A city of letters, Parisian writers from Aragon to Zola
An exhibition inviting lovers of the French Capital to take a stroll through the Paris of writers.
From Aragon to Zola, this literary primer takes visitors on a tour of the capital's neighborhoods, where writers lived their daily lives or fed their imaginations. From the cafés haunted by Paul Verlaine to Les Halles in Émile Zola's Ventre de Paris, not forgetting the dark streets that follow Modiano or the Île de la Cité in Louis Aragon's Aurélien... all invitations to (re)read and stroll in their footsteps, in the heart of their familiar places.
Bargain hunters at the “bouquinistes” on Quai Conti, horse-drawn carriages overflowing with merchandise at Le Bon Marché, curious onlookers watching a tightrope walker in Montmartre, soup vendors at Les Halles, small cafés with absinthe drinkers, upper-class Parisian women at the Ritz at teatime...
Eugène Atget, Charles Marville, Pierre Jahan, Janine Niepce, Gaston Paris and Hélène Roger-Viollet, to name but a few, are not to be outdone when it comes to depicting the Paris of the 19th and 20th centuries.
But Henri Martinie's singular portraits and the Lipnitzkis' close ties with artists and writers are also key to exploring this exhibition, where text extracts link literature and photography.
Strollers in the Square du Vert Galant, on the Ile Saint-Louis. Paris, 1983.
Photo: Janine Niépce
30x40cm print
Louis Aragon (1897-1982). 1951.
Photo: Henri Martinie
13x18 cm print
Honoré de Balzac's study from 1842 to 1848. 47 rue Raynouard. Paris (16th arr.).
Photo: Jean Roubier
24x30 cm
Staircase between rue Raynouard and rue Berton. Paris (16th arr.), 1950-1959.
Photo: Edith Gérin
40x50 cm print
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), 1842.
Photo: Louis-Auguste Bisson
13x18 cm print
23 rue Saint-Augustin. Interior of the Passage Choiseul. Paris (2nd arr.), 1916.
Photo: Charles Lansiaux
30x40cm print
Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894-1961). Meudon (France), circa 1955.
Photo: Bernard Lipnitzki
13x18 cm print
Gala de l'Union des Artistes, charity circus. Jean-Louis Barrault, Madeleine Renaud, French actors, and Boris Vian, French writer. Paris, April 1949.
Photo: Studio Lipnitzki
30x30cm print
Marguerite Duras (1914-1996). 1955.
Photo: Studio Lipnitzki
13x18 cm print
D'jelmako (1857-1933), tightrope walker, in the district of Montmartre. Paris (18th arr.), circa 1930.
Photo: Albert Harlingue
40x60 cm print
Paul Eluard (1875-1952), circa 1930.
Photo: Henri Martinie
13x18 cm print
Women drinking tea in the garden of the Ritz Paris, circa 1930.
Photo: Boris Lipnitzki
40x60 cm print
Léon-Paul Fargue (1876-1947). France, circa 1920.
Photo: Henri Martinie
13x18 cm print
Children playing in the rocks at the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.
Paris, circa 1960.
Photo: Gaston Paris
40x40 cm print
Romain Gary (1914-1980). 1980.
Photo: Jean-Régis Roustan
13x18 cm print
Bastille Day ball. Paris, 1938.
Photo: Hélène Roger-Viollet & Jean Fischer
40x50 cm print
Léonce de Boisset and Ernest Hemingway, admiring a fishing trophy.
Photo: Collection Roger-Viollet
13x18 cm print
"Jacques ou la soumission" (Jack or the Submission), play by Eugene Ionesco, directed by Robert Pastée. Jean-Louis Trintignant, Claude Thibault and Tsilla Chelton. Paris, Théâtre de la Huchette, October 1955.
Photo: Studio Lipnitzki
30x30cm print
Eugene Ionesco surrounded by the actors of his play "The Bald Soprano". Behind him on the left, his wife Mrs Ionesco. Paris, Théâtre des Noctambules, 1950.
Photo: Studio Lipnitzki
30x30cm print
Eugène Ionesco (1909-1994). 1961.
Photo: Jean-Régis Roustan
13x18 cm print
Montmartre. Street singer, rue Saint-Vincent. Paris (18th arr.), circa 1910.
Photo: Neurdein
30x40cm print
The Bateau-Lavoir, artists' studios located on the Butte Montmartre, in the district of Clignancourt. Paris (18th arr.).
Photo: Collection Roger-Viollet
30x40cm print
Max Jacob (1876-1944) in his room at the Hôtel Nollet, 55 rue Nollet. Paris (17th arr.), 1930.
Photo: Thérèse Bonney
13x18 cm print
Elephants in the streets of Paris, March 1941.
Photo: LAPI
30x40cm print
Joseph Kessel (1898-1979). France, circa 1935.
Photo : Henri Martinie
13x18 cm print
Old door of a brothel, rue de la Lune. Paris (2nd arr.), 1939.
Photo: Pierre Jahan
40x40cm print
Porte Saint-Denis. Paris (10th arr.), circa 1900.
Photo: Léopold Mercier
24x30 cm
Valéry Larbaud (1881-1957). Paris, circa 1925.
Photo: Henri Martinie
13x18 cm print
Montmartre at night. The Café des 4 Vents, 18 rue du Chevalier-de-la-Barre. Paris (18th arr.), 1947.
Photo: René-Jacques
30x40cm print
Patrick Modiano (born in 1945). 1968.
Photo: Georges Kelaïditès
13x18 cm print
Rue Adolphe-Adam, at the corner of the former rue de la Tuerie and Impasse de la Vieille-Lanterne. Place where Gérard de Nerval (1808-1855), French writer, committed suicide. Paris (4th arr.), 1932-1938.
Photo: Jean Roubier
30x40cm print
Gérard de Nerval (1808-1855). Photograph by Nadar.
Photo: Collection Roger-Viollet
13x18 cm print
Russian Orthodox cathedral church, rue Daru. Paris (8th arr.), circa 1945.
Photo: Gaston Paris
40x40cm print
Zoé Oldenbourg (1916-2002), July 1961.
Photo: Jean Marquis
13x18 cm print
The Moulin-Rouge. Paris (18th arr.).
Photo: Neurdein
40x40cm print
Couple, rue Saint-Vincent. Paris (18th arr.), 1956.
Photo: Janine Niépce
30x40cm print
Jacques Prévert (1900-1977). 1951.
Photo: Boris Lipnitzki
13x18 cm print
Elevated railway. Paris, 1980.
Photo: Jean-Pierre Couderc
50x50 cm print
Raymond Queneau and Les Frères Jacques. Cocktail party at Gallimard for the release of their record "Exercices de style". Paris, 1954.
Photo: Boris Lipnitzki
30x30cm print
Raymond Queneau (1903-1976). Paris, 1954.
Photo: Boris Lipnitzki
13x18 cm print
"Cyrano de Bergerac", play after the novel by Edmond Rostand. Paul-Emile Deiber and Jacques Destoop. Paris, Comédie-Française, July 1972.
Photo: Angelo Melilli
30x40cm print
Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin. Paris (10th arr.).
Photo: Neurdein
30x40cm print
Edmond Rostand (1868-1918) at his property of Arnaga. Cambo-les-Bains (France), 1907.
Photo: Collection Roger-Viollet
13x18 cm print
Diplomat working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Quai d'Orsay. Paris (7th arr.), 1953.
Photo: Pierre Jahan
30x40cm print
Saint-John Perse (Alexis Léger, 1887-1975), 1925-1932.
Photo: Henri Martinie
13x18 cm print
Secondhand booksellers, quai de Conti. Paris (6th arr.), circa 1900.
Photo: Neurdein
40x50 cm print
Jean Tardieu (1903-1995). 1954.
Photo: Studio Lipnitzki
13x18 cm print
Alfred Jarry (1873-1907), French writer, leaving his house to go to Paris on his bicycle. Corbeil (France), 1898.
Photo: Collection Harlingue
24x30 cm
"Véritable portrait de Monsieur Ubu" (Real portrait of Mr Ubu).
Drawing by Alfred Jarry (1873-1907).
Photo: Collection Roger-Viollet
13x18 cm print
Man drinking absinthe. Paris, 1911.
Photo: Jacques Boyer
40x60 cm print
Rue de la Contrescarpe, view from the rue Saint-André des Arts. Paris (6th arr.), 1867.
Photo: Charles Marville
24x30 cm print
Paul Verlaine (1844-1896).
Photo: Léopold Poiré
13x18 cm print
Rue des Beaux-Arts, view from the rue de Seine. Paris (6th arr.), 1868.
Photo: Charles Marville
30x40cm print
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900).
Photo: Collection Roger-Viollet
13x18 cm print
As Antoine Compagnon, of the Académie Française, writes in the preface to the eponymous book accompanying the exhibition: “To walk around Paris is to wander in the midst of literature: ‘Andromache, I think of you!’ As in Baudelaire’s ‘The Swan’ (in Les Fleurs du mal) everything is allegory. The French are, mostly, provincials by birth. In days gone by, they were peasants. But all roads lead to Paris. For any writer, Paris is their second home, as it is for the foreigners who fall under the spell of this ‘capital of the nineteenth century’, as Walter Benjamin called it; in other words, the capital of the writer’s photographic portrait, since Balzac (who feared losing a layer of skin to each image), Hugo and Baudelaire.”
Secondhand booksellers on the quai Saint-Michel. Paris, circa 1914.
Photo: Albert Harlingue
40x60 cm print
The Institut de France and the Pont des Arts. Paris (6th arr.), 1939.
Photo: Hélène Roger-Viollet & Jean Fischer
24x30 cm print
Rue de Rivoli and the Tuileries Gardens. Paris (1st arr.).
Photo: Maurice-Louis Branger
30x40cm print
Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987). Paris, 1937.
Photo: Collection Roger-Viollet
13x18 cm print
Soup seller at the Halles market. Paris (1st arr.), circa 1900.
Photo: Neurdein
30x40cm print
Delivery carriages of the Bon Marché department store, parked rue Velpeau. Paris, 1902.
Photo: Neurdein
40x50 cm print
Self-portrait of Emile Zola (1840-1902). 1895.
Photo: Collection Roger-Viollet
13x18 cm print
Secondhand booksellers' stalls on the quai Voltaire. View from the pavement, westwards. Paris (7th arr.), before 1938.
Photo: Jean Roubier
40x50 cm print
View of the café Les Deux-Magots, from Jean-Paul Sartre's apartment, in the district of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Paris (6th arr.).
Photo: Jack Nisberg
40x50 cm print
Correspondence.
Photo: Laure Albin Guillot
40x50 cm print
Bookshop at Saint-Germain-des-Prés known as a literary district. Paris (6th arr.), 1956.
Photo: Janine Niépce
40x50 cm print
Saint-Ouen flea market. The Biron market at the Porte de Clignancourt.
Photo: Pierre Jahan
40x50 cm print
Stalls of a bookshop (Gibert), boulevard Saint Michel. Paris, circa 1935.
Photo: Albert Harlingue
40x50 cm print