La-ruche-montparnasse-paris-1918-amedeo-modigliani

La Ruche (; "the

beehive A beehive is an enclosed structure which houses honey bees, subgenus '' Apis.'' Honey bees live in the beehive, raising their young and producing honey as part of their seasonal cycle. Though the word ''beehive'' is used to describe the nest of ...

") was an artist's residence in the

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. It is split betwee ...

district of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. It now hosts around fifty artists and stages art exhibitions open to the public.

History

Located in the Passage Dantzig, in the

15th arrondissement The 15th arrondissement of Paris () is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ('the fifteenth'). The 15th arrondissement, called , is situated on the left bank of the River Seine. ...

, La Ruche is a three-storey circular structure that got its name because it looked more like a large beehive than a dwelling for humans. Originally a temporary building designed by

Gustave Eiffel Alexandre Gustave Eiffel ( , ; Bonickhausen dit Eiffel; 15 December 1832 – 27 December 1923) was a French civil engineer. A graduate of École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway net ...

for use as a wine rotunda at the Great Exposition of 1900, the structure was dismantled and re-erected as low-cost studios for artists by

Alfred Boucher Alfred Boucher (23 September 1850 – 1934) was a French sculpture, sculptor who was a mentor to Camille Claudel and a friend of Auguste Rodin. Biography Born in Bouy-sur-Ovin (Nogent-sur-Seine), he was the son of a farmhand who became the garden ...

(1850–1934), a sculptor, who wanted to help young artists by providing them with shared models and an exhibition space open to all residents. As well as to artists, La Ruche became a home to transients. At La Ruche the rent was cheap; and no one was evicted for non-payment. When hungry, many would wander over to artist

Marie Vassilieff Mariya Ivanovna Vassilieva (Russian: Мария Ивановна Васильева;1884-1957), better known as Marie Vassilieff, was a Russian-born painter and set designer active in Paris. She was born on February 12, 1884 in Smolensk, Russi ...

's soup kitchen (more genteelly called her ''cantine'') for a meal and conversation with fellow starving artists.

Artists

F9819 Paris 15e passage de Dantzig panneau La ruche rwk

Montmartre Montmartre ( , , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement of Paris, 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Rive Droite, Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for its a ...

, few places have ever housed such artistic talent as found at La Ruche. At one time or another in those early years of the 20th century,

Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire (; ; born Kostrowicki; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist and art critic of Poland, Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...

Alexander Archipenko Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian-American avant-garde artist, sculpture, sculptor, and graphic designer, graphic artist, active in France and the United States. He was one of the first to apply the principles o ...

Joseph Csaky Joseph Csaky (also written Josef Csàky, Csáky József, József Csáky and Joseph Alexandre Czaky) (18 March 1888 – 1 May 1971) was a Hungarian avant-garde artist, sculptor, and graphic arts, graphic artist, best known for his early partici ...

, Gustave Miklos, ,

Ossip Zadkine Ossip Alexeevich Zadkine (; 28 January 1888 – 25 November 1967) was a Russian and French artist of the School of Paris. He is best known as a sculptor, but also produced paintings and lithographs. Early years and education Zadkine was born o ...

Moise Kisling Moise is a given name and surname, with differing spellings in its French and Romanian origins, both of which originate from the name Moses: Moïse is the French spelling of Moses, while Moise is the Romanian spelling. As a surname, Moisè and Mo ...

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

Max Pechstein Hermann Max Pechstein (31 December 1881 – 29 June 1955) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and a member of the Die Brücke group. He fought on the Western Front during World War I and his art was classified as Degenerate A ...

Nina Hamnett Nina Hamnett (14 February 1890 – 16 December 1956) was a Welsh artist and writer, and an expert on sailors' Sea shanty, shanties, who became known as the Queen of Bohemia. Early life Hamnett was born in the small coastal town of Tenb ...

, Isaac Frenkel Frenel,

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

Jacques Lipchitz Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a Lithuanian-born French-American Cubist sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, domi ...

Pinchus Kremegne Pinchus Krémègne, aka Pinchus Kremegne (; ; 28 July 1890 – 5 April 1981), was a Lithuanian Belarusian Jewish-French artist, primarily known as a sculptor, painter and lithographer. Biography and Art He was a native of Zhaludak near Li ...

Max Jacob Max Jacob (; 12 July 1876 – 5 March 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic. Life and career After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic c ...

Blaise Cendrars Frédéric-Louis Sauser (1 September 1887 – 21 January 1961), better known as Blaise Cendrars (), was a Swiss-born novelist and poet who became a naturalized French citizen in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the European ...

Chaïm Soutine Chaïm Soutine (; ; ; 13 January 1893 – 9 August 1943) was a French painter of Belarusian-Jewish origin of the School of Paris, who made a major contribution to the Expressionist movement while living and working in Paris. Inspired by clas ...

Robert Delaunay Robert Delaunay (; 12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist of the School of Paris movement; who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, co-founded the Orphism (art), Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and g ...

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (; ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern art, modern style characterized by a surre ...

Constantin Brâncuși Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter, and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century and a pioneer of modernism ...

Micheal Farrell Micheal Farrell (, also spelt Micheál; 3 July 1940 – 7 June 2000) was an Irish painter and printmaker. He was a member of Aosdána, an elite Irish association of artists. Early life Farrell was born in Cookstown House, County Meath in 1940; ...

Amshey Nurenberg Amshey Markovich Nurenberg (; April 17, 1887 – 10 January 1979) was a Ukrainian, Russian and Soviet painter, graphic artist, art critic, and memoirist. He was an adherent of the School of Paris. During his life, Nurenberg worked in differ ...

Diego Rivera Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957) was a Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the Mexican muralism, mural movement in Mexican art, Mexican and international art. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted mural ...

, Marevna, Luigi Guardigli,

Miklos Bokor Miklos Bokor (2 March 1927 – 18 March 2019) was a French-Hungarian painter and essayist who was born in Budapest on 2 March 1927 and died in Paris on 18 March 2019. Biography Miklos Bokor was deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp with h ...

, Michel Sima,

Marek Szwarc Marek Szwarc (9 May 1892 – 28 December 1958) was a painter and sculptor associated with the School of Paris (École de Paris), as well as with the Yiddish cultural avant-garde movement in Poland '' Yung-yidish''. Early years Marek Szwarc was b ...

José Balmes José Balmes Parramón (20 January 1927 – 28 August 2016) was a Spain, Spanish-born painter based in Chile. He received Chile's National Prize for Plastic Arts (Chile), National Prize for Plastic Arts in 1999. Biography José Balmes was born ...

Gracia Barrios Gracia Barrios Rivadeneira (27 June 1927 – 28 May 2020) was a Chilean painter and the winner of the 2011 National Prize for Plastic Arts. Biography The daughter of writer Eduardo Barrios (winner of the 1946 National Prize for Literature) an ...

Wacław Zawadowski Jan Wacław Zawadowski, pseudonym Zawado, (14April 1891– 15November 1982) was a Polish painter of Landscape painting, landscapes (mainly of Provence), still life, portraits, and figural scenes. Influenced mainly by Post-Impressionism, he was a p ...

, Kazimierz Brandel, and others, called the place home or frequented it. Today, works by some of these poorer residents and their close friends sell well, even in the millions of dollars. La Ruche went into decline during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

; and by the time of the 1968 real estate boom, it was threatened with demolition by developers. However, with the support of well known artists such as

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

Alexander Calder Alexander "Sandy" Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobile (sculpture), mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, hi ...

Jean Renoir Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. His '' La Grande Illusion'' (1937) and '' The Rules of the Game'' (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greate ...

, and

René Char René Émile Char (; 14 June 1907 – 19 February 1988) was a French poet and member of the French Resistance. Biography Char was born in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in the Vaucluse department of France, the youngest of the four children of Emile ...

, new management with a preservation mission took over in 1971, and turned it into a collection of working studios. Its interior is not open to the general public, although many feel that the exterior of La Ruche alone is worth a visit.Fondation La Ruche-Seydoux
website of Centre français des fondations (French)

References

External links

*
"Another Wild-Goose Chase – No Sign of the 'Beehive'"
(Travel diary with photographs)

(Travel diary with photographs) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ruche French artist groups and collectives Buildings and structures in the 15th arrondissement of Paris Art Nouveau architecture in Paris Painting in Paris World's fair architecture in Paris Artists' studios in Paris

History

Artists

See also

References

External links