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Above: Singer-poet Aristide Bruant, lithograph by Toulouse-Lautrec, on the cover of Les Chansonniers de Montinarte (No. 1, 5 March, 1906), a collection of popular songs, several by Bruant, (the Brecy Collection, the University of Melbourne Library). See article The Republic of Pleasure, page 5. Front cover: "Kangaroo-Pouch" Method of Synchronising and Playing 8 Oscillators. Ink and watercolour by Percy Grianger, 1952 (Collection, Grainger Museum, the University of Melbourne). See article Percy Grainger's Art, page 11. THE REPUBLIC OF PLEASURE The Culture of the Fin de Siege in Paris
by Michael Adcock History Department, the University of Melbourne
his article has been published to celebrate the important acquisition by the Baillieu Library of the Brecy Collection of 19th century songbooks. This important acquisition has been T made possible by the generosity and the vision of the Pitt Bequest, which provides for the purchase of books. The collection, which includes several hundred rare, original works, is of an international standard, and we are truly fortunate to have access here in Australia to material that the great libraries of the world would covet. At the same time, we must recognise and celebrate the vision and the professional dedication of Juliet Flesch and the members of staff who were responsible for locating, acquiring and cataloguing this extraordinary collection. They have provided rich possibilities for original research and for a more profound understanding of the world of 19th century Paris.
INTRODUCTION die Republic of Pleasure 'The Capital of Pleasure
hen we view the beautiful posters Indeed, one of the historiographic prob- kaleidoscope of brilliant, fragmented Wproduced in France in the last lems of the Belle Epoque (c.1880-1914) images: bohemian artists drinking the decades of the 19th century, such as is that it is almost too frothy, too attrac- fatal absinthe in seedy cafes, dancers Cherees Le Bal au Moulin Rouge, tive, and its glittering images have been performing the can-can in brilliantly lit (1889, Musee d'Orsay, Paris) we perpetrated in all sorts of operas and dance halls, and bohemian singers grat- become vividly aware that the new Paris Hollywood movies. The myth of ing out songs that will shock the bour- created by Baron Haussmann quickly naughty Paris still serves as a signifier geoisie. became the site for a giddy whirl of fes- for everything that is irreverent, frivo- In this paper, I look beyond this tivity and entertainment that we still call lous and sexually libertarian. The very familiar optic of naughty Paris, to re- la vie parisienne. This is the champagne mention of "Gay Paree" conjures up examine the culture of the Belle Epoque image of Paris, one which drew thou- the champagne image of the capital, a and in a sense pay tribute to the men sands of foreign visitors to the capital during the 19th century and which still Background: "Worshipping the Cathedral of Progress": A panorama of the Paris International attracts nostalgic travellers today. Exposition of 1889, engraving from The Graphic (11 May, 1889) (Collection of the author).
The University of Melbourne Library Journal and women who created it. I will make bodies of cultural production in 19th Main facade of the Palace of Industry at the two suggestions about this brilliant century France. I believe that it was in Paris International Exposition, 1889, efflorescence of entertainment. engraving from Le Journal lllustre, 17 the years between 1880 and 1914 that February, 1889 (Collection of the author). The first point is that this peculiarly politics, culture and pleasure intersected in one intense moment and produced a Parisian "industry of Pleasure" was France was to be the Republic of brilliant and distinctively modern form actually made to serve a very serious Pleasure, Paris became the Capital of of artistic expression. purpose in the crisis-ridden Third Pleasure. Indeed, it was to fulfill this Republic of France, and I will explore My theme, then, is pleasure. It is role with a vengeance, because it how a regime in a state of crisis made about the way pleasure is used as a became the venue for one of the most political use of pleasure to negotiate its political sign, as a form of social inter- brilliant constellations of singers, way out of trouble. action, as a site for satire, for pathos and dancers and entertainers in the 19th cen- My second point will be that for slanginess. I have called this the tury world. In this exploration, I would although the great Parisian industry of "Republic of Pleasure", partly because it like to take the reader to two important Pleasure was designed to create enter- occurred during the time of the French sites which seem to me to be at the heart tainment and frivolity, it did a great deal Third Republic, partly because the of the Republic of Pleasure. more than that and it ended up con- world of la vie parisienne seems almost tributing to one of the most significant to constitute a little world in itself. If
The University of Melbourne Library Journal PART ONE Progress, Power and-Pleasure The 1889 Exhibition as an Appeal to the Working Classes
he first great site of the Republic of massive Gothic cathedral: people did of instability bordering on crisis. A part TPleasure we need to revisit, then, is not necessarily consciously see it as of the problem was political reality: the the great Paris International Exposition such, but the feeling they got from visit- working classes had begun to veer away of 1889. These expositions were tempo- ing the site would have been similar, from the moderate republic, and to fol- rary sites: they were held in Paris at reg- and all the more powerful for being sub- low more radical leaders. The republic ular intervals, and then dismantled. conscious. 1 Silverman affirms that the was threatened from the left and from There were three such exhibitions in Eiffel Tower provided a sort of spire, the the right. On the left, new political Paris at the end of the 19th century, in great open space in the middle was the groups such as Socialists and Anarchists 1878,1889 and 1900. The reader might nave, the pavilions of industry along the posed a threat of radical working class be surprised that I should associate these side were the aisles, and the magnificent action. On the right, there was the even grandiose displays of technology and central pavilion was like an altar to cap- more disturbing phenomenon of industry with the Republic of Pleasure italist society. Without realising it, mil- Boulangisme, threatening to overthrow and might object that they served far lions of French people came to "wor- the democratic republic and to return more serious purposes. This is true: ship" the latest manifestations of France to the authoritarian rule of a mil- these exhibitions had, since their 18th Progress in a setting which, subliminal- itary man, General Boulanger. People century beginnings, been all about ly, they must have approached like a were expecting a coup d'etat at any Progress. Historians have also argued religious site.2 moment.4 that they can be analysed as bourgeois If Progress was one key to the The other part of the problem was society putting itself on display: they Exposition, Power was another. These perception: people were beginning to provide a sort of blueprint, or a mental expositions were, quite literally, daz- predict that the political regime would map, of how the bourgeois made sense zling. Many colour engravings, notably be overthrown. There was a curious rea- of the world he or she had created. You the famous image by Georges Garen, son for this. The French had become can see how profoundly serious these recaptures the splendid illumination of accustomed to the fatal pattern of a cen- international displays were by looking the Exposition of 1889, when a vast tury in which no single regime — the closely at the panoramic views that were electric beacon was set atop the Eiffel Restoration Monarchy (1814-1830), the printed at the time, such as the overview Tower. The system of lights illuminated so-called July Monarchy (1830-1848), of the site by Deroy. At first glance, it not only the tower and the sky above it, the Second Republic (1848-1851), the appears simply to be a panorama of the but lit up the entire 228 acre site. People Second Empire (1852-1870) — had vast exposition site. Debora Silverman began to talk of Paris as la vale lumiere, lasted more than 18 or 19 years. Since has, however, analysed this more close- the city of light. It is perhaps difficult to the Third Republic had been founded in ly, and pointed out that the exhibition recapture, with our modern eyes, just 1870, by 1889 people were gloomily was laid out on a groundplan like a how much of an impact this sort of illu- speculating that it too was doomed to mination would have had upon the fall. minds and spirits of people in 1889, Above: "Worshipping the Cathedral of when electrical illumination was still The great International Exposition Progress": A panorama of the Paris relatively new. of 1889 was therefore intended to be International Exposition of 1889, engraving 3 The impression must from The Graphic (11 May, 1889) have been one of awesome power and more brilliant and magnificent than any- (Collection of the author). of boundless energy and confidence. thing that had gone before, an affirma- tion of the political health of the regime Indeed, that impression of enormous and of the economic strength of the power was crucial to the Third Republic nation. for a very particular reason. By the year continued on next page 1889, the Third Republic was in a state
The University of Melbourne Library Journal continued from previous page the government did far more to draw the themselves and to be a part of the When we realise that the Exposition working classes into the republic by nation's glory. They came, they saw, was the showcase of a regime fighting popularising the international exposi- they marvelled, and they went home for its political survival, we understand tions.5 Previously, it had been very convinced that the nation was in the best some of the deeper messages encoded in much a matter of the bourgeoisie show- of hands. apparently innocent souvenir images. ing off to itself; any working people There was a second new element: On one level, the exposition was an who attended were incidental. Now, the the government placed more emphasis affirmation of the self confidence and government placed far more importance upon entertainment, and ensured that the achievement of the French bourgeoisie; on the involvement of workers from the expositions had many fun rides. One of on another level, it was also a desperate industrial cities and of peasants from the the most remarkable was an early ver- plea to the working classes to participate provinces. The authorities ordered that sion of the roller coaster ride; Parisians in the miracle of Progress. One of the the entry fee to the exposition be kept most important souvenirs was called down to one franc, and that the national were treated to the curious spectacle of top-hatted bourgeois sitting solemnly Hommage to Monsieur Gustave Eiffel, a railway system should offer special low Souvenir of the Exposition of 1889. It excursion fares, so that millions of peo- alongside workers in little chariots, as was explicitly addressed "To the work- ple could come to Paris from the they whizzed up and down past a huge ers", and is one of the most desperate provinces. And legions of people reconstruction of the Bastille prison. 6 At pieces of propaganda in 19th century responded to this invitation to have fun the Exposition of 1900, another distinc- France. The image included an allegori- with the republic: while only eight mil- tive feature of the fun park would cal female figure at centre who repre- lion people had attended the Exposition appear: a giant Ferris wheel was the sented France. She used to be Liberty, in 1867, 16 million attended in 1878, wonder of the crowds, and was the most leading the people to revolution on the 32 million in 1889 and 50 million in dramatic feature of the Paris skyline. It barricades. Now, she has lost her revolu- 1900. For many of these provincial seems rather quaint today, but the tionary flag and her red hat and is seated peasants and petit bourgeois, their first impact at the time was considerable: the sedately amidst symbols of peace and trip to Paris revealed to them a capital giant wheel, too, was a demonstration of prosperity. Her shield bears the words city that could pride itself upon being a new technology of iron, but it provided Peace and Labour: this signifies that the centre of the civilised world, courtesy of a direct means of feeling the thrill of working classes need no longer consider a republic that wanted them to enjoy new technology.? revolution, because it is simply no longer necessary in a progressive repub- lic. It is implicitly begging the workers not to follow radicals of the left or the right, but to join with the bourgeoisie in the great movement of Progress and prosperity. The composition images forth the bourgeoisise's ideal of the worker: he is a skilled artisan, proud, dignified, self-respecting; he is also a more attractive alternative than a more recent types of worker, the unskilled or semi-skilled proletarian living in the industrial suburbs on the outskirts of the city. To avoid any misunderstanding, the poster bears a short poem, linking progress and democracy: Progress! Throw out your rich seed Into the fields of Humanity. To make it grow, the Sun of Liberty Shines out over the entire world. So far we have talked about Progress and Power, and it seems diffi- cult to see where Pleasure could come into it. What was new about the Exposition of 1889, however, was that
The University of Melbourne Library Journal PART Two The Capital of Pleasure: Paris anti gldontmarte
he great international expositions Steinlen depicts a quite new phenome- phenomenon known as the Belle Twere impressive and memorable — non: a Bastille Day dance. For the first Epoque. and in the case of the 1889 Exposition it time for some decades, working people does seem to have helped the republic could dance and carouse openly, without The whole of Paris was the site for overcome the crises of that year — but the condemnation of the church Thanks the profusion of artistic activity and they were only temporary. The Third to the Republic, their cherished culture, entertainment which flourished during Republic therefore looked for other which they had kept alive in secret, the 1880s and the 1890s, but there was ways to create a new national, specifi- had suddenly become an officially- one area in particular which became the cally republican culture, in which work- sanctioned culture. epicentre of the swirl of Parisian life. ing people could express loyalty by That was the hill of Montmartre, and means of festivity. The reason it was The ploy had some success. In one that is where we will take our next voy- urgent to do so was that in a system of anonymous image depicting the novelty age of imagination. universal male suffrage, the working of a Bastille Day holiday, you can see people now made up a considerable workers in a popular cafe in the 14th The hill of Montmartre had long mass of voters, so their support was arrondissement of Paris, a solid working been a rural commune outside Paris: in vital to the very survival of the republi- class suburb, happily dancing under the views by the early 19th century land- can regime. To put it simply, working aegis of the massive symbolic statue of scape artists such as Michel, it appears people assumed their full place in the art Marianne, the embodiment of the demo- to be a rustic community quite separate of the bourgeoisie at the same time as cratic republic. In a political sense, then, from the city proper, and dominated by they entered the political consciousness the Republic of Pleasure was being used cottages, fields and windmills. It was of bourgeois statesmen. as a venue upon which working people also beyond the limits of the Paris taxa- could comfortably meet with the repub- tion system, so food and drink were The government discovered that lican ideal of democracy, and gradually much cheaper here than inside the city. you could win the hearts and minds of acquire a commitment to republican As a result, many taverns, cafes and people if you combined official civil culture.9 brothels sprang up here, and the site culture — ceremonies, parades and so assumed a rather raffish reputation as a on — with popular culture, such as So what I have been suggesting is place of rowdy pleasures. 10 singing, dancing and carnival. Until the regime of the Third Republic made In 1860, Baron Haussmann finally now, the popular culture of peasants and very clever use of various forms of plea- integrated these fringe areas into the working people had for some decades sure as the most effective way of expanded city of Paris. Montmartre then been condemned as immoral by local appealing to the vast mass of working became a relatively cheap place to live notables and priests, who had combined people. In doing so, it created the right for thousands of workers who had been forces to stamp out old customs and context for others to do the same. I will expelled from the centre of Paris. By ancient festivities. The officials of the turn now from what the government did 1871, it had become a thoroughly work- republic now challenged their authority, to create a Republic of Pleasure, to what ing class area. It was also one of the and declared that it was not only accept- other people did to develop it even fur- hotbeds of working class radicalism in able, but desirable, for people to dance ther. The government had in effect creat- and enjoy themselves. In 1888, the ed the right social and cultural frame- the brief, intense revolution known as the Paris Commune. national holiday was moved to 14 July, work for an extraordinary explosion of Bastille Day, hence a signal that the creativity and inventiveness, but it was a After 1871, Montmartre assumed a government now acknowledged and new generation of entrepreneurs, and a new significance. France had suffered a respected the revolutionary past of new generation of singers, dancers and rapid and humiliating defeat in its war working people. 8 One painting by actors, who came together to create the with Prussia in 1870, and this was
The University of Melbourne Library Journal interpreted as punishment for the crossed by country lanes, and some establishments, and were simply places immorality and frivolity of French soci- vineyards which have survived to the where local people went to dance. The ety during the previous decades. The present day, and there were numerous crowd was made up of young labourers conservative government of the early cottages that reminded one of the area's and working girls, with an admixture of 1870s decided that the nation must rural past. 12 One of them, the Lapin local toughs, thieves and prostitutes. The make some expiation for its immorality Agile, was to become famous as a meet- buildings were simple in the extreme: and irreligion. Because Montmartre was ing place for young artists such as Pablo there was one area with tables and identified as a site of both political radi- Picasso. chairs and a bar, separated by a low calism and of social degeneration, it was wooden fence from the dancing floor. 13 The hallmark of Montmartre, how- chosen as an example of the social evil ever, was the series of picturesque old The famous image of the Moulin de of which the French nation had to cure windmills which had originally been la Galette by Toulouse-Lautrec captures itself. It was decided that the nation used to grind corn and wheat when this some of this simplicity. The painting is a should build an immense church as a was still a rural community. One of the valuable record of what the first dance symbol of repentance and of a concern most famous of these was the Moulin de halls looked like: people are wearing the for moral renewal. The result was the la Galette. subdued clothing of working folk, and great white basilica of Sacre-Coeur. that at this stage everybody is dancing Symbolically, it was to be built of a There were two main monuments in en masse; there is no special dancer, no white stone that could not be sullied by the Capital of Pleasure. The first, and focus of attention. the pollution of a modern industrial city: most important of these was the dance when rain wets the stone, it releases nat- hall. It was not new: it had come into Slowly, though, the audience began ural chemicals that slee off any attached existence as early as the 18th century, to change. Members of the petit-bour- dirt, a physical equivalent of the nation and had enjoyed a brief golden age dur- geoisie, artisans and white collar work- cleansing itself of moral corruption. It ing the middle decades of the nineteenth ers from the respectable suburbs began was a bold ploy to carry the message of century. Now, however, they prospered to come here to savour the sweaty religion into the very epicentre of as never before: there were more of vigour and the jostling democracy of it ungodliness, but it didn't work: even as them, they were more opulent, and they all. Because they came to spectate, the Sacre-Coeur was being built, the suburb were the dynamo that drove the frantic atmosphere changed slightly: dancers of Montmartre was resuming its life as a pace of Parisian life. They were to be who were more skillful came to the fore, venue for festivity, frivolity and important for two reasons. First, they becoming proper performers. Soon, each immorality." provided the site for social change: the dance hall had to boast a celebrity Hence the vision of Montmartre as a dance hall was the venue for the libera- dancer, although the general public also moral beacon in the regeneration of tion of social behaviour and of sexual continued to dance. 14 mores. Secondly, there had never before France was not quite the vision that The nature of the dancing began to been a cultural moment when the per- other people had of it. In one strange, change too. We perhaps get a wrong forming arts were so intensively record- visionary painting, Steinlen has repre- impression of the dancers from the ed in a brilliant body of visual art. sented Paris as a pensive but emotion- genial, soft paintings of artists like Usually, the performing arts die with the less woman who watches wave upon Renoir; it is the work of Toulouse- people who perform them; in the Belle wave of humanity coming up to throw Lautrec that captures the ferocious Epoque, the performers were commem- their talents and their fortunes at her intensity of it all. The dancers who per- orated, and something of their achieve- feet. He places the Hill of Montmartre formed the "chahut" at a hall such as the ment recorded, by an unparalleled group in the background to symbolise this Elysee Montmartre went at it with a of visual artists. It is through the medi- aspect of the capital as a voracious enti- seriousness that verged on desperation. um of visual art that I would like to try ty that consumes all the talent and The dancing was muscular, energetic, to reconstruct some of the brilliance of wealth of the nation. vital and highly improvised; it was also the Republic of Pleasure. The suburb is in fact divided into suggestive, often frankly erotic and two parts. The lower part, near the foot One of the earliest dance halls was occasionally indecent. the Moulin de la Galette, so named of the hill, includes the areas of Pigalle When the orchestra began playing, because it was held in the store-room of and Clichy, which since the 18th century the dancers would move to the dance one of the old windmills. It was founded had been a den of taverns, wine shops, floor, start with a few simple steps, then in 1876, and rapidly became one of the low cafes and music halls, inhabited by increase the speed and complexity of most popular places of entertainment. a population of thieves, pimps, smug- their movements until they progressed glers, confidence men and prostitutes. These dance halls all went through a to a frenzied dance, which might include The upper part of the hill remained very particular process of evolution. turning cartwheels, spinning like tops curiously rustic: there were some fields They began as purely working-class continued on page 29