Can-Can Dancing in the Paris Vineyard

The Montmartre annual wine harvest has been a festive Parisian tradition since 1934, but we’ve come across some photographs from the 1950s that reveal a time in the vineyard’s history when the grape-picking ceremony added an extra kick into the celebration. Wink wink. Since the 19th century, the Parisian vineyard’s closest neighbours have included the infamous cabaret and burlesque houses…

Hunting for the Lost River of Paris

La Seine, immortalized by artists and adored by lovers dangling their feet over the quay, harbours a dark secret. Under the fifth and thirteenth arrondissements grumbles la Bièvre, the Seine’s younger sibling who was banished to the netherworld over one-hundred years ago. Starting thirty-three kilometers away in the Yvelines and feeding into the Seine at…

The Vault

Exotic Dancing on the Colonial Bandwagon

When I first saw a black and white photograph of Ruth St. Denis, I was instantly seduced by her, just as many audiences of the early 20th century were too. Who was this female chameleon from another era dressed as an Egyptian Goddess, a Hindu deity, a gypsy princess, a geisha or even as an Indian peacock? Ruth St. Denis in the…

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The Art of the 1960s Paris Riots

Over half a century ago, change was brewing in Paris. Right outside my window in the Latin Quarter, from where I write this post to you, violent street battles were turning the city upside down and bringing the country to a standstill. They joke about how the French love to protest and go on strike as if it were…

The Country Bumpkins who gave us Parisian Café Culture

When we think of Parisian café culture, we might think of the “intello-chic” literary crowd that congregated at the Café de Flore with Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre in the 1950s, or the glamorous flappers that held court on Boulevard Montparnasse during the Années Folles, mesmerising artists like Man Ray and Picasso. It’s…

Never thought of it like that: Versailles, a Giant Nightmarish Hotel

The Palace of Versailles, famously opulent and vast, is often celebrated for its architectural grandeur and the lavish ceremonies that took place within its walls. But at its core, it was essentially a giant overcrowded hotel of horrors for the entire French nobility, who were given their own room and key that symbolised both privilege…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 694)

1. This Parisian illustrator Lovely work by Yukiko Noritake. 2. Who Ate Where: The Restaurants (and clientele) that defined New York I just finished watching Ryan Murphy’s Feud: Capote vs The Swans and found this compendium of NYC’s social history told through its restaurants, quite interesting: It’s only in New York that we have the…

Messy Nessy’s Cabinet, a Little Shop in Paris

I have news: Next month, I’m opening a brick and mortar cabinet of curiosities in Paris. It’s only been a few months in the making – a rather spontaneous decision spurred by the lease on our office expiring. But I’ve also been feeling for some time that it was time to take another risk and try…

Postcards from the Last Windmill in Paris

In the dappled light coming through the trees, a jovial bohemian crowd have gathered to dance and dally at the Moulin de la Galette, one of the many windmills that originally stood at the northern tip of Paris. By the time Renoir’s famous painting had captured the scene in 1876, the unlikely venue was already…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 693)

1. This 1930s Art Deco Illustrator (and master of line-drawing) Art Deco Illustrator Charles Perry Weimer creates a powerfully graphic depiction of a 1930s couple in front of a classic Art Deco building with a clock face. This work is particularly relevant in today’s artworld, where few artists can do tight renderings with carefully composed…