1900 Paris
From the end of the 19th century to the early 20th century, Paris attracted artists, particularly to a rustic area remaining around the hill of Montmartre. There was the famous atelier Bateau-Lavoir; cheap apartments; inexpensive bars and cafés. Young artists fashioning a floating bohemian life-style found sympathetic supporters there. According to poet Francis Carco's semi-biographical novel La Boh¸me et mon coeur (The Adventurers of Paris), the district was well suited to the lives of the artists. However, with the dawn of the new century, Picasso and Apollinaire moved away, sensing something arising in the new-sprung town of Montparnasse. Following their example, the colony of artists transferred its center from Montmartre in the north to Montparnasse in the south of Paris. Paris at the time was filled with talented artists from around the world, flocking to the international capital of front-line art. Modigliani from Italy, Soutine from Lithuania, Chagall from Russia, Paskin from Bulgaria, Kisling and Apollinaire from Poland. From neighboring Spain, there was Picasso and Dali. And you can't forget the Japanese Léonard Foujita. These artists vied with each other in their work at the ateliers Cité Fargure and La Ruche (Bee Hive), work that would change the face of world history, of art history. Apollinaire wrote poetry praising the glory of modernism, and his comrades discussed art feverishly in brand-new glass-walled modern cafés like Rotonde and Dôme. It was the period that the Russian revolutionary Trotsky based himself in Left Bank cafes, and the American hero of the so-called Lost Generation, Ernest Hemingway began life as a reporter in Montparnasse. Ècole de Paris, as this international community of artists in Paris was later called, left a strong imprint in Parisian culture. Until this day, Paris is known to the world as a city of art, thanks to those festive days celebrating art culture.