Renovation of the Montaigne Gallery a hundred years ago

An the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, right next to the “Franklin D. Roosevelt” metro station, the elegant city palace Hôtel Marcel-Dassault is located behind a magnificent lattice fence. It is now the headquarters of the Artcurial auction house. But his neighborhood has long since ceased to be a Parisian district of fine art. Now, after just a few steps, you reach Avenue Montaigne, a boulevard of luxury and fashion. It is a good six hundred meters long, over thirty meters wide, is part of the “triangle d'or”, the “Golden Triangle”, which extends to Place de l'Alma, and is lined with shop windows, boutiques and showrooms of older and newer fashion houses embossed. The most well-known pioneer was Christian Dior, who presented the “New Look” on Avenue Montaigne in 1947.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, when there were still gaps in the development, people came to this area in the summer to dance under trees and lantern chains to the sounds of an orchestra and test their chances. The legendary Bal Mabille not only attracted courtesans, but was also popular with writers and artists looking for fabrics and motifs. An art palace was built nearby for the World Exhibition in 1855 and the “Pavillon du Réalisme” was built for Gustave Courbet. Auguste Rodin took up the idea of ​​a separate show with his “Pavillon de l'Alma” on Avenue Montaigne on the occasion of the 1900 World Exhibition. But it didn't stop there.

The exhibits benefited from very good lighting conditions

Because halfway to Place de l'Alma, a sea of ​​deep red awnings and geraniums on windows and balconies mark the Palace-Hotel Plaza-Athénée, and a little further a snow-white marble facade marks the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Behind the monumental facade of the theater building with its noble vestibule is a magnificent auditorium and a stage that is known for its outstanding concert program. The musical events attract an international audience; Francophone guests also come for other reasons and use the side entrance on the rounded corner of the building. It leads to a foyer and two halls, which offer spoken theater and more intimate productions as the Comédie des Champs-Élysées and the Studio des Champs-Élysées.

The “Galerie Montaigne” was located in this wing for ten years since 1913, when the theater building opened. The name is misleading because the rooms were not those of an art shop, but were used for exhibitions. An art shop with the same name, which can be confused with it, owed its name to the name of the street on which it was located: Rue Montaigne (today Rue Jean-Mermoz).

From the outset, the concert and theater building on Avenue Montaigne, a total work of art associated with architects and artists such as Auguste and Gustave Perret, Henry van de Velde, Maurice Denis and Émile-Antoine Bourdelle, was intended to provide the architectural and decorative framework for performances of music, dance and spoken theater, but also the visual arts. The art critic Louis Vauxcelles was brought in to guarantee a significant program for the “Galerie Montaigne” that was created for this purpose. He is best remembered for publishing reviews of avant-garde exhibitions and for describing Matisse, Derain and their colleagues as Fauves in 1905.

The legendary Modigliani exhibition took place here in 1920

Artistically, the district was deserted after the Bal Mabille and the ephemeral exhibition buildings disappeared. There were still exhibitions on the site of the new theater until the previous building was demolished in 1910. Charity auctions organized by a Société artistique des Amateurs took place here every two years under the motto “Ars et Caritas” – this society of art lovers, founded in 1896, was made up of committed aristocrats. But their presentations were not significant artistic events.

Although Vauxcelles guaranteed a different level, the “Galerie Montaigne” that he coined is almost forgotten today. Their first exhibition in 1913 was dedicated to the art of those involved in the design of the theater, which, in addition to the men mentioned, included the painter Jacqueline Marval. Other female artists were also not left out, as exhibitions by Valentine Gross and Hélène Perdriat document. Other presentations included works by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes or Persian, Chinese or Gothic art – with short durations according to today's ideas. The exhibits apparently benefited from very good lighting conditions, comparable to those of a studio, as the press noted.

In December 1920, Amedeo Modigliani, who died in January, was honored. The retrospective at the “Galerie Montaigne”, which was set up three years after the artist’s scandal-ridden first solo exhibition (Galerie B. Weill), consisted of a good thirty paintings and drawings and was therefore one of the first significant tributes to the artist after his death. In June 1921, the “Salon Dada – International Exhibition” moved into the theater building for a good three weeks. The participants in the associated activities held here and in other places in the Seine metropolis invited people with the question: “Who wants to get a few slaps in the face?” A little later, the theater management decided to renovate; In 1923/24 the “Galerie Montaigne” gave way to today’s Studio des Champs-Élysées – the concept of offering art to music and theater lovers was a thing of the past.