Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh's whole Paris period was spent on and around the butte - Theo's flat below it, the rue Lepic apartment on its slope, Cormon's studio on the boulevard de Clichy, and the windmills at the top.
Montmartre
Standing, much changed
Walk straight in
Someone else
The hill north of Paris that was a separate village until 1860 and an artists' quarter until the First World War — the district of Van Gogh's two Paris years, Toulouse-Lautrec's posters, the Bateau-Lavoir and the Moulin Rouge.
- Montmartre, 75018 Paris
- Artistic centre c. 1880–1914
The place, briefly
Montmartre is a hill, and nearly everything about its history follows from that. It is the highest ground in Paris, it was quarried for gypsum — the plaster of Paris — for centuries, and its slope was covered in windmills that ground grain for the city below. Until 1860 it was not part of Paris at all but a separate commune outside the tax wall, which made wine and food cheaper up the hill than down it. That single fact created the drinking culture the quarter is still living off.
Annexation in 1860 brought it into the 18th arrondissement, and the artists arrived over the following two decades because it was still cheap and still half-rural. What they found was a working village of quarrymen, laundresses and market gardeners with a view over the whole city — not a bohemian theme park, which is what a century of success has since turned parts of it into.
The roll-call of who worked here is close to a syllabus of modern painting. Vincent van Gogh lived on the rue Lepic with his brother Theo from 1886 to 1888 and turned from Dutch brown to colour while he was here. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec made the quarter's dance halls into the modern poster. Pablo Picasso painted the Demoiselles d'Avignon at the Bateau-Lavoir. Renoir, Modigliani, Utrillo, Suzanne Valadon and Steinlen all worked within a few streets of one another.
The nightlife was the other half of it. Le Chat Noir opened on the boulevard de Rochechouart in 1881 and invented the modern cabaret; the Moulin Rouge followed in 1889 at the foot of the hill. Sacré-Cœur, begun in 1875 and not finished until the First World War, went up on the summit above all of it — a basilica built in expiation for the Commune, looking down on the least penitent quarter in France.
The artists left after 1914, mostly for Montparnasse, where the studios were newer and the light was better. What remains is the shape of the place: the stairs, the vineyard, two surviving windmills, and a street plan that still belongs to a village rather than to Haussmann.
Key facts
- The highest hill in Paris, in the 18th arrondissement
- 1860, when it was annexed to the city
- Outside the tax wall — wine and food cost less up the hill
- Roughly 1880 to 1914
- Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Renoir, Modigliani, Utrillo, Valadon
- Montparnasse, after the First World War
- A public quarter — walk in, and expect crowds near the summit
Timeline
Montmartre is annexed to Paris and becomes part of the 18th arrondissement.
Construction begins on Sacré-Cœur at the summit.
Le Chat Noir opens and invents the modern cabaret.
Vincent van Gogh moves to the rue Lepic with his brother Theo.
The Moulin Rouge opens at the foot of the hill.
Picasso paints Les Demoiselles d'Avignon at the Bateau-Lavoir.
The artists move on, largely to Montparnasse.
On the map
Questions before you go
Why did artists move to Montmartre?
Rent and drink were cheap. Until 1860 it was a separate commune outside the city's tax wall, and even after annexation it stayed inexpensive and half-rural for decades — which suited painters with no money.
When was Montmartre's artistic peak?
Roughly 1880 to 1914. After the First World War the centre of gravity shifted to Montparnasse.
Are the windmills real?
Two survive of the many that once ground grain on the hill — the Blute-Fin and the Radet, both part of what became the Moulin de la Galette. Van Gogh painted them repeatedly.
Is Montmartre in the 18th arrondissement?
Mostly. The hill and its summit are in the 18th; the foot of the slope runs down into the 9th around Pigalle.
People who knew this place
Within walking distance
Place du Tertre
Montmartre's historic hilltop square, now shared by restaurant terraces and licensed artists—and the setting of Langston Hughes and Anne Marie Coussey's last Paris dinner together in 1924.
Visit the place49 rue Gabrielle
Where Pablo Picasso set up his first studio in Paris, in 1900, at the age of eighteen — four years before the Bateau-Lavoir and seven before Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
Visit the placeThe Sacré-Cœur
The white basilica on the summit of Montmartre, built by public subscription after France's defeat in 1870 and consecrated in 1919 after nearly forty years of work. Entry is free, every day 6.30 a.m. to 10.30 p.m. The dome — 280 steps, no lift — costs €8 and gives a 360-degree view over Paris.
Visit the place
Rue des Trois Frères
A freely walkable nineteenth-century Montmartre street of slopes, cobbles and apartment façades, and the deliberately imprecise location of Langston Hughes's second Paris attic in 1924.
Visit the placeThe Friday Letter
Paris, one address at a time.
The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.