Alfred Boucher was a successful French sculptor (1850-1934). He was Camille Claudel’s (see
previous post) first teacher and a good friend of Auguste Rodin and was the one who brought them together. He was a generous person and offered a place for less fortunate artists to work and live. The place is called
“La Ruche” (“The Beehive”) and the major, round, building was originally a temporary installation created by Gustave Eiffel as a “wine rotunda” for the Universal Exhibition 1900. It was dismantled and re-erceted at Passage de Dantzig (see Google map below) in 1902. The wooden stairs in the middle of the central building under the lantern are quite impressive (photo below)!
Artists – painters, sculptors, writers... - who lodged here were supposed to pay a very low rent – often they never paid at all. Among the occupants you would find Guillaume Appolinaire, Ossip Zadkine, Marc Chagall, Fernand Léger, Max Jacob, Chaim Soutine, Blaise Cendrars, Robert Delaunay, Amadeo Modigliani, Constantin Brancusi, Diego Rivera... For a while there was even a small theatre where the later Fench top actor Louis Jouvet played.

From “La Ruche”, the lodgers could rather easily walk to Marie Vasieleff’s canteen at the “Chemin de Montparnasse” (on which I also recently
posted) for an almost free meal. They were then also close to Boulevard Raspail and Rue Campagne Première with other artist studios ... and bistros (on which I also recently
posted) and also to Boulevard Montparnasse with legendary restaurants like “La Coupole”, “Le Dôme”...
“La Ruche” declined during the 40’s and 50’s, should have been replaced by modern apartment buildings, but was saved thanks to the intervention of Chagall, Sartre, Calder, Renoir, Malraux and some others and since 1971 it’s again open for artists, today with some 50 “guests”. It’s now a foundation.
It’s however not open for visitors, but thanks to a kind artist who arrived at the same time as I in front of the gate, I managed to get inside and also to have a walk in the surrounding garden. (I can imagine the nice parties that must have taken place here.) The place is just under renovation again (needed). The weather was once more very cloudy, but I did my best to get a few pictures.
I wish you a nice weekend!