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Bateau-Lavoir Review

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Bateau-Lavoir

Address: 13 pl. Emile-Goudeau, Montmartre, Paris, 75018

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Category: Houses/Mansions
Location: Montmartre

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Fodor's Review:

The birthplace of Cubism isn't open to the public, but a display in the front window details this unimposing building's rich history. Montmartre poet Max Jacob coined the name for the original building here, which reminded him of the laundry boats that used to float in the Seine, and he joked that the warren of paint-splattered artists' studios needed a good hosing down (wishful thinking, since the building had only one water tap). It was in the original Bateau-Lavoir that, early in the 20th century, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Juan Gris made their first bold stabs at Cubism, and Picasso painted the groundbreaking Les Demoiselles d'Avignon here in 1906-07. The experimental works of the artists weren't met with open arms, even in liberal Montmartre. Writer Roland Dorgèles, in a teasing protest, once tied a loaded paintbrush to the tail of a donkey belonging to the Lapin Agile cabaret and sold the resulting work for 400 francs. All but the façade was rebuilt after a fire in 1970. Like the original building, the Bateau houses artists and their studios.