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Michael, Adcock Le N m rc S pe cia l de 4 ristide Montmartr Bruant .0 .0 itf 10U1, OHO SONS & MONOLOGUES J. GRAN Dt1 0 U fi 'URENT-THILNROE L Bit AIRI E t NI LFISEL L 33 12, 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).
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