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“Paris, celebration spot of the world”
was the title of a book by Hemingway. The master writer of 20th
century novels wrote it in 1923, at 113 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs. Ezra Pound,
who lived a few houses further at no.70, corrected his manuscripts and was paid
by taking boxing lessons. This was the Montparnasse of artists and great writers
between the two world wars. And if Montparnasse isn't the artist area that it
was before, there still remain enough traces of that artistic past. You'll
discover astonishing and unsuspected things, in small discrete streets. Just
wander, stroll and go for their discovery. Today your mood is flitting and takes
you first to the MUSEE BOURDELLE. But that’s the 15th
arrondissement, I hear already some connoisseurs! Yes, indeed but we it is part
of a
Montparnasse visit. Some smaller parts of the 15th arrondissement are
part of Montparnasse.
The MUSEE BOURDELLE is located at 16, rue Antoine Bourdelle amidst brick
houses in a small street between the pompous Gare Montparnasse and the offices
of the famous French paper “Le Monde”. It is here that Bourdelle used to work.
The alley catches the eye immediately thanks to the
impressive sculptures. In order to be able to place them all, give some pieces
of the collection a better viewing, an extension was realized by the famous architect
Portzamparc (monument to Mickiewicz and extraordinary "Epopee polonaise").
However, the gloaming atelier, unchanged since he died in
1929, with its lathes, cupboards and rusty oven are left in their original
state, just as the fairy tale garden packed with sculptures in the inner
courtyard like busts of Rodin and "La Force".
A lot of French consider Rodin as
the French Michelangelo. Works like “Le Penseur”, “The Kiss” and “Les
Dames de Calais” made him world famous. The name Antoine Bourdelle only
appears when pupils of Rodin are mentioned. But he was and is a talented and
underestimated artist. The Eiffel bust on the Champ de Mars and the wall
paintings in the Theatre des Champs Elysees is from his hand. And now here in
his museum several hundreds of statues as well as the plasters, sketches, to show you
how a sculptor works to realize the final statue you will be able to enjoy. In the other rooms you have
busts collections and his personal collection like “l’Homme qui Marche” by
Rodin and antique roman sculptures. Also a collection of Japanese masks and
wooden sculptures of the 13th to 15th century.
A novelty: it has a cycle of visits for the
non-seeing people who are able to touch a certain number of
sculptures.
Leaving the rue Bourdelle have a look at
no. 18. Marc Chagall used to live there from 1910 until 1918 and Rousseau lived
a little further on boulevard du Maine no. 44.
Make a right to the boulevard Montparnasse, alas drowned in
snack bars, movie theatres and cheap restaurants. Maybe we can consider that the
crossing of the carrefour Vavin still reminds the past with its brasseries like
Le Dome, La Rotonde, La Select and La Coupole. In the side streets all around,
the artists had their ateliers. Brancusi worked at 54, rue du Montparnasse,
Soutine at 9, boulevard Edgard Quinet and Fernand Leger at 86 rue Notre Dame des
Champs.
Not far from the cemetery of Montparnasse let’s visit the Rue Campagne
Première. It was once the home of Rilke, Modigliani, Picasso, Miro, Kandinsky,
Friesz, Max Ernst, Aragon. At no.31 a magnificent wrought facade in ceramic,
masterpiece of Art Nouveau (1911). Masks and garlands of roses. At number 6
a facade decorated with fir-cones and at no.31 "Maison Ceramique"
covered with tiles.
Bibliography
--Vie et histoire des arrondissements de
Paris, ed.Hervas (1985-1988--Nouvelle Histoire de Paris,
ed.Hachette--Le Pieton de Paris, by L.P.Fargue, ed.Gallimard 1997--Histoire et
dictionnaire de Paris, by A.Fierro, ed.Laffont, 1996--Dictionnaire historique
des rues de Paris, by J.Hillairet, ed.Minuit --Guide du Routard 1998-1999 (Ed.Hachette)--Paris,
2000 d'histoire, by J.Favier, ed.Fayard 1997--Naissance de Paris, by M.Fleury,
ed.Imprimerie Nationale 1997
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