Montmartre, The Bohemian of Picasso
At the height of its 130 meters, the butte Montmartre dominates all of Paris. Moreover, here, we are not really in Paris. There is a rural air about it. At every street corner, one encounters the ghosts of a prestigious past. Located in the 18th arrondissement, like an island overlooking the Parisian ocean, lthe butte is a true belvedere for tourists, but also for artists.
A few steps from the majestic silhouette of the Sacré-Cœur, one finds the largest open-air workshop of artifice in the world, the Place du Tertre. Nearly 300 painters and portraitists come here every day to earn their living. This former public square, opened in 1635, was frequented at the beginning of the 20th century by all the Montmartre bohemia, painters, chansonniers, and poets.
Pablo Picasso was one of them. The Spanish painter lived in Montmartre for nearly 10 years, which would leave a lasting mark on his work. It is here that he will live part of his blue period, cold and melancholic, then his pink period, happy and light.. But when he arrived at 20, straight from his Spain, the scene was quite different.
The Montmartre of Picasso resembled a rural village where windmills appear above the old maquis, farms, stables where one would go to fetch milk in the morning. Young women would return from the Place du Tertre with an arm over their shoulder, as one would still draw water at the fountain; there was not yet water in the houses. The gap with Paris was total.
Even today, one can catch a glimpse of Montmartre from the early 20th century.
You just have to go to Rue le Pic, push a gate, and climb a few steps, we this is what was called the maquis of Montmartre. At the time, it was wasteland, almost a shantytown of huts and shacks where outcasts, ragpickers, and young artists lived. Today, it is a preserved piece of time, sheltered from the hustle and bustle of the street. A small haven of peace that the Montmartrois guard jealously.
The arrival of Picasso in Montmartre
Picasso arrived for the 1900 World Exposition, in a Paris full of intellectual excitement, and it is in Montmartre that he settled, a neighborhood already imbued with an artistic aura, in which Van Gogh, Manet, Degard, Renoir have passed. Like his predecessors, Montmartre is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for Picasso, who then paints his most ordinary daily life: the dance at the Moulin de la Galette in the style of the Impressionists, and even the view from his room over the blue roofs of Paris. Picasso chose Montmartre because there was a large community of artists. Notably many Spanish artists.
The Boat-Lavoir a world of creation
Cit is where he managed to have a studio at a very reasonable price. This studio located on the old Ravignan square, it is the boat-lavoir. Nicknamed thus by the poet Marc Jacob, a great friend and admirer of Picasso because of its architecture and its laundry drying in the windows. 
When Picasso arrives at the boat-lavoir, it is an old building that has charm but is completely dilapidated. He only had a tap on the 2nd floor where he had neither running water nor electricity. Picasso painted by candlelight in the evening, or by the light of the oil lamp. These were truly extreme conditions of poverty. A group forms around the young Spaniard whose boat-lavoir becomes the meeting point. Marc Jacob and Guillaume Apollinaire, George Brak or even his first great love, the model Fernande Olivier. This entire artistic entourage creates a true emulation around Picasso. And it is in this studio that the young Spaniard will revolutionize painting.
If the boat-lavoir is mythical, it’s because it saw the birth of the young ladies of Avignon, the great painting that inaugurates cubism. It is a fundamental work of the cubism movement! Above all, there is a real desire to break the codes of perspective representation. With the young ladies of Avignon, he shows his manifest interest in modern art. The boat-lavoir is where Picasso was really able to invent something new. He thus went from a talented artist to a true creator. To paint these deconstructed bodies of prostitutes, Picasso haunted the brothels of Montmartre and filled no less than 15 sketchbooks. Destroyed in a fire in 1970, it will be completely rebuilt into 25 studios that still house artists from around the world today. The dark quarters have given way to bright rooms with high ceilings where vegetation seeps in.
A century later, the light and greenery remain the same. But the life of artists has changed a bit. Before, he had no money, he had no heating, Picasso was always outside. Now the studios are more serious and that era is over. And it is also in this studio that Picasso will live the end of his blue period, melancholic following the death of his friend Casagemas followed by his pink period more cheerful, when he falls in love with Fernande.
AGILE RABBIT Picasso's cabaret
Let's now go down the hill, we inevitably arrive at this absolute stronghold of Montmartre: the headquarters of Picasso and his gang “the agile rabbit”, thethe oldest cabaret in Paris with the appearance of a countryside cabaret. Every evening behind its colorful and opaque windows, modern-day performers sing old French songs during open evenings for the public. The artists of the cabaret maintain a Montmartre spirit, authentic, the same one that Picasso frequented a century earlier.
The decor hasn't changed, the same tables, the same benches, there are no concessions, there are no microphones, there are no lasers, nor radios as if the world had frozen.
Picasso and his friends spent entire nights around wooden tables, to the sound of the piano and accordion, recreating art and the world. He would thus remain with father Frédé, the boisterous owner who took them under his wing. Frédé had directly recognized Picasso's talent, and the young Spaniard felt at ease in the bar, his bar, where a family atmosphere reigned.
Used to taking what he has in front of him, he will paint this cabaret that he loves so much, and he will offer it to father Frédé. As if to find a trace of his youth, Picasso would return to the lapin agile throughout his life.
The Montmartre festivities in honor of Picasso
Every October, Montmartre celebrates itself the harvest festival. For several days, the neighborhood awakens to the sound of drums and little poulbots, dances from around the world, and parades of brotherhoods. At the origin of this celebration, a great resistance movement from the inhabitants of Montmartre to which Picasso is not a stranger. In 1929, Montmartre is threatened with destruction by the rampant urbanization of Paris. But the passage of this exceptional generation of artists with Picasso as the figurehead will make Montmartre an untouchable sanctuary that the Montmartrois will defend.
To defend the city, the Montmartrois create an environmental movement, which will serve to fight against urbanization. Their action plan? Create the square of freedom. The square is illegal with a fake plaque from the city of Paris, perfectly imitated, which was originally just a vacant lot. To mock the officials, everyone celebrated the creation of the new square in very provocative ways.. It's a victory, the land is declared unbuildable ! In 1933, in place of the square, the Montmartrois will replant a vine whose harvest is celebrated every year and whose wine is sold for the benefit of the underprivileged. Picasso said, "we will all return to rue Ravignan, in fact we will have only been happy there."
Picasso would keep Montmartre engraved in his heart all his life, the hill was his countryside. These artists and free spirits who inspired and supported him throughout his life allowed him to lead his own revolution. Even in Montparnasse, the other artists' district where he later settled, he would never forget that it was Montmartre that witnessed the birth of his genius, and has makes him one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.