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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

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 , 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 , 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

10 The University of Melbourne Library Journal The Republic of Pleasure and show him her back- continued from page 10 side, a provocation which always elicited howls of and giving the famous kick, which they laughter. Disapproving called the "shoulder arms". Only trained contemporaries might well dancers could attempt this manouver, pontificate about animality which involved standing on the toes, and vice, two qualities lifting the other foot as high as possible which the French bour- and holding it at shoulder height with geoisie had always associ- the hand. The dance had a vigour and ated with the working earthiness that contemporaries, used to classes: these qualities the more polite entertainments of the frightened them, but also bourgeois salon, found quite primal. The fascinated them, and that dance ended with a tour de force called was precisely what they le grand &art, when the dancer threw came to see. themselves to the floor with their legs stretched out horizontally front and These dance halls had grown organi- Newspaper , cover of 27 back, what we would call "doing the cally out of genuine working class October, 1888 edition (no.354) (collection of the author). splits". 15 The dancers themselves were establishments. Inevitably, though, the real characters. One rare photograph next stage in their development was that shows some of the dancers at the of the artificial creation, when an entre- ever be able to produce anything as Moulin Rouge in about 1880 demon- preneur simply decided to set up what good. was really just a facsimile of the true strating their can-can kick. It gives us a Zidler wanted Lautrec's skills in dance hall. good idea of the identities they con- order to record and to publicise the tal- structed with outrageous and suggestive One of the most famous entrepre- ent he was recruiting. Some of Lautrec's names. The man on the left has not been neurs was Zidler, who realised that there finest work is in the form of dynamic identified, but he is followed by a was a fortune to be made by catering to and beautiful sketches executed in dancer called La Goulue, "the Greedy a wealthy and stylish public intrigued by preparation for the more well-known One", who made no secret of her huge the vulgarity and eroticism of the dance posters. In highly kinetic sketches, appetite for good food, for sex and for hall. What he did was to package depicting the most famous dancers such money. To her right is a woman whose bohemianism and proletarianism in a as La Goulue and Valentine the name suggests urban criminality, Grille more attractive form: he stole the idea Boneless, he would capture the essence d'Egout, a metal grill for a drainpipe, a of the dance hall, he stole the actual of a dance scene. 18 From these superb reference to her legendary thinness. The dancers, and he moved them down the sketches, he would work forward to the last is Valentin le Desosse, or 'Valentine hill to the Pigalle area. He called his better-known lithograph posters. In gen- the Boneless' famous for his contortions establishment the Moulin Rouge, but the eral, the process was reductive: he while dancing. 16 red windmill, like the rest of the dance- reduces rather than adds•detail, so that Their skill was matched by their hall, was a fake, a reconstruction of the the yellow lamps on the left are now propensity for improvisation and out- original dance halls of working-class reduced to shapes that we cannot read rage. Valentine the Boneless, in his tight Montmartre. unless we look back at the original check suit, is typical of the male dancers sketch. 19 From the same base, he could Zidler then embarked upon a pro- whom one moralistic observer described also work forward to large oil paintings. gramme of recruiting the best talent as "dubious in their skin-tight clothing". One contemporary photographer cap- from rival dance halls, using competi- The same observer chastised their tured him at work in his studio, execut- tive techniques which anticipate modern "brazen attitudes", and condemned the ing a painted version of La Goulue and show business. His greatest success was way "they contort themselves and sway Valentine dancing. to secure the services of the incompara- their hips, giving the impression of an ble Toulouse-Lautrec. In one photograph Zidler also extended the traditional animal frenzy depraved by studied that captures entrepreneur and artist boundaries of the dance hall, and appro- vice". 17 together, Zidler stands behind Toulouse- priated some of the talent of the circus. As for La Goulue, her specialty was Lautrec and shows him Cherees first One of the most famous paintings by to aim a kick at the most respectable poster for the Moulin Rouge; the reason Toulouse-Lautrec depicts a female member of the audience and knock his for Toulouse-Lautrec's odd expression is clown who went by the fake Japanese top hat from his head; while he splut- that he was probably looking at Cherees name of Cha-U-Kao, spelt in such a way tered a protest, she would turn around work and wondering whether he would as to look Oriental, but which was

The University of Melbourne Library Journal ■ actually just a phonetic rendering of the atmosphere. He had heard that a literary While the established artists and French phrase, Chahut et chaos, mean- group, the Hydropaths, had recently writers of the avant-garde were gaining ing disorder and chaos. She brought a been thrown out of their favourite meet- new inspiration from their contact with new degree of wildness to Zidler's ing place in the Latin Quarter. These popular culture, the reverse process was Moulin Rouge with an act that was Hydropaths based their philosophy, as also happening. Paris had a long and energetic, provocative and outrageously the name suggests, upon a hatred of rich tradition of popular song, but these irreverent. water; they drank wine instead, and in singers now found that they could have If the first great monument of the huge amounts. Their gatherings were closer contact with intellectuals and Republic of Pleasure was the dance hall, not so much meetings as literary riots: writers than they had ever had before. the second was certainly the café artis- they gathered to discuss poetry and did While the intellectuals savoured the grit- tique, or the singing cafe. 20 There were so with an almost orgiastic enthusiasm. ty directness and realism of popular literally hundreds of them, but one of The group included established writers song, the songwriters were inspired to the most famous was the popular Chat such as the novelist Paul Bourget and go beyond their traditional repertoire Noir, or Black Cat Cabaret, established the poet Francois Coppee, but it was the and to address new themes. younger writers who set the tone. To by Rudolph Salis. Salis himself had The most famous of these was been a rebellious art student who had Salis, they seemed to represent some- Aristide Bruant, the very archetype of turned to the bohemian way of life, so thing more: they seemed to be the new the singer-poet.22 He must have cut an he had direct and real knowledge of the generation: youthful, hopeful, talented, impressive figure: he was large in seedy cafe life enjoyed by a shifting and impatient of the stodgy bourgeois stature, and always stood in an inele- population of aspiring young writers. republic of Jules Grevy. They seemed to gant, aggressive stance, as if ready to Beneath his bohemianism, though, combine popular culture and avant- start a fight. His early success at le lurked a cunning entrepreneur, and he garde culture into a weapon that they Mirliton was due to the fact that he did had the vision to see that there was no could use against bourgeois conformity actually get down off the stage and beat point in simply opening yet another and respectability. They were, in a word, up a customer who had been making fun bohemian bar. Instead, he planned to the very types of people that Salis need- of him. The audience loved this prole- create a cafe in the Montmartre district ed. He acted quickly, and invited them tarian roughness, and came back for that might attract a new public of estab- to move to the Chat Noir. In one move, more; so too did the bruised customer. lished writers and painters, as well as he had annexed the sort of literary clien- One of the most revealing images of the wealthy playboys and tourists who tele that might have taken years to build Bruant is one of the less well-known up 212 came to the area in search of entertain- lithographs by Toulouse-Lautrec for a ment. series called Le Cafe Concert; we are fortunate that we can see the original Salis' venture was a commercial lithograph in the collection of the success, but it did far more than simply National Gallery of Australia in secure his fortune. It was to have enor- Canberra. I think it does far more than mous cultural effect because it brought the more famous images to capture his together and combined three powerful extraordinary stage presence and the elements of French life. Salis brought projection of proletarian roughness. You together the bohemianism of Paris cafe might say that Aristide Bruant was to life, the intellectual preoccupations of the 1890s what Mick Jagger was to the serious avant-garde artists, and the tradi- 1960s. Bruant also had a massive, tion of popular working class song, and squared face with a high forehead under combined them in a significant form of thick black hair; his eyes were quite modern culture. He had created, in other penetrating and fierce and he twisted his words, a venue where high culture could mouth into a sardonic smile. He usually meet with popular culture, and both wore much the same sombre costume: were to emerge enriched from the syn- black corduroy trousers and coat, black thesis. boots, a bright red flannel shirt and a

He opened the first Chat Noir in Singer-poet Aristide Bruant, lithograph by black scarf or, if he wore a dark coat, a December 1881, in what was still a Toulouse-Lautrec, on the cover of Les red scarf. rather rough area of Montmartre. He Chansonniers de Montmarte (No. 1, 5 March, 1906), a collection of popular One of Bruant's most distinctive knew how to make the place seem songs, several by Bruant, (the Brecy contributions to the evolution of modern bohemian and rough, but it was another Collection, the University of culture was the dislocation of the tradi- thing to give it an intellectual Melbourne Library). tional relationship between performer

30 The University of Melbourne Library Journal and audience. He was the first to create sentimental, these songs were direct, to see the birth of early recording tech- a more confrontational and problematic matter-of-fact and uncompromisingly niques, and between 1905 and 1914 he relationship, in which the performer harsh.25 Bruant took this new style of made a series of recordings which are engages with his listeners and berates song from the outer suburbs a brought it now available again on compact disc. 27 them. He would subject his audience to into the fashionable cafes in central It is true that his delivery is curiously the most scarifying sarcasm and invec- Paris. Once again, it was a matter of restrained, and that you might feel that tive. If people walked in late while he new language, new emotions, new he is missing the fire and venom of his was singing, he would pause, place his themes from a world that most bour- heyday. The reason, I think, is that he hands on his hips, and spit out ven- geois had never known. One image from himself had aged considerably — he omous phrases such as "0 Christ, what this period depicts a cabaret performer was 60 years old when he made some of a pack of bastards", or "Christ, look at delivering a bitter little song about them — and that the recording technol- the face on that one will you?" until strikes, which ends with the refection ogy itself forced the performer to be rel- they had crept to their seats. 23 And they that it would be better to put the bosses atively restrained while they were loved it. Famous actors, dandies, busi- on a conveyor belt through a saw-mill. recording. Nonetheless, they give us nessmen, high society ladies and writers Many of Bruant's songs captured the some idea of the power of his voice. flocked to the cafe to be insulted by same sense of bitterness and despera- Bruant, much as the British upper class Amongst the many female singers of tion, of living close to the edge, or today seems to flock to Dame Edna Montmartre, Yvette Guilbert was the beyond it. He sang: Everage to be ritually insulted. One most remarkable. 28 She came from a image depicts him lashing out a song Even lost dogs can find a hole to poor family, and first attempted a dra- crawl into, called Ends of Centuries. 24 For a few matic career. When that failed, she Swans have their shelters by the turned to the cabarets, and developed a moments, prosperous businessmen and lake, repertoire of sentimental and comic elegant ladies could thrill to the idea Night prowlers go to sleep in old that they were part of the decadent end- quarries, songs. She had three novel contributions of-century culture when Bruant berated And even prison is a sort of hotel for to the standard cabaret act. First, she them: murderers. began to use her acting talents to act out her songs and to develop them into little You are a heap of unfinished Bruant's third great contribution to dramas with spoken monologues. products, popular culture was to transform his a heap of abortions, method of delivering songs. According Second, she was inspired by the great Made up of putrid meat, to contemporaries, he seemed to grate realist novelists such as Zola to attempt Didn't your mother have tits or out his words, sometimes spitting more serious subjects and contemporary anything, social issues than were usual in cabaret That she could produce ugly little venom, sometimes dripping with mor- snouts like yours? dant irony. The critic Jules Lemaitre songs. She wrote some songs herself, recalled, but also turned to writers such as Xanrof Bruant's second great contribution and Bruant for more biting, realistic to this culture was that he gave new sig- it was the most cutting voice, the lyrics. Third, she developed a style of nificance to the theme of the oppressed most metallic voice I have ever heard; a voice of rioting and of the delivery that was every bit as intense working classes. He himself had been a barricades which could rise above and passionate as that of Bruant himself. railway labourer, so he knew something the roaring of the streets on a day of She made dramatic use of facial expres- of working class life. Even so, he had to revolution; an arrogant and brutal sion, and learnt to express herself elo- make a specific point of setting out like voice which penetrated your soul quently with her long, thin hands, which an explorer to discover the dangerous like the stab of a flick-knife into a straw dummy. 26 she covered with long black gloves to world of the new working class suburbs heighten the effect. The novelist Jean The critic's terms are revealing, on the outskirts of Paris, and for protec- Lorrain recalled: because you can see how he is uncon- tion he went with a local police She is tall, so tall and thin. Her chest sciously making a link between working informer. He was taken into dens of is of a chalky whiteness and her fig- thieves and into the hideouts of the class roughness, suburban criminality ure slightly rounded but she has no gangs of urban thugs. He also frequent- and the threat of working class revolu- bust to speak of and her chest is ed the cafes in working class suburbs tion. You can see, too, the ambivalent extraordinarily narrow. She has long, thin arms clad in high black gloves such as Belleville and Menilmontant, attitude of fear and fascination that the bourgeoisie had towards the spectacle of that look like flimsy streamers, and a where he learnt something quite new: it bodice that seems to be slipping off was the working class song which working class life. her shoulders. The great originality described the sufferings of the poor. Modern enthusiasts do have, mirac- of this very modern singer resides in Compared with bourgeois songs on the her almost rigid immobility, the ulously, a chance to hear this remarkable `English' appearance of her long, same subject, which tended to be voice: Bruant actually lived long enough thin overgrown body... 29

The University of Melbourne Library Journal She was quickly "discovered" by the then work them up into large colour lith- literary elite of Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec ographs suitable for posters. There was admired her, so did Emile Zola, the nov- time for the performer to examine the elists Alphonse Daudet and Pierre Loti e ) publicity image. Indeed, one of his own and the artists Steinlen, Willette and lithographs depicts this process of col- Forain. Even the venomous Goncourt laborative publicity, with the dancer brothers judged her as 'a great, a very critically surveying the proofs great tragic actress who causes your of a lithograph. 33 There was further heart to constrict with anguish'. 30 Once flexibility in the medium of the litho- again, it is fortunate that she lived long graph because you can progressively enough to make some recordings late in alter the lithographic stone with each her life, and these too have now been printing, creating a number of different releases by a French company on com- versions known as states, so that one pact disc. 31 image can be put to a variety of purpos- The vogue of the cafe concert and es. The profusion of new dance halls the appearance of this extraordinary new and cafes, and the keen rivalry between generation of singers and performers entertainers, meant that this first modern precipitated a virtual renaissance in the publicity industry flourished. It created culture of French popular song. There 15Sitg L111 ,\Filliht new employment and new trades: one were more people singing in cafe sand H CA E R TRASIIUURu early photograph celebrates the novelty there were more songs, new types of of the first female poster sticker. Soon songs that refreshed the rather tired Cover of street music for the song "OM Paris was literally emblazoned with the repertoire of mawkish sentiment and Montmartre!" n.d. (Brecy Collection, the vivid posters that are now the prize pos- crude comedy. There was a new market University of Melbourne Library). sessions of modern art museums. You for song-sheets: people wanted to buy can get a sense of their profusion, but the music and the words of the latest their public the impression that they not of their brilliant colour, from con- song and to get together to sing it as a were in an arty world of bohemia. The temporary photographs of a typical group. The songsheet itself gradually painter Willette, for example, executed a Parisian street, and I think you can became transformed into a work of art, phantasmagoria mural for the Chat Noir, imagine how they must have dominated creating a close synthesis between which is still preserved in the Museum the everyday visual consciousness of music, the poetry of the lyrics and the of Montmartre, and it is one of the few Parisians. When you see these works in visual art of the illustration. One needs examples to have survived. modern art galleries, you can get at least only to look at the songsheets created by get a sense of their brilliant colour, but Toulouse-Lautrec and by a host of tal- The most significant art of the you need to remember that originally ented contemporaries to understand how Capital of Pleasure was, however, the they were much more visually dominant this relatively humble publication had poster, which was now being produced through their endless repetition in a been transformed by their artistic skills. on a greater scale, and at a greater streetscape. And this brings me to a final point. speed, thanks to the technical enlarge- The renaissance of popular song ment of the possibilities of the litho- also generated a renaissance of the visu- graphic press. The commercial produc- al arts, particularly of forms of art which tion of posters on huge presses at the might seem ephemeral, but which are all printery of Pierre Dupont, for example, the better suited to capturing the spirit does much to explain how the printers of the moment. For example, any self- achieved the enormous formats of the respecting artist knew how to create an posters.32'The development of the eccentric interior by painting the walls colour lithograph poster was also to with murals and by assembling strange, prove important because it allowed the outlandish objects as decorations, but up emergence of a close working relation- until now this tended to be something ship between the graphic artist, the they did for their own studios. Now, printer and the celebrity performer. they found that this skill was in demand Toulouse-Lautrec, for example, would from the new entrepreneurs, who want- attend the Moulin Rouge every night ed them to decorate their cafes in imita- from 1889 to 1893 and execute deft tion of an artist's studio, in order to give sketches of the performers; he would

The University of Melbourne Library Journal PART THREE A Perplexity: die Working classes in (Bourgeois Art

aving promised to cover just two hopelessness of people who relied on space and light, the poor have constric- H themes in this paper, I wonder if I cabaret life for their existence. His tion and chilly darkness. At first glance, might break my word and at least men- painting, Woman at the Cabaret it seems to be a very honest painting: tion a third. I have suggested that the (c.1896, Musee d'Orsay, Paris), is Geoffroy was one of the first painters to Republic of Pleasure was a venue in exceptional because it gives us a rare admit that bad nutrition creates the which members of the bourgeoisie could glimpse of what might have been the unhealthy, sallow complexions that are seek the thrill of contact with working experience of working class women, so evident in these pale, care-worn class and bohemian life, or at least a who often relied upon the cabarets and faces. good facsimile of it. This begs the ques- dance halls as a source of supplemen- Nonetheless, Geoffroy's painting is tion: What about the working people tary income, a simple strategy for sur- an instrument with a social purpose, just themselves? Where did they fit into the vival; the image evokes long hours of like most pictures of class produced for Republic of Pleasure? Where are the boredom and of waiting, and something the bourgeoisie. The emotional centre of voices of the working men and women of the sordid aspect of cabaret life that the painting is the point that is most who participated in this little republic of women had to endure. pleasure? I have to pose this problem brightly lit: the face of the little boy The same question can also be twice, once in terms of gender, and once who looks out of the picture space and posed more broadly in terms of class. If in terms of class. As a gender problem, directly at the viewer. It is not a con- the republic of pleasure was meant to be the issue is this: the champagne image fronting gaze: it is simply naive and a a meeting of the bourgeoisie and the of Paris, however naughty and attrac- little vulnerable. If you look closely, you working classes, how did the latter fare tive, is essentially a male fantasy, as we will notice he is a little cherub in work- in the encounter? One answer is that quickly gather from naively Freudian er's clothing. Geoffroy has offered us an they were conveniently absorbed into images such one purporting to represent acceptable embodiment of poverty, an the visual consciousness of the Parisian the "spirit of champagne", depicting a easy point at which to make the emotive bourgeoisie by means of reassuring pic- scantily clad woman riding astride a contact of empathy. We are reassured of torial representations of working people. champagne bottle as if it were a rocket the passivity: they are resigned, hence they will not rebel against society. being launched. You might be puzzled, when you review the art of late 19th century Paris, What was the experience of women You might feel that the neo- to come across large and rather sombre amidst this giddy whirl of Parisian plea- Impressionist painters at least attempted paintings by artists such as Jean-Jules sure? If we look into some of Toulouse- to enter imaginatively into the experi- Geoffroy, like his Resigned to Their Lautrec's images, we find I think the ence of working people who lived in the Fate (1901, Musee d'Orsay, Paris). It suggestion that although the males often new and bleak industrial suburbs on the strikes an odd note amongst the many assumed predatory roles, the women of outskirts of Paris, but closer inspection festive works with which we are so the dance halls were no mere victims, reveals that there are limits to their familiar. It is, quite literally, a picture of but managed to play the field to their empathy too. One of the most important grey misery, composed almost entirely advantage. neo-Impressionist works in Australia is in dun grey tonalities: a group of urban Paul Signac's Les Gazometres a Clichy There are, however, other perspec- poor folk sits miserably in the side aisle (1886, National Gallery of Victoria). It tives on the Republic of Pleasure. A less of a church, while the rest of the congre- is a bold choice of subject matter and of well known artist, Louis Valtat, is one of gation sits in the light-filled nave which point of view, and it is a startling com- the very few painters to put the republic we glimpse beyond the pillars. The position: we look directly into a small of pleasure in the background, and to painting is a set of binary opposites: the cul-de-sac, to a worker's cottage and give us a glimpse of the other side of the congregation has centrality, the poor then to the massive form of the gas coin, of some of the emptiness and have marginality; the congregation has tanks that dominated the skyline of the

The University of Melbourne Library Journal ■ a special personal meaning for me: these working people seem to be turning their backs upon us and walking away, remaining as unreadable and unknow- able to the bourgeois painter — and to his viewers — as ever. How, then, do we now make imagi- native contact with the working people of Paris? One answer is that we might look to the very culture that fed the industry of pleasure, that of the working class tradition of song. We are very for- tunate, in Melbourne, to have access now to the Brecy Collection of original 19th and 20th century songbooks, for they present a vast field of cultural pro- duction which has barely begun to be analysed. The collection, which will be the subject of a special exhibition and seminar in 1998, is currently being cata- logued for the Rare Book Collection of the University of Melbourne Library. The Brecy Collection contains antholo- gies of the works of major artists such as Bruant and Guilbert, but also contain books of songs by a myriad of lesser artists who seem to have been largely forgotten. For those interested in the almost limitless opportunities for origi- nal research into this important body of cultural production — particularly acad- emics who are seeking significant and original material, and students who are At the Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1900, the Eiffel Tower seeking a fresh area for research — the (constructed for the 1889 exhibition) and the Globe Celeste, a sphere 46 metres in diameter, decorated with representations of the constellations. Brecy Collection offers material without parallel anywhere in Australia. Insofar outer suburb of Clichy. At first glance, did for this painting when he visited as Australian scholarship, like many this treatment seems more than adequate Clichy. His cult of impersonality led other aspects of Australian life, suffers to capture a sense of the raw industrial him to literally depersonalise, and to from the so-called "tyranny of distance", landscape. There are, however, stylistic depopulate, his scenes of the suburbs. scholars present and future will be pro- foundly grateful to the Pitt Bequest for elements inherent in the neo- The drawing shows that he had in fact making possible cultural research which Impressionists' very technique which observed some of the distinctive figures could otherwise simply not have taken limit the painter's capacity to represent of working people in the suburbs, such place in the context of existing the banlieue. These paintings were exe- as a ragpicker crossing the raw land- Australian collections. • cuted in the technique known as divi- scape and the rather forlorn the figures sionism or pointillism, whereby the of the woman and child, but that they painters used small dots and dabs of were eliminated from the final painting. paint in pure colour to create scenes Ordinary working people have simply which seem to glitter with luminosity, been written out of the scene. and this virtually precluded a truly gritty representation of the industrial suburbs. It is for this reason that there are some glimpses of working class life, This impression is confirmed when such as Angrand's Couple in the Street we study the original sketch that Signac (1887, Musee d'Orsay, Paris), that have

The University of Melbourne Library Journal Footnotes EXPRESS YOURSELF!

1. Debora Silverman, " The 1889 18. See, for example, Gotz Adriani, Exhibition: The Crisis of Bourgeois Toulouse-Lautrec. (London: Thames and Individualism", Oppositions, A Journal Hudson, 1987). pp 122-123. for Ideas and Criticism in Architecture. Be a part of Spring, 1977. Number 8. 19. See, for detailed technical information, Russell Ash, Toulouse-Lautrec, The 2. Ibid, p 74. Complete Posters. (London: Pavillion, 1991). The author's methodical juxtapo- ARTIn the Library 3. Ibid, p 80. sition of the original sketches and the final posters on facing pages provides an the community art program of 4. Ibid, p 72. excellent mechanism for study. the University of Melbourne 5. See: Charles Rearick, Pleasures of the 20. See Barbara Shapiro, Pleasures of Paris: Library Belle Epoque. Entertainment and Daumier to Picasso. (Boston: Museum Festivity in Turn-of-the Century France. of Fine Arts, Boston, 1991), especially (New Haven and London: Yale the chapter "Cafés, Café-Concerts, and University Press, 1985). See especially Cabarets". This beautifully-produced chapter 5: "The World's Fairs and Other catalogue to the recent exhibition of the In the Baillieu alone around 30,000 Extravaganzas". same name remains one of the most people are recorded as passing 6. Ibid, p 125. accessible and clear accounts of the through the doors each week. This Parisian industry of pleasure. statistic proves the Library can be a 7. Ibid, p 129. 21. See: Rudorff, Belle Epoque, pp 71-72. fantastic environment for maximum 8. There had been, as Rearick points out, an exposure for works of art. earlier, half-hearted attempt by conserva- 22. See: G. Watch, Anthologie des Poetes Francais Contemporains. tive monarchists to institute an alterna- (Paris: Art spaces are available at the: tive, and politically neutral, national hol- Delagrave, 1920). p 509. See also: iday: they had refused to select July 14, Rudorff, op cit, pp 74-80. • Baillieu Library which would have been a recognition of 23. Rudorff, Belle Epoque, p 76. (contact Melissa Hart on 9344 4689 or the revolutionary traditions of the urban working people of Paris and chose 24. Consult: Shapiro, Pleasures of Paris: email: [email protected]) instead June 30, to re-situate the holiday Daumier to Picasso. p 147. • Giblin Economics and Commerce amidst the 'healthy' (traditional) rituals 25. Rudorff, of the rural world, notably the festival to Belle Epoque, p 75. Library celebrate the end of harvests. Ibid, p 5. 26. Ibid, p 77. (contact Melissa Hart on 9344 4689 or email: [email protected]) 9. Ibid, p 12. 27. Aristide Bruant, A Montmerte. (EPM, 1992). Distribution by ADES. The 10. See: Philippe Jullian, Montmartre. • Education Resource Centre address of the manufacturer is EPM, 188 (Oxford: Phaidon, 1977) (contact Anda Purens on 9344 8299 or Boulevard Voltaire. Paris 75011, France. 11. See: Raymond Rudorff, Belle Epoque. email: [email protected]) 28. See Guilbert's own L'Histoire de ma vie. Paris in the Nineties. (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1972), pp 44-45. (Paris: Grasset, 1927), or Bettina Knapp and Myra Chipman's enjoyable That Was Visit the Art in the Library website: 12. Ibid, p 45. Yvette. (London: Frederick Muller, http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/ 1964). Rudorff also has an excellent services/art/AITL.HTM 13. Ibid, p 46. survey of her career in op cit, pp 86-93. 14. Ibid 29. Cited in: Rudorff, Belle Epoque, p 90. 15. Ibid, p 47. 30. Ibid, p 89. 16. The most useful study of Toulouse- 31. Yvette Guilbert, 47 Enregistrements Lautrec's representation of these enter- originaux de 1897 a 1934. (Paris: EPM, tainers is Patrick O'Connor's The 1992). Distribution by ADES. The Nightlife of Paris. The Art of Toulouse- address of the manufacturer is EPM, 188 Lautrec. (New York: Universe, 1991). Boulevard Voltaire, Paris 75011, France. For the particular photograph under dis- cussion, see p 14. O'Connor's work use- 32. See: Ash, Toulouse-Lautrec, The fully juxtaposes photographs of the per- Complete Posters. p 6. formers with Toulouse-Lautrec's render- 33. See, for example, Miriam Levin, ing of them, providing an excellent When means of comparison. the Eiffel Tower Was New. French Visions of Progress at the Centennial of 17. Ibid, p 48. the Revolution. (South Hadley, Massachusetts: Mount Holyoke College Art Museum 1989). p 101.

The University of Melbourne Library Journal ■