PRESS RELEASE

Press Relations : Heymann, Renoult Associes

Agns RENOULT and Marianne COPIN-ANGELIN
+ 33 (0)1 44 61 76 76 / [email protected]
High definition visuals available at www.heymann-renoult.com
Index
Press Statement p. 3

Introduction by Klber Rossillon p. 4

President of the Klber Rossillon Society and Director of the Muse de Montmartre

The Chat Noir p. 5

Exhibition Summary p. 6

Press Images p. 11

The Design Team p. 12

Curation
Scenography

The Catalogue p. 13

The Muse de Montmartre p. 17

The Klber Rossillon Society p. 18

Practical Information p. 19

2
Press Statement
The Chat Noir is the most extraordinary cabaret in the world. One rubs shoulders with the
most important men in Paris, who meet with foreigners from all four corners of the globe
Its the biggest success of the century ! Come on in !! Come on in !!
Rodolphe Salis

The Muse de Montmartre presents, from September 13th to June the 2de, 2013, an unique
exhibition about one of the most mythical places in Montmartre, the Chat Noir cabaret.

The Chat Noir, founded in 1881 by Rodolphe Salis in Montmartre, is the first avant-garde
literary, artistic and musical cabaret in Paris.

The Chat Noir was a place of innovation and improvisation where every night was different
from the previous one. The evenings were filled with songs and stories, and after 1886 the
shadow theater became the principal attraction. Pianists and composers such as Paul
Delmet, Albert Trinchant, Erik Satie, Claude Debussy and Gustave Charpentier played and or
composed their music at the Chat Noir .

The current exhibition recreates the literary, artistic and musical atmosphere of the Chat
Noir and of fin-de-sicle Montmartre with more than 300 works by numerous artists, known
and little-known, such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edouard Vuillard, Thophile-Alexandre
Steinlen, Adolphe Willette, Henri Rivire, the Incoherents, the Nabis, Symbolists and
humorists. In addition, the exhibition includes a reconstitution of the cabaret's famous
shadow theater accompanied by period music. From the Cirque Fernando to the Moulin
Rouge, Bohemia Montmartre is presented throughout the exhibition.

Irony, satire and humor! These words are the soul of the exhibition.

This first project marks the revival of the Muse de Monmartre under the guidance of the
Klber Rossillon Society, whose desire is to join the network of Parisian museums.

3
Introduction by Klber Rossillon
President of the Klber Rossillon Society and Museum Director

The Muse de Montmartre was founded in 1960 with the aim of preserving the art and
safeguarding the popular traditions of Montmartre in order to present its history and its
contribution to universal art.

Montmartre, in northern Paris, was annexed to the capital in 1860, becoming the 18 th
arrondissement. It is officially bounded by the boulevards de Clichy, de Rochechouart and de
la Chapelle to the south, and the Rue dAubervilliers to the east. Moreover, as the Guide de
ltranger Montmartre defined it in 1900: Paris has two Montmartres: the official
Montmartre as determined by administrative usage as the 18th arrondissement the other
is an arbitrary Montmartre whose boundaries can change depending on how fashionable
some establishments are, but its center always remains La Butte.

Since opening in 1881, the Cabaret du Chat Noir, founded by Rodolphe Salis, was the
meeting place for the artistic and literary avant-gardes in Paris. I welcomed with open arms
Phillip Dennis Cates proposition to devote to the Chat Noir its first exhibition, preamble to
the 2014 exhibition which would establish the museums place among the great art
museums of Paris.

This exhibition includes over 300 paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, posters, and zinc
shadow-theater cutouts mostly borrowed from private collections and never before put on
public display in France. It also includes some major works from the collections of the Muse
de Montmartre and the Muse Carnavalet.
Phillip Dennis Cate is the exhibition curator. He is one of the worlds leading specialists in this
period of art history. I want to thank him, and also to thank the private and public collectors
who have made such a fine evocation of this extraordinary creative venue: the Chat Noir.

Klber Rossillon

4
The Chat Noir
While the end of the 19th century is often referred to as the fin-de-sicle because of its
philosophy of decadence, the first decade of the 20th century is referred to as The Belle
Epoque because of a sense of optimism and self-confidence.

It was the imagination and organizational skills of the poet mile Goudeau who, with the
establishment of the group of writers and artists called the Hydropathes, transformed this
kind of casual get-together into a grander scale []
When the Hydropathes, under the leadership of Goudeau, migrated up to Monmartre at the
end of 1881 and found their home in Rodolphe Salis newly opened Chat Noir cabaret,
Montmartre began to evolve as the primary theater of modernist activity in Paris at the
expense of the Latin Quarter []

Billed as a Louis-XIII style cabaret, founded by a fumiste, the first Chat Noir opened in
November 1881 and was located at 84, boulevard Rochechouart, in an old post office. []

The cabaret was quite small. Its two narrow rooms, one behind the other, together barely
held thirty people. At the beginning, the dimly lit, uninspiring rear room attracted few
customers. Salis solved this problem by creating a fumiste parody on the French academys
home on the Left Bank by naming the dingy back space the Institut, which from then on was
reserved solely for the privileged artistic, literary, and musical habitus of the Chat Noir.

With Salis entrepreneurial direction and the fresh talent of writers, artists and performers,
the Chat Noir and its journal became popular and financial successes. By June 1885 Salis was
able to move his operation into a three-floor htellerie elaborately furnished on the rue
Victor Mass [old rue Laval] and just a few blocks from the old Chat Noir that the singer
Aristide Bruant took over and renamed the Mirliton. At the entrance of the second Chat
Noir, a yellow and black sign welcomed potential patrons with the admonition to be
modern.

5
Exhibition Summary
ROOM 1 : INTRODUCTION : ORIGIN OF THE TITLE LE CHAT NOIR AND OF CHATNOIRESQUE
HUMOR

Along with an introductory text, this first room presents prints and drawings which suggest
sources for the name of the cabaret. This first room espouses the atmosphere of satire and
humor which became the landmark of the Chat Noir. An impressive portrait by Antonio de la
Gandara introduces Rodolphe Salis as founder/king of the Chat Noir.
Some works presented in this room:
douard MANET (1832-1883), Pulcinella, 1874, color lithograph, 57 x 32.7 cm, private
collection, France
mile DURANDEAU (1830-1889), Jules Champfleury as Puppeteer, 1876, watercolor, 52.5 x
30.2 cm, private collection, France
Jules CHERET, (1836-1933), LHorloge, Cats Duet, 1876, color lithograph, 58 x 40 cm, private
collection, France
Antonio de LA GANDARA (1861-1917), Portrait of Rodolphe Salis, 1884, oil on canvas, 120 x
80 cm, private collection
Charles LEANDRE (1862-1930), Caricature of mile Goudeau, 1896, pencil, 40 x 32 cm, private
collection

ROOM 2 : THE FIRST CHAT NOIR

This second room contains photographs of the first cabaret, of Salis and his associates as
well as the works they had painted there. On display are examples of books and of music
influenced by the Chat Noir as well as issues of the Chat Noir journal which Salis began to
publish in 1882 and which was illustrated by Chat Noir artists such as Willette, Steinlen,
RivireThe close connection between and the shared absurd humor of the artist/writer
participants at the Chat Noir and the anti-establishment group called the Incohrents is
revealed with examples of their invitations, catalogues, and book illustrations.
Some works presented in this room:
ANONYMOUS, Exterior view of the First Chat Noir Cabaret [bld de Rochechouart], 1882,
photograph, 23,5 x 35,5 cm, Muse de Montmartre collection
ANONYMOUS, The First Chat Noir and its habitus, 1882, photograph, 15,2 x 22,7 cm, Muse
de Montmartre collection
Adolphe WILLETTE (1857-1926), Parce Domine, parce populo tuo, 1882, oil on canvas, 200 x
390 cm, deposit of the Muse Carnavalet, Museum of the City of Paris, Muse de
Montmartre
Thophile-Alexandre STEINLEN (1859-1923), The Ballad of the Chat Noir, Le Chat Noir, August
9, 1884, photo-relief, 45 x 32 cm, private collection
Eugne BATAILLE [Sapeck] (1853-1891), Mona Lisa with a pipe, Le Rire, by Coquelin cadet,
1887, photo-relief, 18.5 x 12 cm, private collection, France
G. VAN DRIN, The Venus de Mille-Eaux, illustration for the illustrated Arts Incohrents
exhibition catalog, 1889, photo-relief, 27.5 x 18.4 cm, private collection
Jules CHRET, (1836-1933), The Universal Exhibition of Arts Incohrents, 1889, color
lithograph, 58,7 x 40,2 cm, private collection
Emile COHL (1857-1938), Cover of the Arts Incohrents exhibition catalog, 1893, pencil, 30 x
23,6 cm, private collection

6
ROOM 3 : MONTMARTRE BEFORE THE CHAT NOIR : THE COMMUNE

Room of the permanent collection of the Muse de Montmartre about the Commune.

ROOM 4 : THE SECOND CHAT NOIR [12 RUE VICTOR MASS], THE SHADOW THEATER AND
MUSIC

Under the direction of Salis and with the help of the talent of artists and writers, The Chat
Noir, and the Chat Noir Journal, proved to be great commercial successes. Salis was able to
move his cabaret in June 1885 to rue Laval (rue Victor Mass today). This room presents
images of the new Chat Noir and the cabarets shadow theatre. The Chat Noir did much for
the artistic community in Paris but its most important, and most famous, contribution was
without a doubt The Chat Noir's important shadow theatre plays, created in 1886 by Henri
Rivire and Henry Somm. This sophisticated spectacle became the perfect representation of
the credo of the Chat Noir, to be modern above all else. The artistic influence of the
shadow theatre would play a significant role on avant-garde art.
Some works presented in this room:
Thophile-Alexandre STEINLEN (1859-1923), The Tour of the Chat Noir, 1896, color lithograph,
135.9 x 95.9 cm, Muse Carnavalet, history of Paris
Henri RIVIRE (1864-1951), thirteen sets for the shadow play Elsewhere !, 1891, wood and
zinc, Muse de Montmartre collection
Henri de TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864-1901), Sheet music for Carnot malade, 1893, stencil-
colored lithograph, 27,6 x 17,6 cm, private collection
Victor Ph. FLIPSEN (1841-1907), Portrait of Paul Delmet, c.1890, oil on panel, 64 x 54 cm,
collection muse de Montmartre
Henri de TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864-1901), The Ball at the Moulin Rouge La Goulue, 1891,
lithograph, 191 x 120 cm, private collection, Courtesy, Galerie Documents Paris.

ROOM 5 : ARISTIDE BRUANT, THE MIRLITON [CAF AND NEWSLETTER] AND CAFS

In 1885 the singer Aristide Bruant established his cabaret, Le Mirliton, at 84 Boulevard
Rochechouart, the home of the first Chat Noir. In the tradition of the Chat Noir, Bruant also
created his own journal, le Mirliton, in which he published his songs and illustrated by
Toulouse-Lautrec and Steinlen. This room presents not only Bruant and his cabaret with
posters and drawings, but also the theme of Montmartre/Parisian cafes which was an
important subject for fin-de-sicle, avant-garde artists.
Some works presented in this room:
Henri de TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864-1901), Aristide Bruant in His Cabaret, 1893, lithograph
[proof before letters], 152,5 x 115,5 cm, Muse de Montmartre collection
Thophile-Alexandre STEINLEN (1859-1923), Aristide Bruant at the cafe Le Mirliton, c.1895,
pencil, 23 x 23 cm, private collection
Thophile-Alexandre STEINLEN (1859-1923), Illustration for the cover of the journal Le
Mirliton, June 9, 1893, with the song The Four Footed by Aristide Bruant, 1893, photo-relief
colored with stencil, 37,5 x 27 cm, private collection
Louis LEGRAND (1863-1951), The Private Bar, c. 1905, watercolor, 35 x 23.5 cm, private
collection
Georges BOTTINI (1874-1907), At the bar : The Woman in White, 1904, watercolor, 37 x 27
cm, private collection

7
ROOM 6 : THE INFLUENCE OF THE SHADOW THEATER ON SYMBOLIST ART AND THEATER, AND
THE NABIS

In order to demonstrate the importance of Montmartre for avant-garde theatre, this room
presents works by Nabi artists such as Vuillard and Bonnard who created for the two
important Montmartre theatres - the Thtre libre (free theater) and thtre de l'Oeuvre.
Here the focus is the thematic and stylistic links between the Chat Noir shadow theater and
symbolist painting presented by the works of numerous artists. This room also contains the
permanent display dedicated to the composer Gustave Chapentier, famous for his
Montmartre-based play Louise.
Some works presented in this room:
Henri-Gabriel IBELS (1867-1936), Program for the Thtre libre performance of Fossils,
1892, color lithograph, 22.9 x 28 cm, private collection
Henri de TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864-1901), Program for the Thtre libre - performance of A
Failure, 1893, lithograph, 31.3 x 23.6 cm, private collection
Edouard VUILLARD (1868-1940), The Actor Coquelin cadet, c. 1892, ink, 32 x 24 cm, private
collection
Paul SRUSIER (1863-1927), Costume designs for the Thtre de lOeuvre, c. 1894, watercolor
and graphite, 19 x 17 cm each, private collection
Pierre BONNARD (1867-1947), Cover for Snowy Landscape, from the series Le Rpertoire des
Pantins, 1898, lithograph, 35.3 x 26.8 cm, private collection
Alfred JARRY (1873-1907), Cover for the Ouverture dUbu Roi, from the series Le Rpertoire
des Pantins, 1898, lithograph, 35.1 x 27 cm, private collection
Georges de FEURE (1868-1928), The Gardens of Armida, 1897, watercolor, 44.4 x 35cm,
private collection
Charles MAURIN (1856-1914), Virtue, c. 1892, oil on canvas, 81 x 64.5 cm, private collection
Charles ANGRAND (1854-1926), Henri, c. 1898, pencil on canvas, 44 x 57,5 cm, private
collection
Charles GUILLOUX (1866-1946), The Watercourse, 1895, oil on canvas, 45 x 59.5 cm, private
collection
Alphonse OSBERT (1857-1939), Landscape, c.1900, oil on panel, 41 x 26 cm, private collection

8
SALLE 7 : THE CIRCUS

This room is dedicated to the themes of the Circus and ftes foraines as found at the Cirque
Fernando in Montmartre and in street performances. Paintings of clowns such as Footit and
Chocolat indicate the fascination that artists had with popular entertainment as well as with
the depiction of marginal members of society. Prints, drawings and posters reveal the
important interrelationship of artists and writers in treating the theme of the circus in their
work.
Some works presented in this room:
Joseph FAVEROT (1862-), Two Clowns, c.1885, Oil on panel, 41 x 31 cm, private collection
Henri-Gabriel IBELS (1867-1936), At the Circus, 1893, lithograph, 58. 4 x 41.4 cm, private
collection
Richard RANFT (1862-1931), Costume, Ball and Clown, 1892, pastel, 50 x 25 cm, private
collection
Henri-Gabriel IBELS (1867-1936), Footit and Chocolat, c. 1895, oil on panel, 35 x 26.7 cm,
Muse de Montmartre collection
Henri-Gabriel IBELS (1867-1936), Fan with A Circus Scene, c. 1895, gouache, 33 x 60 cm,
private collection
Jules CHERET (1836-1933), Cover for Entre de Clowns, 1886, color lithograph, 18 x11 cm,
private collection, France

ROOM 8 : THE CAF-CONCERTS AND THEIR PERFORMERS ; IMPORTANT SUBJECTS FOR FIN-DE-
SICLE ARTISTS

Prints, posters, paintings and drawings depicting popular entertainers such as Yvette
Guilbert, Loe Fuller, and La Belle Otero are accompanied by typical caf-concert music. In
addition a series of images of ballerinas on stage or behind the scenes represent the
fascination that artists had for all forms of stage performances.
Presented works:
Henri de TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864-1901), The Divan Japonais, 1892, lithograph, 122 x 103
cm, Muse de Montmartre collection
Henri-Gabriel IBELS (1867-1936), Cover for The Caf-Concert, 1893, lithograph, 43 x 32.5 cm,
private collection
Jules CHERET (1836-1933), Les Folies Bergres The Loe Fuller, 1893, lithograph, 134 x 96 cm,
Muse de Montmartre collection
Henry de GROUX (1866-1930), Loe Fuller, c. 1892-95, pastel, 62,5 x 48,5 cm, private
collection
Erwin PUCHINGER (1876-1944), La Belle Otero, c. 1901, pastel and gouache, 52.5 x 21.5 cm,
private collection
Guillaume DUBUFE (1853-1909), Eugnie Buffet on stage, c. 1895, watercolor and gouache,
24.9 x 31.5 cm, private collection
Louis ABEL-TRUCHET (1857-1918), The Caf-concert, c. 1895, oil on canvas, 54.6 x 64.8 cm,
private collection

9
ROOM 9 : THE MOULIN ROUGE AND THE DANCE HALLS

This room presents can-can performers such as La Goulue who attracted both artists and the
mass public to dance halls in Montmartre as epitomized by the Moulin Rouge. The
reputation of Montmartre as the center of bohemia and of Parisian entertainment was well
established by 1900. The presented works confirm Rodolphe Salis' prescient prediction
eighteen years earlier that everyone would eventually come to Montmartre and that
Montmartre would become everything.
Some works presented in this room:
Jules CHRET (1836-1933), The Ball at the Moulin Rouge, 1889, lithograph, 136 x 100 cm,
Muse de Montmartre collection
Louis LEGRAND (1863-1951), Study for the cover of Fin-de-sicle Dancing Course, 1892,
watercolor, 33 x 23 cm, private collection
ANONYMOUS, Dancer at the Moulin Rouge Louise Weber known as La Goulue, undated,
photograph, 16,3 x 10,9 cm, Muse de Montmartre collection
Ferdinand BAC (1859-1952), Toulouse-Lautrec in front of the Moulin Rouge, 1890, pencil, 27.5
x 20.5 cm, private collection
Juan Gris (1887-1927), In front of the Moulin Rouge, c. 1908, ink, 43 x 37 cm, private
collection
Edouard DEVERIN (1881 1946), The Bal Tabarin, c. 1905, gouache, pencil, and ink, 22 x 27.3
cm, private collection

10
Press Images

Anonymous, Juan Gris,

At the First Chat Noir, before 1885, In front of the Moulin Rouge, c.1908,
Photograph, 17,7 x 23,6 cm, Indian ink, 43 x 37 cm,
Muse de Montmartre private collection

Adolphe Wilette, Georges Bottini,

Parce Domine, Parce Populo Tuo, 1882 At the bar-The Woman in White, 1904,
Oil on canvas, 200 x 390 cm watercolor, 37 x 27,5cm,
Muse Carnavalet, private collection
In deposit at the Muse de Montmartre

Thophile-Alexandre Steinlen, M. Balda,

The Chat Noir on Tour, 1896, The Chat Noir cabaret, c. 1890,
lithograph, 58,5 x 79 cm, oil on canvas, 30,5 x 38,5 cm
Muse de Montmartre collection Muse de Montmartre collection

Henri Rivire, Pierre Vidal,

For Elsewhere ! : Socialism, 1891, Cover for Montmartre life, 1897,
zinc, 118 x 147,5 cm, lithograph, 20 x 27,5 cm,
Muse de Montmartre collection private collection

11
The Design Team
The Curator: Phillip Dennis CATE
Curator of Exhibitions of and consultant to the Muse de Montmartre.
Director/Professor Emeritus Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

Phillip Dennis Cate is a specialist of nineteenth-century French art with an emphasis on the
graphic arts, sculpture, Japonisme, and on the artists and writers of Montmartre. He has
organized numerous exhibitions, notably for the National Library of Paris [Bibliothque
nationale], The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the van Gogh Museum in
Amsterdam, the National Museum of Japanese Art in Tokyo, and numerous museums in the
United States.
From 1970 to 2002, he was the director of the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and from 2002 to 2006, he was the supervisor of
academic and curatorial activities at the Zimmerli.

Cate is the author of numerous exhibition catalogues such as:

Toulouse-Lautrec and the French Imprint : Fin de sicle posters in Paris, Brussels
and Barcelona , The Zimmerli Art Museum, Birmingham, Edinburgh (2006-2007).
Breaking the Mold: Sculpture in Paris from Daumier to Rodin,The Zimmerli Art
Museum (2006).
The Spirit of Montmartre : Cabarets, Humor and the Avant-Garde, 1875-1905 ,
the Zimmerli Art Museum (1996); traveled to New York, Amsterdam & San Francisco
(2000-2001).
De Pissarro Picasso, Color etching in France, uvre of collections from the
National Library of France and the Zimmerli Art Museum (1992).
The Circle of Toulouse-Lautrec Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum (1985).
Thophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1852-1923) : A retrospective , the Zimmerli Art
Museum, Milwaukee Art Museum, Wight Art Gallery, University of California (1982).

Director of Scenography: Frdric BEAUCLAIR

Majoring in Interior Architecture and graduating from the National School of Applied Arts
and Crafts in Paris, Frdric Beauclair opened his practice in 1988.
After working with the Director of Museums in France in 1989, he has since specialized in
exhibition design.

During the past 22 years, Frdric Beauclair helped create and realize more than two
hundred temporary exhibitions and permanent installations in France and abroad, notably in
Canada. In 2009-2010, he helped organize the installation of the Sciences and Curiosities
exhibition at the Court of Versailles at the Chteau de Versailles and recently Roulez
carrosse in the Muse des Beaux-Arts of Arras.

12
The Catalogue
Around the Chat Noir, Arts and Pleasures in Montmartre 1880-
1910

Editor : Skira Flammarion

Price : 25,50 - 192 pages - Bilingual French-English

Extracts from a text by Diana Schiau Botea : The gold and the
black : the Chat Noir and the transfiguration of the performance
venue
The young painter Rodolphe Salis, who was extremely fond of practical jokes, opened the
doors of his artistic cabaret at the end of November 1881. The premises were long and
narrow, formerly a subsidiary post office, for which Salis paid a monthly rent of 1400 francs
at his home address at 84 boulevard Rochechouart in Paris.
The popularity of this cabaret was in large part due to the media coverage, in a range of
descriptions in which the borderline between document, advertisement, and fiction is rather
fuzzy: these texts show how a social realitythe identity of the Chat Noirwas constructed.
[]

Salis promptly elicited contributions from several Hydropathes, a group of artists presiding in
the Latin Quarter from 1878 to 1880, headed by mile Goudeau. Goudeau convinced Salis to
found a journal []
The Chat Noir perfected the model launched by the Hydropathes, combining the publication
of a weekly journal with the holding of regular artistic sessions []
Through collective fictions in praise of the showplace, the artists, and real-life events, the
Chat Noir contrived to capture the imagination as a lieu de mmoire (a place of
remembrance) []
The determination to hold up a mirror to all of society was to be seen from the journals very
first issue, notably in the program illustration drawn by Salis: a heroic cat, rigged out in a ruff
and a Louis XIII hat, invites the bourgeois, represented by some pretty ridiculous animals, to
join in a procession to Montmartre, past its photographers camera obscura. Youll all get
in! or so the legend goes.1 []

A sacred animal in many mythologies and religions, the cat is a top-ranking literary and
artistic figure, celebrated from Petrarch to Baudelaire, and also by Perrault, Moncrif,
Chateaubriand, Gautier, Hoffmann, and Balzac. Painters have chosen it for a model: in the
nineteenth century alone, Mind, the Raphael of cats, and the three illustrators of
Champfleurys Les Chats, Delacroix, Manet, and Hokusai. By Manet, we recall the meeting of
opposites with a black tomcat and a white tabby in Le Rendez-vous des chats, a subject Jules

1
L e Ch at N o i r J an u ary 14 1882

13
Chret returned to in his poster for the Caf de lHorloge promenade concert, Duo de chats
[]

With Steinlen, the cat is the main hero of a picture narrative, also called a story without
words. Steinlen was even inspired by the metal Chat Noir sign created by Willette: at night,
the black cat on the sign comes to life and seems to be trying to strangle a drunk with its tail;
the sun comes up and the two gendarmes cart off the staggering drunkard.
The caption, based on the well-known nursery rhyme, offers an amusing contrast between
light and darkness, underlining the ambivalent tone of the story: Au claire de la lune
(somber drama)2
The black cat achieved the unmatched feat of creating analogies between the journals
writings and the iconography and the architecture of the showplace []

In the journal illustrations, the conflict between shadow and light comes in the form of an
opposition between black and white. They produce a story showing insoluble tensions
between these two symbolic colors []
The catalog of the collections became a literary genre through Le Chat Noir newspaper. In
October 1882, a certain Fanfare reported the opening of a dispatch room visited daily by
Englishmen, West Indians, Frenchmen, Egyptians, fumistes, journalists, actresses, priests,
and in which, every evening; newspapers from the farthest corners of the globe were
displayed. The article also makes an inventory of Chat Noir curios, imaginary sundries
alluding to familiar stories or works.[] The newspaper held up a mirror to the theatrical
space. []
The better to gain recognition in the artistic landscape of Paris and France, the Chat Noir
came across to the public as a microcosm, combining a variety of periods and places. It was a
parody of a museum, where fiction was always making a spectacle of itself, a place of
illusion, but where the illusion was constantly being unmasked. []

The Chat Noir turns out to be a singular hybrid: a festive place disguised as a museum. In a
period of democratic transition, with society in deep crisis, this cabaret contrived to offer its
visitors a compensating space, a dream of eternity in carnival form.

2
Th e Ch at N o i r J u n e 7 1884

14
Extracts from a text by Michela Niccolai : To the Muses and to
Joy The Chat Noir between music and staging
While Montmartres chief claim to fame is the blossoming of numerous painting and
sculpture studios, musicians also feature prominently.
Set in the vicinity of La Butte, they enjoyed the dynamism that characterized artistic
production and brought about a totally original synergy between the figurative and sound
arts across the late nineteenth-century Parisian scene. []
Let us take a look at the restoration of the musical ambience of Montmartres most famous
cabaret, the Chat Noir. To retrace its history, we need to start out from the Latin Quarter, in
particular focusing on the activity of the Club des Hydropathes []
The Hydropathes sessions all played out in more or less identical fashion: the concert was
accompanied by exclamations, invective, and arguments, which often forced the musician to
stop, until the chairman brought the session to an end by ejecting the rowdies. The program
was often an improvised mixed bag; the fumistes conducting these evenings were
responsible for most of the disturbances at the meetings. []
The Montmartre song was at the acme of experimentation of the genre: hovering between
formal innovation and the continuity of a musical tradition that started out from operetta
and plunged its roots in the exoticism of argot []

Aristide Bruant stood apart, being viewed as the inventor of the realist song. His activity as a
chansonnier really blossomed, first at the Chat Noir and, from 1885, at the Mirliton, 3 the
new cabaret opened by Bryant himself in the hall of the first Chat Noir. The difference
between the chansonnier and the ordinary singer is that he writes the lyrics which he then
performs either to his own music, or more commonly, to an already existing melody.

So the lyrics were sung to the tune of. One of his first hits had the same name as the
cabaret: Le Chat Noir. The poem was written by Bruant to the Occitan tune Aqueros
Montagnos and its structure follows the traditional chorus and verse format (August 1884):

I am seeking my fortune, Refrain

Around the Chat Noir
In the moonlight,
At Montmartre !
I am seeking my fortune,
Around the Chat Noir
In the moonlight,
At Montmartre in the evening.

3
T h e Mi rl i t o n w hi c h i s s l an g f o r d og g e re l , o r wort h l e s s ve rs e was t h e n e w c ab are t
f o u n d e d b y A ri s ti d e B ru an t . I t w as in b u si n e s s f ro m 1885 u n t i l 1895

15
With Bruant, the main element was the unity of three components: text, music, and staging
of the character himself []
Im an actress, not a singer claimed Yvette Guilbert, following the lesson of Bruant and
Zola, based her Montmartre act on the search for naturalness in song, revolutionizing the
art of performing and composing through the construction and stage directing of her
character []

The adventure at the first Chat Noir ended in June 1885 when Salis moved to 12 rue Laval. 4
The new premises, called LHostellerie du Chat Noir, was altogether in a different spirit,
turning into society theater. The clientele and performances also changed, with plenty of
room for Henry Rivires shadow theater, a real crowd puller, with performers like Achille,
Debussy5 and Erik Satie playing the piano6. []

It is through the three-dimensional quality of the world of Montmartre, where music merged
with painting and literature, that a fresh vitality was breathed into artistic output, with their
rightful heirs the free theatre of Antoine and Lugn-Poes theatre de luvre.
From their golden age, Salis, Bruant, and Yvette Guilbert became the symbols of fin-de-sicle
Montmartre which, extending beyond the boundaries of the sacred Mound, really took flight
over the windmills.

4
N o w r ue Vi c t o r Mas s
5
I t w as on l y f ro m Se p t e mbe r 1892 t h at De b u s s y sig n e d h i s c o mpo s i t io n s wi th t h e f i rs t
n ame Cl au d e . Se e Fran o i s L e su re , De b u s s y et le Chat N o i r, Cah i er s Deb u ss y 23 ( 1999) : 35 - 44
6
Se e O b e rt h r, L e C a ba r e t d u Cha t No i r , 40- 51; St e ve n Mo o re W h i t i ng , Sa t i e th e Bo h em ian
( O xf o rd : Cl are n d o n P re s s , 1999) .

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The Muse de Montmartre and the Renoir
gardens
The Muse de Montmartre is composed of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century buildings,
the last vestiges of country life, a life before Montmartre became a part of Paris.

The porch, constructed in 1740, opens up to a vast collection of gardens. In the center is the
house of Bel-air, dating from 1660, in which the exhibition is held. It looks over the vineyard
(replanted in 1933) and opens up to a sprawling view of the hazy horizon where Seine Valley
ends and the Montmorency forest begins.

Auguste Renoir held his studio from 1876 to 1877. Here, he would create some major works
such as The Ball at the Moulin de la Galette and The Dance in the City, for which Suzanne
Valadon modeled.

In the beginning of the 20th century, the installation of several

new studios helped make the museum a veritable artists
residence. After mile Bernard, friend of Gauguin, the Fauvists
Emile-Othon Friesz and Raoul Dufy arrived at the studios and
painted their vividly colorful canvases. Suzanne Valadon would
return to live with her son Utrillo for a long time afterward. Poor
writers like Lon Bloy and the poet Pierre Reverdy also resided
here.

However, in 1886, a group of artists, created the Society of

History and Archeology The Old Montmartre, whose goal is to
research and conserve the artistic and historic significance of
Montmartre and to safeguard the old atmosphere of this village
annexed by Paris in 1860.

The collections of the Society of the Old Montmartre comprise the museum. They contain a
remarkable array of paintings, posters, illustrations and music scores that especially
celebrate the artistic effervescence that sprung up around the Montmartre cabarets.

In 2011, the city of Paris gave Klber Rossillon Groupa fifty-three year lease on the Muse de
Montmartre and the Hotel Demarne located at 8-14 rue Cortot. The gardens were renovated
in the spring of 2012 to recreate those found in the paintings of Renoir. The Hotel de Marne
will be fully renovated by the fall 2014 and will, among
other functions, serve as the museum's galleries for
major temporary exhibitions.

On the upper right: Suzanne Valadons studio

On the lower left: The Bel air house.

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The Klber Rossillon Group
Created in 1985, the Klber Rossillon Group specializes in the public reception of historic
monuments, museums, and some protected sites.

Along with the Muse de Montmartre, the society works in four different regions, the
Prigord, the Loire Valley, the Rhone-Aps, and the Isle of France.
The Society also manages the Castelnaud Chateau in Dordogne, the Museum of War during
the Middle Ages, and gardens in Marqueyssac, the latter being a protected site.
The Institute of France also delegated to the Klber Rossillon Society the responsibility of
managing of the Langeais Chateau in the Loire Valley.
In 2011, the group with the aid of a partnership, undertook the operation of restoring and
reinstituting a steam-engine train track, a historic monument, from Vivarais to Ardche.

The Klber Rossillon Group manages several departments, all while being comprehensive,
consistent and respectful of the sites and their history:
The management and direction of construction in historic monuments, museums,
and natural sites: museography, scenography, restoration and garden maintenance.
The expansion and setting up of cultural events: guided or theatrical visits, animation
programs, creation of historic performances and also the organization and/or
coproduction of exhibitions.
The creation of pedagogic programs
The management of boutiques and bookstores
The management of restaurants and tearooms
The direction of marketing and commercial campaigns: internet, communication,
press relations, professional meetings.

The sites managed by the Klber Rossillon Group see rising public success year after year.
They attract more than 550,000 visitors a year.

Upper left: the gardens of Marqueyssac, The Langeais Chateau, The Castelnaud Chateau
Lower right: The Vivarais
train tracks

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Practical Information
Muse de Montmartre
12, rue Cortot
75018 Paris
Telephone : 01 49 25 89 39 - Fax : 01 46 06 30 75
[email protected]

Open everyday from 10h to 18h

Access
Metro Lamarck-Caulaincourt, Line 12
Abbesses, Line 12
Anvers, Line 12 then the Montmartre funicular
Autobus 80 and the Montmartrobus

Fees
- Individual adult: 8 euros
- Student 18-25 years old: 6 euros
- Adolescents 10-17 years old: 4 euros
- Children (under 10 years old) : Free
- Groups (15 people) : 6 euros
- Friends of the Louvre and the handicapped : 6 euros
- Yearly subscription : 17 euros

Press Relations
Heymann, Renoult Associes / Agns RENOULT and Marianne COPIN-ANGELIN
+ 33 (0) 1 44 61 76 76 / [email protected]
High definition visuals available at www.heymann-renoult.com

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