Wednesday, April 16, 2014

N = Nouvelle Athènes, Paris - A to Z Blog Challenge

ART: Artists, Art Trivia, Art Legends


 A glimpse of the ART world, in the manner of an alphabetical mini-art tour. ART focuses on artists and art movements between the 1850's-1960's. There are exceptions.


 
 
Café de la Nouvelle Athènes, Paris, Place Pigalle, before



N = Nouvelle Athènes

Café de la Nouvelle Athènes
 

A café in the Place Pigalle in Paris, Nouvelle Athènes, became the meeting place of many of the artists during the late 1800s. Matisse, Van Gogh and Degas frequented the café. Degas painted L'Absinthe, the image below, in the Nouvelle AthènesDelacroix and critic Guillaume Apollinaire lived in this district along with other musicians and writers.


Two figures dine at the 'Nouvelle Athènes' in this painting, L'Absinthe, by Degas, 1876.
These are models, not clientele. A 'slice' of a Paris café life.


L'Absinthe, Degas, 1876, PD*-WC

In the 1980s and '90s, the Nouvelle Athènes became a rock venue. The café was destroyed in 2004, after a long, if not always healthy, life. Think of the history that passed through those doors gone forever but captured in paintings like L'Absinthe.

 
Belle Époque

Prominent artists in Paris during the Belle Époque included post-Impressionists Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and a young Pablo Picasso. Some of these artists worked in both styles - Impressionism and post-Impressionism.

For more information on the Belle Époque, see References.

Maxim's (shown below) was founded as a bistro in 1893 and later became a Paris hotspot. One of its chefs included the young Wolfgang Puck. Maxim's, embellished with Art Nouveau designs, was a well-known gathering spot during the Belle Époque, the restaurant where everyone in Paris went to be seen.

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Belle Epoque's Maxim's, Paris, 2010 by DG Hudson


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Have you heard of Nouvelle Athènes? Belle Epoque? Do you like the painting above by Degas? Do you know the effects of Absinthe?

Please leave a comment to let me know you were here, and thanks for stopping by! I'll respond.

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Brought to you by the A to Z Blog Challenge 2014 Team and the originator: Lee of Tossing it Out. Click the A to Z list of participants and read on. Hope to see you again throughout the blogfest.




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References:

Nouvelle Athenes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_de_la_Nouvelle_Ath%C3%A8nes 

La Belle Époque - Beautiful Era - DG's post
http://dghudson.blogspot.ca/2013/02/la-belle-epoque-beautiful-era.html
 

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Images: PD-WC

L'Absinthe, by Degas, 1876
 
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. This work is in the public domain in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 90 years or less. This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain.
 
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Café de la Nouvelle Athènes, Place Pigalle, Paris, before
 
This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.
This applies to Australia, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.


You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States. Note that a few countries have copyright terms longer than 70 years: Mexico has 100 years, Colombia has 80 years, and Guatemala and Samoa have 75 years, Russia has 74 years for some authors. This image may not be in the public domain in these countries, which moreover do not implement the rule of the shorter term. Côte d'Ivoire has a general copyright term of 99 years and Honduras has 75 years, but they do implement the rule of the shorter term.

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