In Montmartre: Picasso, Matisse and the Birth of Modernist Art

by Sue Roe

  ‘the length and breadth of infinite Russia’: ibid., p. 134

  ‘The end was here in front of me’: ibid.

  ‘palaces frightening in their dead grandeur … the new aesthetic’: ibid.

  ‘an invasion of Petersburgers’: ibid., p. 150

  ‘surrounded by drawings …’: Spurling, Matisse, p. 149

  Part III: Carvings, Private Lives, ‘Wives’

  ‘Oh la la! Quel beau corps …’: Alfred H. Barr Jr, Matisse: His Art and His Public, p. 95

  ‘Does that interest you?’ … ‘ … make a design’: Hilary Spurling, Matisse: The Life, p. 153

  ‘two-man race’: ibid., p. 142

  ‘At that moment I understood that I was a painter …’: Alex Danchev, Georges Braque: A Life, p. 42

  ‘Just imagine … I left the drab, gloomy Paris studios …’: ibid., p. 41

  ‘memories in anticipation’ … ‘Braque, Friday’: John Richardson, A Life of Picasso, 1907–1917: The Painter of Modern Life, Volume II, p. 68

  ‘d’une beauté grave’: Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume II, p. 29

  ‘less wild, more brilliant …’: Fernande Olivier, Picasso and His Friends, p. 93

  ‘outside society, of a different species’: ibid., p. 94

  ‘took a good deal of trouble …’: ibid., p. 85

  ‘“It’s the cry of the Grand Lama” …’: ibid., p. 86

  ‘thoroughbred marionettes …’: ibid., p. 51

  ‘the art of arranging in a decorative manner …’: Barr, Matisse, p. 119

  ‘What I am after, above all …’: ibid.

  ‘I cannot copy nature in a servile way …’: ibid., p. 121

  ‘the very nature of each experience’: ibid.

  ‘an appeasing influence, like a mental soother …’: ibid., p. 122

  ‘the year of the cinema’: Richard Abel, The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema 1896–1914, p. 25

  ‘Between nine o’ clock and midnight …’: Paul Éluard, Foreword to Nicole Védrès: Images du cinéma français, p. 7

  ‘Picasso and Braque saw the flaw in photography’: David Hockney, Picasso, p. 49

  ‘Would you like to hear some big news? …’: Fernande Olivier, Souvenirs intimes: écrits pour Picasso, p. 218 (24 August 1907)

  ‘Tell Alice I can’t write to her …’: ibid., p. 219 (postscript to letter of 24 August 1907, above)

  ‘of Madame Matisse with a green line …’: Alice B. Toklas, What is Remembered, p. 18

  ‘I once said to her …’: ibid., p. 10

  ‘tactless choice’: ibid., p. 19

  ‘busier and noisier …’: ibid., p. 22

  ‘It was Gertrude Stein … primitive Greek’: ibid., p. 23

  ‘vengeful goddess’: ibid.

  ‘Now you understand …’: ibid., p. 24

  ‘golden’: ibid., p. 26

  ‘astonishing virility’: Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, p. 42

  ‘She always placed a large black hat-pin …’: ibid., p. 41

  ‘bringing her eye close and moving …’: ibid., p. 68

  ‘as for myself I prefer portraits …’: ibid.

  ‘wonderful tales’: Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso … l’aventure des Stein, p. 327

  ‘if you love a woman you give her money’: Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, p. 23

  ‘a loud knocking …’: Toklas, What is Remembered, p. 27

  ‘marvellous all-seeing brilliant black eyes’: ibid.

  ‘You know how as a Spaniard …’: ibid., p. 27

  ‘a large heavy woman …’: ibid.

  ‘a group of Montmartrois …’: ibid., p. 28

  ‘Ah, the Miss Toklas …’: Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, p. 28

  ‘Mees Toklas’: Toklas, What is Remembered, p. 29

  ‘a very small Russian girl was holding forth …’: ibid.

  ‘To exhibit frescoes for a cathedral …’: Félix Vallotton, quoted in Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, Misia: The Life of Misia Sert, p. 127

  ‘In an orange, an apple, a ball …’: Cézanne, quoted in John Rewald, Cézanne: A Biography, pp. 225–6

  ‘Quand la couleur est à sa richesse …’: Cézanne, quoted by Merleau-Ponty in Émile Zola, et al. Cézanne vu par …, p. 34

  ‘see in nature the cylinder, the sphere, the cone …’: Cézanne, quoted in Rewald, Cézanne, p. 226

  ‘dense quilted blue’, ‘shadowless green’: Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters on Cézanne, p. 29

  ‘the apples are all cooking apples …’: ibid.

  ‘la réalisation’: ibid., p. 34

  ‘the conviction and substantiality of things …’: ibid.

  ‘it’s natural, after all …’: ibid., p. 50

  ‘was my one and only master! …’: Picasso, quoted in Brassaï, Conversations with Picasso, p. 107

  ‘The poets of that time were our best disseminators’: Danchev, Georges Braque, p. 47

  ‘a new classicism …’: Adrienne Monnier, The Very Rich Hours of Adrienne Monnier, p. 84

  ‘columns of tenderness’: June Rose, Daemons and Angels: A Life of Jacob Epstein, p. 76

  ‘a brilliant rectangle …’: Noel Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani: Drawings from the Collection of Paul Alexandre, p. 62

  ‘What I am searching for … in the human Race’: Modigliani, in ibid., p. 91

  ‘It was a gorgeous surprise …’: Toklas, What is Remembered, p. 30

  ‘a certain wild quality …’: Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, p. 29

  ‘That settled the matter’: ibid.

  ‘Of course to have a lesson in French …’: ibid., p. 31

  ‘like real bottled liquid smoke’: ibid.

  ‘first category sables, second category ermine …’: ibid.

  ‘our hats are a success’: ibid., p. 19

  ‘one ideal’: ibid., p. 33

  ‘Fernande adored her …’: ibid.

  ‘THAW MURDERS STANFORD WHITE … ’: Gerald Langford: The Murder of Stanford White, p. 22

  ‘the most exquisitely lovely human being …’: ibid., p. 93

  ‘She could never have counterfeited it … done it as well’: ibid., p. 118

  ‘But she went into ecstasies over Evelyn Thaw …’: Toklas, What is Remembered, p. 35

  ‘The performance at the Folies Bergère …’: ibid., p. 33

  ‘Find a hotel in our quarter …’: ibid.

  ‘You ought to do caricatures’: Hélène Parmelin: Picasso Says …, p. 36

  ‘And yet Fénéon was quite somebody’: ibid.

  ‘What a loss for French art!’: Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume II, p. 106

  ‘My true meeting with him …’: Danchev, Georges Braque, p. 51

  ‘It’s as if you wanted to make us eat tow …’: ibid., p. 52

  ‘For me the role of painting … halt an image’: Parmelin, Picasso Says …, p. 39

  ‘he cannot look at the world any more …’: Gertrude Stein, ‘What are Masterpieces …?’, in Gertrude Stein, What are Masterpieces …?, p. 87

  ‘You have to give whoever is looking at it …’: Parmelin, Picasso Says …, p. 92

  ‘Everything is against them …’: Stein, ‘What are Masterpieces …?’, in Stein, What are Masterpieces …?’ p. 91

  ‘it is about identity and all it does …’: ibid.

  ‘It is very interesting that no one is content …’: ibid., pp. 93–4

  ‘Fit your parts into one another …’: Barr, Matisse, p. 550

  ‘To feel a central line …’: ibid., p. 551

  ‘The model must not be made to agree …’: ibid.

  ‘He does not leave me alone …’: Toklas, What is Remembered, p. 64

  ‘Is Fernande wearing her earrings?’ … ‘… And it was’: Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, p. 33

  ‘held Pablo by her beauty’: Toklas, What is Remembered, p. 35

  ‘taking Fernande off his hands’: ibid., p. 36

  ‘a new and alarming development
occurred’: ibid.

  ‘I have seen God’: ibid., p. 37

  ‘large’ laughs: ibid.

  ‘le cher maître …’: ibid., p. 38

  ‘unsympathetic as a man …’: ibid., p. 39

  ‘an old maid mermaid … quite unbearable’: ibid., p. 44

  ‘wore thin and finally blew away entirely’: ibid.

  ‘By the time the buttercups were in bloom …’: ibid.

  ‘You have seated yourselves admirably’ … ‘a sort of man and woman’: Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, p. 23

  ‘the feeling between the Picassoites and the Matisseites …’: ibid., p. 72

  ‘powerful head which made him look like a white negro’: Fernande Olivier, Picasso and His Friends, p. 103

  ‘suspicious, able and clever’: ibid.

  ‘his nose swollen like a potato …’: ibid., p. 104

  ‘ma femme’: Danchev, Georges Braque, p. 107

  ‘disciple’: Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume II, p. 83

  ‘She set Braque apart …’: Danchev, Georges Braque, p. 29

  ‘the most sensational of entrances’: Olivier, Picasso and His Friends, p. 115

  ‘Oh! Remarkable! Delightful! …?’ ‘Yes … by Madame?’: ibid.

  ‘The fashionable figure is growing straighter …’: Palmer White, Poiret, p. 41

  ‘He saw things on a large, a grand scale …’: Olivier, Picasso and His Friends, p. 116

  ‘eyeglass in one hand and foil in the other …’: Claude Lepape and Thierry Defert, From the Ballets Russes to Vogue: The Art of Georges Lepape, p. 40

  ‘Peacock Woman and her brilliant portrayal …’: Jean Lorrain, in Philippe Jullian, Montmartre, p. 132

  ‘I could see the gas lamps rise up in tiers …’: Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, p. 53

  ‘some sensational entry’: Paul Poiret, King of Fashion: The Autobiography of Paul Poiret, p. 54

  ‘decision’: Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume II, p. 110

  ‘We are the two great painters of the age …’: Olivier, Picasso and His Friends, p. 92

  ‘Poor, dear douanier …’: ibid., p. 90

  ‘he had the natural gift of a primitive painter’: ibid., p. 92

  ‘a unique talent, a sort of genius’: ibid.

  at least three: Note: In addition, during the course of 1908, they bought a large number of works by Picasso. See Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso …, pp. 314–16

  ‘a small, strange watercolour of Picasso’s …’: Alexandre: The Unknown Modigliani, p. 62

  ‘only once at sundown …’: Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume II, p. 102

  ‘two ascending and converging lines …’: ibid., p. 101

  ‘petites cubes’: ibid.

  ‘a Mediterranean landscape …’: Henri Matisse, in Georges Braque et al., Testimony against Gertrude Stein, p. 6

  ‘In order to give …’: ibid.

  ‘When we invented cubism …’: Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume II, p. 105

  ‘Cubism, or rather my cubism …’: ibid.

  ‘Cubism showed cubes where there weren’t any …’: Jean Cocteau, The Journals of Jean Cocteau, p. 93

  ‘It has its origins in a single viewpoint …’: Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume II, p. 105

  ‘a full experience of space … as a painting should’: Danchev, Georges Braque, p. 73

  ‘It is as if someone spent his life …’: Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume II, p. 105

  ‘brought him closer to the human being …’: Hockney, Picasso, p. 48

  ‘If there are three noses …’: ibid., p. 50

  ‘strange alchemy’: Maurice Vlaminck, Dangerous Corner, p. 77

  ‘aesthetic revolution [which] would remain uncontrolled …’: ibid.

  ‘Picasso never lectured …’: Cocteau, The Journals of Jean Cocteau, p. 93

  ‘terribly individualistic …’: André Salmon, in Jeanine Warnod, Washboat Days: Montmartre, Picasso and the Artists’ Revolution, p. 102

  ‘to buck him up and to banish his doubts’: Vlaminck, Dangerous Corner, p. 76

  ‘fun to work in pure colour and tone …’: ibid.

  ‘It seemed as though everything was seen …’: ibid., p. 79

  ‘How could I dream of running …?’: ibid., p. 80

  ‘It is forbidden to disturb the performance with hats …’: Michel Fontana, L’Année 1908 en France (Thesis, Université de Paris III, Sorbonne Nouvelle, Departement d’Études et de Recherches en Cinéma et Audiovisuel, Mémoire pour le Diplôme d’Études Approfondies, Septembre 1997, Documentations du Musée du Cinéma, Bercy, Paris (11. 01 FRA FON), p. 107; cited in Ciné-Journal, 1 September 1908)

  ‘a painting that enchanted him’: Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, p. 62

  ‘Can you still doubt that my client …?’: Ambroise Vollard, Recollections of a Picture Dealer, p. 216

  ‘Oh! Monsieur Vollard! …’: ibid., p. 218

  ‘So you see, Léonie … Léon …’: ibid., p. 219

  ‘good-nature personified’: ibid., p. 215

  ‘Aie! Aie! Aie! …’: Olivier, Picasso and His Friends, p. 70

  ‘burst in upon us filled with the tragedy …’: Toklas, What is Remembered, p. 56

  ‘le “premier” de l’alimentation à Paris’: Hubert Juin, Le Livre de Paris 1900, p. 102

  ‘the national song of the Red Indians’: Toklas, What is Remembered, p. 57

  ‘Salmon came running past us …’: ibid.

  Part IV: Street Life

  ‘fast tempo and beautiful movement’: Alfred H. Barr Jr, Matisse: His Art and His Public, p. 135

  ‘I have decided to defy our bourgeois opinions …’: ibid., p. 555 (31 March 1909, Moscow)

  ‘In those days only millionaires …’: Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, p. 102

  ‘streamed with gold’: Misia Sert, Two or Three Muses: The Memoirs of Misia Sert, p. 111

  ‘Artists, who all their lives …’: V.J. Svetlov, in Serge Lifar, Serge Diaghilev: His Life, His Work, His Legend, pp. 130–31

  ‘arduous, feverish, hysterical’: Tamara Karsavina, Theatre Street: The Reminiscences of Tamara Karsavina, p. 235

  ‘Ces Russes, oh la la …’: ibid., p. 236

  ‘For mercy’s sake, I cannot work …’: ibid.

  ‘a retail shop of cheap emotions …’: ibid., pp. 235–6

  ‘itself a work of art’: Richard Buckle, Nijinsky, p. 88

  ‘He rose up, a few yards …’: Karsavina, Theatre Street, pp. 240–41

  ‘irresistible at twenty’: Misia Sert, in Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, Misia: The Life of Misia Sert, p. 136

  ‘splashed Paris with colours’: Jean Cocteau, The Journals of Jean Cocteau, p. 50

  ‘When you paint a landscape … like a plate’: Francis Carco, From Montmartre to the Latin Quarter, p. 32

  ‘I understood how far I was able to go’: John Richardson, A Life of Picasso, 1907–1917: The Painter of Modern Life, Volume II, p. 124

  ‘two landscapes and two figures …’: ibid., p. 128

  ‘Because of the heat …’: Alice B. Toklas: What is Remembered, p. 48

  ‘beautifully made to order …’: ibid.

  ‘rosy with pleasure’: ibid., p. 50

  ‘Those were proud and happy days …’: ibid., p. 53

  ‘an extraordinary one of Harriet’: ibid., p. 49

  ‘The old people in a new world …’: Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans. Being a History of a Family’s Progress, p. 3

  ‘We need only realize our parents …’: ibid.

  ‘bottom’ or basic nature: ibid., p. 343

  ‘dependent independent’ …’ ‘resting kind’: ibid., p. 344

  ‘independent dependent’ … ‘attacking kind’: ibid.

  ‘emotion is not as poignant …’: ibid., p. 347

  ‘their substance is more vibrant …’: ibid.

  ‘attackingly defending’: ibid., p. 348

  ‘the muggy resisting bottom �
�’: ibid., p. 352

  ‘I am all unhappy in this writing …’: ibid., p. 348

  ‘very exciting …’: Toklas, What is Remembered, pp. 41–2

  ‘I had commenced the typewriting …’: ibid., p. 54

  ‘a professional accuracy …’: ibid.

  ‘Frequently these were the characters …’: ibid.

  ‘Eh bien’ … ‘off the sidewalk’: ibid., p. 55

  ‘Come on … take a fiacre’: ibid., p. 60

  ‘very delicate tea’: ibid., p. 61

  ‘on her very best behaviour’: ibid., p. 60

  ‘these people must have hit the jackpot’: Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume II, p. 143

  ‘Shchukin has bought my picture …’: quoted in Fernande Olivier, Souvenirs intimes: écrits pour Picasso, p. 238

  ‘When I hang these on the wall …’: Francis Carco, L’Ami des peintres, p. 19

  ‘it always amused me …’: Gertrude Stein, Picasso: The Complete Writings, p. 35

  ‘really the beginning of cubism’: Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume II, p. 131

  ‘only Spaniards can be cubists’: ibid.

  ‘the humblest galleries where the “jeunes” showed their work …’: Carco, L’Ami des peintres, p. 236

  ‘the pin wasn’t fastened …’: Fernande Olivier, Picasso and His Friends, p. 118

  ‘Some … spend all their living struggling …’: Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans, p. 463

  ‘a marvellous gold sheath …’: Paul Poiret, King of Fashion: The Autobiography of Paul Poiret, p. 92

  ‘pointed her nose in every direction … midinettes of Paris’: ibid., p. 93

  ‘like a thunder-clap’: ibid., p. 40

  ‘FRENCH TRADE REPRESENTED BY THE ENGLISH PREMIER’: ibid., p. 41

  ‘Wives dragged husbands …’: Palmer White, Poiret, p. 41

  ‘Those gowns are … the worst of all the recent insanities’ (Le Figaro); ‘I shall have the charity to refrain from mentioning the name of the couturier who is guilty of this outrage’ (La Vie Parisienne); ‘To think of it! Under those straight gowns we could sense their bodies!’ (L’Illustration): ibid.

  ‘I rolled myself into a ball …’: Henri Matisse, in Hilary Spurling, Matisse: The Life, p. 194

  ‘I did sculpture when I was tired of painting …’: Henri Matisse, Galeries of the Centre Pompidou

  ‘I said to her …’: Toklas, What is Remembered, p. 61

  ‘yes apaches of course …’: Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume II, pp. 142–3