Identity, Counterculture, and Profit in Fin-De-Siècle Montmartre Nicolas Kenny
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Document generated on 09/25/2021 9:28 a.m. Urban History Review Revue d'histoire urbaine Je Cherche Fortune: Identity, Counterculture, and Profit in Fin-de-siècle Montmartre Nicolas Kenny Volume 32, Number 2, Spring 2004 Article abstract This paper examines the Parisian neighbourhood of Montmartre during the URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1015714ar 1880s and 1890s. Isolating themselves on a hilltop to the north of the city, a DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1015714ar defiant community of painters and poets left the busy macadam below to position themselves physically and symbolically at the apex of anti-bourgeois, See table of contents countercultural sentiment. Known for its subversive character, Montmartre's legacy appealed to these passionate and creative youths, and their appropriation of a semi-rural district on the fringes of the metropolitan centre Publisher(s) of modernity symbolized their desire to escape stifling cultural traditions. Particularly revealing are the ways in which their art and literature Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine represented at once a deeply interior questioning of identity as well as a loosely unified movement of cultural protest. By the turn of the 20th century, ISSN many of these artists and writers had been tamed by the commercialization of their nonconformity, but Montmartre remains a powerful site for the memory 0703-0428 (print) of its influential social and cultural transgressions. 1918-5138 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Kenny, N. (2004). Je Cherche Fortune: Identity, Counterculture, and Profit in Fin-de-siècle Montmartre. Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 32(2), 21–32. https://doi.org/10.7202/1015714ar All Rights Reserved © Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 2004 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ Je Cherche Fortune: Identity, Counterculture, and Profit in Fin-de-siècle Montmartre Nicolas Kenny Abstract 18th arrondissement remains strong. Every day, tour buses This paper examines the Parisian neighbourhood of bring in droves of anxious visitors, eager to stroll through the Montmartre during the 1880s and 1890s. Isolating them• narrow streets of the "Butte," perhaps dreaming of capturing a selves on a hilltop to the north of the city, a defiant com• unique atmosphere created by painters discussing each other's munity of painters and poets left the busy macadam below works and absinthe-inspired poets lamenting their broken to position themselves physically and symbolically at the hearts. While architectural vestiges remain and commemorative apex of anti-bourgeois, countercultural sentiment. Known plaques abound, the artificiality of luxury hotels and souvenir for its subversive character, Montmartre's legacy appealed shops remind us that this special ambience may now exist only to these passionate and creative youths, and their appro• on movie screens. Indeed, recent cinematic productions set in priation of a semi-rural district on the fringes of the met• that neighbourhood have met with considerable commercial ropolitan centre of modernity symbolized their desire to success, indicating the enduring nostalgia for the Montmartre escape stifling cultural traditions. Particularly revealing of bohemian artists and demonstrating the extent to which the community succeeded in leaving its mark on the popular cul• are the ways in which their art and literature represented 2 at once a deeply interior questioning of identity as well as ture of the past century. a loosely unified movement of cultural protest. By the turn Since those halcyon days, visitors and scholars alike have been of the 20th century, many of these artists and writers had fascinated by Montmartre's place in turn-of-the-century cul• been tamed by the commercialization of their nonconform• tural transformations. As historians Georges Renault and Henri ity, but Montmartre remains a powerful site for the memo• Chateau wrote in 1897, "Quel sujet. plus digne d'une étude ry of its influential social and cultural transgressions. 3 historique, si ce n'est Montmartre, la Butte sacrée ?" This paper will examine the connection between the highly charged, urban Résumé culture of modernity that swept through late 19th-century Paris, Cet article se penche sur le quartier parisien de and the construction of identity among a group of enthusiastic Montmartre durant les années 1880 et 1890. En s'isolant young artists and writers who, in rejecting established social sur le haut d'une colline au nord de la ville, une commu• and aesthetic norms, sought to position themselves at the nauté de peintres et de poètes rebelles quitte le bruyant vanguard of cultural insurgency. The process of identity forma• macadam pour se positionner physiquement et symboli• tion was twofold, involving, on an interior level, a journey of quement au sommet de l'avant-garde anti-bourgeoise. À self-definition for painters and poets confronted with the rigid standards of a state-sponsored, official culture, overseen by l'époque, Montmartre est connu pour son héritage subver• 4 sif, ce qui attire d'autant plus ces jeunes artistes créatifs a moralizing Third Republic. More central to this paper is the et passionnés. Leur appropriation d'un espace encore re• collective nature of their identity, through which Montmartre has lativement rural aux abords du centre métropolitain de la been remembered as a genuine community that boisterously modernité symbolise leur désir d'échapper aux traditions contributed to artistic and literary innovation. Moreover, I will culturelles étouffantes de leur temps. Les liens entre, d'une argue that the choice of Montmartre as the playing field for this part, leur art et leur littérature, et d'autre part, l'expres• conflict of cultural identity must be understood as a distinctly sion à la fois intérieure et collective d'une identité cultu- urban phenomenon, given meaning by its physical dimension. rellement contestataire sont particulièrement révélateurs. Along with their stand against the values of the Western world's Au tournant du vingtième siècle, plusieurs de ces artistes cultural metropolis, the artists and writers of Montmartre made et écrivains sont amadoués par la commercialisation de a territorial claim, embodying the opposition to official culture leur non-conformisme, mais Montmartre n'en demeure that brought them together. In the end, however, the massive pas moins un site mémorable d'influentes transgressions construction plans initiated in mid-century found their way up sociales et culturelles. the enchanted hill, effacing Montmartre's rural mystique and paving the way for a culture of profit, in opposition to which these professed bohemians had constructed their identity and In the last 20 years of the 19th century, Montmartre's geo• thanks to which many ultimately built their fortune. graphic location, on a hilltop high above the centre of Paris, appropriately symbolized the neighbourhood's position at the To suggest that Montmartre's artists and writers shared in a apex of anti-bourgeois, countercultural sentiment in Europe. collective quest for self-understanding and cultural change pre• "Montmartre, c'est la cime de Paris" suggested one artist who sumes that a sentiment of community existed among the cul• experienced the area's golden age. "C'est un point de vue tural figures who lived there in the 1880s and 1890s. The term hautain, à mi-chemin entre les hommes et D/eu."1 Today most of community, however, is admittedly problematic, and indeed it is the eclectic studios and rowdy cabarets that made the neigh• easily taken for granted in many studies of the district. Certainly, bourhood famous have either disappeared or been transformed it should not be understood in a formal sense that would imply into tourist attractions. In the densely urban streets, it is dif• an officially constituted group with a specific membership and ficult to picture the fields and trees that gave Montmartre its a precise agenda or program governing the formulation of col• celebrated rural charm. And yet the romantic appeal of Paris's lective decisions and actions. Instead, I use the term loosely to 21 Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine Vol. XXXII, No. 2 (Spring 2004 printemps) Je Cherche Fortune suggest that while Montmartre's artists and writers had individ• ebrated cabaret, the illustrator Louis Morin notes that it was "le ual aspirations, they were brought together in more than just the rendez-vous de toute la jeunesse chantante et dessinante de desire to set up shop in a place where, compared to the rest of Paris. Littérateurs et artistes n'y firent qu'un. Les poètes y gagnè• Paris, the air was fresh and the rent was affordable. To be sure, rent des images et, les peintres, des idées, puis ils offrirent leurs they sometimes formed associations such as the Hydropathes, oeuvres au grand public."8 a Left Bank literary organization of some 50 to 100 mem• bers, among whom were many of the first writers to settle in Following Bourdieu's argument that 19th-century cultural trans• Montmartre in the early 1880s. Eclectic coalitions sometimes formations must be considered in terms of their transcendence formed around cabarets, newspapers, or studios, but artists of disciplinary boundaries, it quickly becomes apparent that a and writers came and went, some making it their home for the pillar of Montmartre's countercultural community was the inter• duration of their careers, others never really settling down, and action among artists of all genres and styles. Understanding still others looking more for thrills and adventure than any real this dynamic, then, necessitates an examination of varied commitment to cultural activity.