Francisque Poulbot

I recently made a post on the improvements which have taken place at the Montmartre Museum. Last weekend an event took place there, in the gardens, where so many nice well-known paintings have been made. A sculpture, bust, was inaugurated. The person who was brought into honour was Francisque Poulbot (1879-1946), affichiste and illustrator, especially known for the drawings of the local Montmartre street kids, urchins, so famous that they now are just referred to as “poulbots”. The house where he spent his last years is nearby and you can find some of his kids as decoration. (I posted about him a long time ago.)

Francisque Poulbot was also also co-creator of the “Montmartre Republic”, of the local vineyard, the “Clos de Montmartre” (see previous post) and a lot of other things which somehow saved Montmartre, from destruction, over-exploiting… 

The “Montmartre Republic” colours were there and a lot of people (despite the first really cold day of the season).

There were of course speeches by Presidents of the “Montmartre Republic”, of the “Old Montmartre” (Le Vieux Montmartre) association, of the Montmartre Museum and of the “Francisque Poulbot Friends” and we heard a song dedicated to Francisque by Alain Turban (who will have a Montmartre “show” at the famous “Olympia” February 3) …

With the crowd, it was not easy to get good close-ups…

…  but, when it was almost all over I managed to get closer. I also took a photo of the bust creator, Agnès Rispal, talking to one of the invited persons, Christian Cabrol, an eminent, now retired, cardiologist, who among many other medical exploits executed the first European heart transplantation in 1968.

We then joined the little “Poulbot Orchestra” for a little aperitif.

Something completely different: Close to the Montmartre Museum there is a little one-room flat where the composer Erik Satie lived 1890-98. He had then a short love story with the painter (who also worked as model for Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec…) Suzanne Valadon (who lived where the museum now is), he played as “bar pianist” at the famous cabaret “Chat Noir”. All of you may not know his name, but I’m rather convinced that you will recognize his music. Below you can even listen to a free version by “Blood, Sweat & Tears”.