Welcome guest author, Caddy Rowland, to History Undressed today. She's written a fun post Montmartre in Paris, France during the 19th century. Enjoy!
Montmartre: Sin City of the Nineteenth Century
by Caddy Rowland
When I started
writing The Gastien Series, it really surprised me that more fiction didn’t
take place in the Montmartre
section of Paris during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
That’s too bad. Few places have been such a haven of creative genius, free
thinking, hard drinking, drug taking, sexual freedom, and general debauchery. Those
are all things that can be used to make storylines both exciting and
interesting.
Montmartre
during that time was going through the bohemian art heyday. Impressionism was
alive and well, along with many other painting styles that developed after
branching off from it. Art would never again be the same. These artists were
mostly poor, living in buildings that often housed several, with one well for
water and no heat. Starving artist, indeed. Life was tough; making a living was
even tougher.
What few people
realize is that during that time, Montmartre
was also a den of pleasure. Hard drugs were legal and openly sold.
At one time there were over 1,500 opium dens legally operating in Paris.
Hashish, cocaine, heroin, were all common place. In fact, heroin was advertised
in newspapers sold in candy form, and also as a medicine recommended for the
whole family!
Let’s not forget
the preferred drink of the artists of that time: absinthe. In fact, if you look
carefully at some of the paintings done by artists from that era you will find
a glass of green liquid somewhere in the painting. For many years we believed
the chemical compound thujone was responsible for the brutal effect of the
green fairy (as the liquor was called). Now we know that instead it was high
alcohol content (90-148 proof)—and the fact that those who sold it to artists and
the poor sometimes used rubbing alcohol in it to save money. They figured it
was just the poor artists and peasants buying from them, anyway. Talk about class
discrimination. No wonder some of those people suffered effects from it. Of
course, the wealthy weren’t treated that way.
Drugs and liquor
weren’t all one could find, either. Prostitution was rampant (and also legal).
Not only could one buy girls, young boys were offered. Many of us are familiar
with the Moulin Rouge. It’s respectable now (and has been for decades) but in
the beginning? Not quite. There was a huge fake elephant outside that men
entered to indulge in opium and whores. The dancers inside the luxurious club
did the can-can to advertise their “wares”—many times failing to remember to
wear undergarments. Puts a new light on the children’s old rhyme “There’s a
place in France where the ladies wear no pants”, doesn’t it?
Yes, Montmartre
was the place to be seen and a great many had fun there. Au Lapin Agile, Chat
Noir, Moulin de la Galette, Moulin Rouge…all of these were places where the
very wealthy traveled to slum it with the bohemian artists and other peasants,
if only for the evening. One thing was for sure: not only could those artists
paint, they could party. In fact, one evening, Modigliani tore off his clothes
and stood on a table in one establishment and yelled “Aren’t I a god?” The
women there overwhelming agreed that indeed he was. Suzanne Valadon (one of the
few female artists of the time) once slid down a banister at a popular club
completely naked—except for a mask.
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Au Lapin Agile (The Nimble Rabbit)
|
And who could
blame them for enjoying life when they could? Life was hard. Forgetting for a
few hours by altering one’s mind had to be a great temptation, and often times
a great blessing. They struggled constantly, but at night they indulged in
parties that would make Rome or Las Vegas look like the Pope’s quarters.
Most of the artists that are now famous
were part of that scene during different years. Picasso, van Gogh, Modigliani,
Renoir, Degas, Matisse, Monet, Cezanne, and many others whose names most of us
recognize were all part of the energy that was bohemian Montmartre. If you were
an artist who took yourself at all seriously during this era you found a way to
eventually get to there.
So many
characters, so many vices, so much creativity, and yet so few novels about it.
That disappoints me, as I thirst to be brought back to that time since I’m a
painter myself. I tip my hat to the few that have used it as their setting for
a novel. I also hope you join me in nineteenth century Montmartre yourself by
reading The Gastien Series. The first two books of this five book series take
place there:
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Gastien:
The Cost of the Dream Description
|
When young Gastien Beauchamp flees
the farm for Paris, the late nineteenth century bohemian era is in full swing.
Color has always called to him, beseeching him to capture it on canvas and show
people a new way of seeing things. His father belittled his dream of being an
artist and tried to beat him into giving it up. The dream wouldn’t die, but Gastien
would have had he not left.
He also yearns to become a great
lover. After the years of anguish he has endured at the hand of his father, it
would be heaven to feel pleasure instead of pain.
However, the city of Paris has a
ruthless agenda. Unless a man has money and connections, Paris unfeelingly
crushes dreams and destroys souls. With neither of the required assets, Gastien
faces living in alleys, digging in trash bins for food, and sleeping where a
man is often killed for his threadbare blanket.
Left with nothing but his dreams,
Gastien clings to the hope that the impossible is possible. He pushes on,
regardless of the cost.
Adult fiction for
men and women over age 18
Buy link for Gastien: The Cost of the Dream:
http://tinyurl.com/3ecu8ku For Kindle
readers or paperback (This book is currently in Amazon Select.)
Gastien
Fanpage: www.facebook.com/Gastien.Beauchamp
Author
Blog: www.caddyrowlandblog.blogspot.com
Author
Central Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005FW8BZE
Goodreads
Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5106723.Caddy_Rowland
Author
Email: caddyauthor@yahoo.com
Twitter:
@caddyorpims
