The
sources of Montparnasse’s fame are an interesting mix: its famous
brasseries and its famous artists, the two intricately linked. From the
beginning the century this quarter has been an attraction for sidewalk
amateurs searching out chic establishments. Very quickly, la Coupole,
le Dome, la Closerie des Lilas, le Sélect, and la Rotonde became
meeting-points for intellectuals, where, between trays of seafood,
Parisian artists or men of politics such as Lenin or Trotsky, dreamt of
reshaping the world. After the First World War Montparnasse became more
urbanised, a majority of the artists from Montmarte descending there,
as much to frequent the budding artistic community as to work in the
workshops of la Grande-Chaumière. The list of “Montparnos” is long: Picasso,
Modigliani, Kisling, Chagall, Léger, Brancusi, Gris, Miro, Diego
Rivera, Zadkine and many others mixed with the writers Apollinaire, Max
Jacob, Fargue, Breton, Sartre, Miller... The walls of la Rotunde
is wallpapered with designs of artists who thus paid their way, a
handful of these works representing a fortune for any amateur art
collector today.
