Villa d'Alésia

I continue with my walks to different “villas”, alleys, where many of the early 20^th century artists lived and worked – and where possibly a few of today’s artists may live. Here we are at “Villa d’Alésia”. Most of the buildings, studios, workshops… date from late 19^th century.

It seems that Henri Matisse as well as Fernand Léger worked here for shorter periods. Wifredo Lam obviously had a studio here for a longer period.

There is a surprising mixture of buildings, architectures…

For many years one of the houses used to be the home of the painter Auguste Leroux (1871-1954).

This blue door belongs to a building where the glass artists Jacques Gruber (1871-1936) and later also his son Jean-Jacques Gruber (1904-88) worked as from 1914. Jacques Gruber is especially known as the creator of the glass dome of Galeries Lafayette (1912), which I photograph every Christmas - see 2010 here.

Just behind the “Villa d’Alésia” you can find a charming little square, “Jardin Lionel-Assouad”, partly surrounded by some nice older buildings.