History
The name Le Bateau-Lavoir was coined by French painter Max Jacob. The building was dark and dirty, almost seeming to be scrap pile rather than a dwelling. On stormy days, they swayed and creaked, reminding people of washing-boats on the nearby Seine River -- hence the name. It has been suggested that the structure was a manufacturing facility in the previous century.
The building stands on a small cobblestone square that was known as Place Ravignan. In 1911, it was rechristened Place Émile Goudeau for Émile Goudeau (1849–1906), a popular novelist, poet, and journalist who founded Les Hydropathes, a renowned literary club. The square now has a Wallace fountain and is planted with horse chestnut trees.
Maxime Maufra (1863–1918) was the first noted artist to take up residence in Bateau-Lavoir, around 1890. Kees van Dongen and Pablo Picasso took up residence between 1900 and 1904. After 1904 more artists and writers moved in, including Pierre Mac Orlan, Juan Gris, André Salmon, Pablo Gargallo, Max Jacob and Pierre Reverdy. It became an unofficial club that included artists (Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Marie Laurencin, Amedeo Modigliani, Jean-Paul Laurens, Maurice Utrillo, Jacques Lipchitz, María Blanchard, Jean Metzinger and Louis Marcoussis); writers (Guillaume Apollinaire, Alfred Jarry, Jean Cocteau, Gustave Coquiot, Cremnitz (Maurice Chevrier), Paul Fort, André Warnod, Raymond Radiguet, Gertrude Stein); actors (Charles Dullin, Harry Baur, Gaston Modot); and art dealers (Ambroise Vollard, Clovis Sagot, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Berthe Weill).
It was in this milieu that Picasso first discussed Cubism. While residing in the Bateau-Lavoir, he painted one of his most noted works, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, creative artists living at the Bateau-Lavoir and in the neighborhood began moving elsewhere, mainly to Montparnasse.
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