portrayed himself as a harlequin accompanied by Germaine Pichot . The operator of the cabaret, Frédéric Gérard, can be seen with a guitar in the background. The painting hung in cabaret until 1912, when it sold for the equivalent of $ 20 and auctioned off in 1989 for $ 40.7 million . It has been part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1992 thanks to a foundation .

Gérard's donkey called "Lolo" went down in art history. In 1910, a painting by a fictional Italian named Joachim-Raphaël Boronali entitled Sunset over the Adriatic was exhibited at the Paris Salon des Indépendants - a composition of the sea with a boat, provided with confused lines. The journalist Roland Dorgelès , one of the initiators of the action, later admitted that this, intended as an attack on the art of the avant-garde , had been produced in the painting by a donkey's tail. The name "Boronali" of the alleged artist goes back as an anagram to the well-known donkey "Aliboron" from the fables of La Fontaine . Two years later, Michail Fyodorowitsch Larionow and Natalija Sergejewna Goncharova called their first exhibition in Moscow La queue de l'âne - donkey tail . The title came from Larionow, who wanted to ridicule the French avant-garde by saying that, in his opinion, painting in Paris could no longer be distinguished from works that even a donkey could do.

Maurice Utrillo created the exterior view Le Lapin Agile (oil on cardboard) around 1915 , which was auctioned at Christie's in February 2009 for over $ 234,000.

In addition to Picasso and Utrillo, the Lapin Agile included the French writers and poets Courteline (1828–1929), Paul Arène (1843–1896), Verlaine (1844–1896), Max Jacob (1876–1944), Apollinaire (1880–1918) ), Francis Carco (1886–1958), the journalist and humorist Alphonse Allais (1854–1905), the French painters, draftsmen and illustrators Renoir (1841–1919), Pierre Ernest Prins (1848–1913), Jean-Louis Forain ( 1852–1931), Jules Depaquit (1869–1924), the Russian caricaturist Caran d'Ache (1854–1909), the actor and later theater director Charles Dullin (1885–1949). The career of the chansonnier Georges Brassens began here in 1951. Other speakers included Annie Girardot and Claude Nougaro .

In 1972 Paulo Gérard left the cabaret to his son-in-law Yves Mathieu, who is also currently the owner.

In 1993 the American actor Steve Martin wrote the play Picasso at the Lapin Agile . It describes an imaginary meeting in 1904 between Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein at Lapin Agile .

literature

Web links

Commons : Lapin Agile  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Original in the Musée de Montmartre
  2. Quoted from Jacques Hillairet: Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris
  3. Illustration of the painting
  4. ^ At the Lapin Agile , metmuseum.org
  5. An art joke with consequences - The great Eselei of 1910 - faz.net, September 17, 2010 : Werner Spies: The great Eselei of 1910 , accessed on November 5, 2014
  6. Sale 7702, Lot 362 - Maurice Utrillo (1883–1955): Le Lapin Agile . christies.com; accessed on March 12, 2015
  7. Au Lapin Agile , parisinfo.com
  8. Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile Opens at the MDC , knightfoundation.org

Coordinates: 48 ° 53 ′ 19.1 ″  N , 2 ° 20 ′ 24.1 ″  E