Description of the attraction
Bateau Lavoir was the name of the hostel in Montmartre, in which famous artists and poets lived at the turn of the 20th century. Then the famous, and then they were unknown and beggars. Due to the fact that there was no money, they settled in Bato Lavoir.
This name was attached to the hostel because the building of the former factory resembled a barge-laundry, in French - bateau-lavoir (such floating laundries stood then along the Seine). The house, located on a steep hillside, looked ridiculous: on one side it was five-story, on the other - one-story, several glazed rooms were piled on the roof. Housing corresponded to the cheapness of rent: a decrepit, dirty house with a rotten floor and a rickety staircase, no electricity, gas and water, for several dozen people - only one toilet, and even that one without a heck. Residents often did not have enough money for coal and food, and then they were content with a free cauldron of soup, which they displayed in the nearby Nimble Rabbit cabaret.
But it was in these terrible conditions that Picasso's talent flourished. The great artist settled in Bateau Lavoir in 1904. Here, in a squalid workshop, where it was hot in summer and unfinished tea in winter froze in a cup, he wrote The Maidens of Avignon, from which Cubism began; here the blue period of Picasso's creativity gradually changed to pink.
Modigliani, Gris, Reverdi, Jacob, Gargallo lived in Bato Lavoir. Matisse, Braque, Utrillo, Apollinaire, Cocteau, Stein and many other creators and intellectuals of that time came here like a club. Yes, they drank and smoked something, but they also talked a lot and worked a lot, not paying attention to the poverty of the surroundings. “We were young and capable of a lot,” Picasso recalled later.
This burst of creative energy flared and died, partially moving to Montparnasse, which became a bohemian quarter after the First World War. Much later, in 1965, the Bato Lavoir building was recognized as a monument, but in 1970 it was destroyed by a fire. In 1978, the house was completely restored (albeit from concrete). Now, at the entrance to Bato Lavoir, there is a commemorative showcase, inside there are artists' workshops. Just artists' workshops.
