Last bastion of Montparnasse Bohème, the painting workshop of the Grande Chaumière closes its doors

VIDEO – Claudel, Chagall, Gauguin … However, big names made their debut there. Moreover, This international workshop. Consequently, reputed to be internationally, had to definitively leave its historic address on July 26, to the great regret of artists and apprentices. – Last bastion montparnasse bohème, painting

L‘Academy of the Grande Chaumière leaves its historic premises. Therefore, Since 1904, the workshop of the Parisian district Montparnasse attracted renowned painters and artists from all over the world. Meanwhile, For 120 years. Meanwhile, hundreds of living models came to pose in front of thousands of apprentice designers, since two women painters opened it, when only men could enter the School of Fine Arts and where nude workshops were prohibited from women.

Following a real estate repurchase, the Grande Chaumière closed definitively on July 26, 2025. Furthermore, A heartbreaking last bastion montparnasse bohème, painting loss for Alexandre de Broca. Therefore, a professional painter who made her classes in this legendary place: “For thirty years, I have been coming here, in this refuge for artists who need to make their ranges, he laments. For example, For a few euros, we come to draw the nude in this free workshop, without a teacher. Here, I drew and learned. Here, I met extraordinary artists. Additionally, Here, I liked the models. But it’s over. He will be deprived, at worst …. at best will become a foundation, but we will never come back free to draw and that’s what we have been stolen. We were taken this freedom. »»

Eight last bastion montparnasse bohème, painting thousand lovers of sketches from a living model came to draw last year in this workshop with international reputation. Among them. American or Chinese designers, attracted by its unique atmosphere, one of the last inheritances of Montparnasse Bohème in the Roaring Twenties.

And perhaps also seduced at the idea of drawing under the aegis of the big names that preceded them: Antoine Bourdelle. Fernand Léger or OSSIP Zadkine have taught here. And there are no longer the artists who started there before becoming famous: Camille Claudel. Amedeo Modigliani, Marc Chagall, Paul Gauguin, Alberto Giacometti, or, more recently, Serge Gainsbourg, Cabu or Gérard Garouste.

Last bastion montparnasse bohème. painting

Conversion into museum and commercial space

So before the definitive destruction of these workshops, which remained in their juice until today, Alexandre de Broca wanted to keep a trace of this heritage of Parisian artistic life: “It was absolutely last bastion montparnasse bohème, painting necessary to come and paint the premises to keep a testimony. Here, there was this theatricalization that we do not necessarily have in other free workshops that exist elsewhere in Paris. It’s very simple, it’s a great sobriety this place, a real beauty of light. And in this modest side, we can also highlight the bodies. »»

The Grande Chaumière Academy is now expelled from its historic place, but should reappear at another address soon. The town hall of the 6ᵉ arrondissement approved the project to convert the historic place into museum. commercial space and has not played its right of pre -emption. The attempts to classify the historic monuments of the large workshop did not succeed. In short. it is the law of the real estate market that seems to have been right for the intangible value of this living place of artistic creation. Alas, even in Montparnasse, last bastion montparnasse bohème, painting everything goes, everything breaks …