Chapter 11 I Anarchists on the hills of Montmartre (1) "Laundry Boat"

There was such a poet: very poor, no food, no place to live, nothing, but when the French Academy of Sciences gave him a chair, he asked to take it back to his home. Andre Salmon She met Guillaume Apollinaire.He struck her as plump, cheerful, enthusiastic, handsome, with a pear-shaped head, eyes set close together, eyebrows shaped like commas, a small mouth, calm, serious, gentle, childlike and charming. Max Jacobs: Unpredictable eyes, funny and provocative mouth, narrow shoulders, looks like an outsider.She was amazed by his anxiety and fear of women. Before long, they were seeing each other every night.Mostly at Pablo Picasso's home.Apollinaire often comes uninvited, while Max Jacobs is just the opposite, he must be asked to come.

Everyone eats together, shares a napkin, and each uses a corner. Apollinaire tells the story about their napkins in his "The Poet's Napkin".Portuguese oysters were often part of their diet, since a dozen could be bought for eight sous, an affordable dish for them.When they couldn't afford it, they went down to the basement of the "laundry boat" and knocked on the wooden door marked "Farmer, Sorrel", and went in to talk politely with him about buying some artichokes, asparagus and onions on credit. .People have never been able to figure out what kind of magical method the owner used to grow these vegetables in his home.

Apollinaire wrote some clumsy and tasteless verses, and the funny and eye-catching Max Jacob told many humorous stories, which kept everyone laughing until dawn.In Guillaume Apollinaire's "Sitting Woman", his name is Moise Dressel, and he is "a pale man, but every part of his body gives a sense of music".So what exactly does this bandmate look like do? He beats his belly to imitate the bass of a cello / Uses his feet to draw out the hoarse resonance of a wooden bell / The skin on his puffed cheeks is taut / A dulcimer that can play as loud as a restaurant gypsy violin / He uses The barrel of a pen striking its own teeth / can make some concert hall band / or the big organ installed in some fairground carousel play / like the crisp sound of striking a glass bottle.

[Excerpt from "Sitting Woman" by Guillaume Apollinaire] After dressing up, they performed some impromptu drama; Frica, the puppy dog ​​with an iron chain behind him, was hung up for musical effects, and the painter Jacques Vaillant created a lively atmosphere by making various sounds and doing various frantic, ghostly movements .After a quiet time, everyone talked about poetry, literature and art.When Guillaume missed the last train back to his mother's house, he slept casually on a makeshift mattress in the "laundry boat" or in a hotel on Amsterdam Street. If it is winter (the winter in Paris is very cold), Picasso stays in bed every morning and keeps warm under the quilt.If it was summer, he would paint naked and naked after waking up.He never opened the door when someone knocked or when he was working.If the visitor insisted, he would drive away the trespasser with a curse.If the visitor came from the pastry shop in the Rue Abbes, it was Fernand who answered, and she shouted:

"I can't open the door for you, I have no clothes on! . . . Please leave the box at the door!" This is a clever way to not pay for the time being: the day before, she went to order the pastries they needed and asked for home delivery; when she had a way later, she would go to check out. There is another way of not paying: stealing the milk that is left on the rich man's door in the early morning, but that requires getting up early.If the visitor is a businessman, the female janitor will be the first to rush to notify.Since she lived in the next house, she kept watch over the entrance, and seeing the handsome face of the person coming, she knew it was not a creditor, so she hurried over, knocked on the doors of the artists, and shouted:

"This time there may be something important!" If the visitor must see Picasso, he would hide Fernand under the quilt before opening the door.He received Sagot or Libold with as much warmth and civility as possible, he did not like them, and he could not accept their insistence that he rush to finish his unfinished work.Whenever something like this happened, he couldn't paint for many days. Poets can find some consolation in Azu's house in Rue La Vignan, where, thanks to André Salmon, one can eat on credit for several years (half of several five years), and the food is very good. rich.Finding that the hostess reads "Morning News" very hard and earnestly, Su Bo, a reporter, poet and writer, spared no effort to praise her, and boasted that he is the author of the serial novels she eagerly read every day.He had to eat less after having photos to prove his lie.

They also frequented the little bar on Via Cavaluti where the workers went.When you feel that credit is too stressful, you can pawn an item in a nearby pawnshop and redeem it when you have the ability.On a lucky day, if it was done well, there might be a third party to pay for them, and it would be even better if Max Jacobs was there, because his father was in charge of the check.Max Jacob's father has an agreement with the owner of the small bar: Max pays his own expenses, and if there is any debt at the end of the month, his father will pay for it all, but there is one condition: the consumption items must be composed as follows: a cold platter, A dish, cheese or dessert, a cup of coffee at noon, half a bottle of red wine at night.

Behind his father's back, Max revised the agreement with his boss, amending the content of the agreement to read: Max's father pays Max for the cold platters, dishes, cheese, desserts, coffee, wine, dark beer, cinchona wine, shochu and other wines.This way, they can enjoy a hearty meal every day. After returning home, Picasso occasionally took out his kerosene lamp, pipe and opium box.He had discovered the drug at the home of a couple of habitual drug addicts who lived in the Lilac Gardens in Montparnasse.Some of the bar's other regulars tasted it too, probably among them Alfred Jarry, whose "Memoirs of a Desert Time" had opium-smoking ingredients: hot lips, fairy flesh, fit pipes; and perhaps Bryce Sandras, who said at Easter in New York, "I gave him some opium to get him to heaven sooner."

From 1910, coconuts replaced opium, and opium consumption declined.During the war, the crackdown on the use of narcotics was even stronger. In the era of the “laundry boats,” opium had become a fashionable commodity in Paris, bought from naval officers returning from China and Indonesia.You just go to one of the shops on Oda Street, put 25 francs on the counter, ask for "a little box" and you go home with the necessary utensils and substances to enjoy. The guests who came to the "Hunter Pavilion" with the necessary equipment were like Fernand, lying on the bed for a long time, drinking lemon cold tea, and enjoying the "heaven" as they wished. magic.

They also smoke hashish.According to Fernand Olivier, hashish can produce strange effects.One night, they smoked it at the home of a mathematician who could be regarded as Montmartre-Plancey, and Apollinaire had a double phenomenon: he thought he was in a brothel.Picasso had painful fear and anxiety, crying and crying: he found some photos, realized that his art was worthless, and it was better to commit suicide. They took drugs heavily until 1908.That year, Wigels, a German painter on the Laundry Boat, hanged himself after smoking ether, hashish and opium.This incident shocked Picasso so much that he vowed never to touch drugs again.Max Jacob continued to suck unwaveringly.Before the First World War, both Guillaume Apollinaire and Picabia smoked opium, and the latter admitted that they smoked almost every day.Apollinaire was still smoking when he met Louise. In the early months of 1915, he was surrounded by opium smoke and went to Nice with his muse Louise in Calligrammes (picture poems) .

Except for Vlaminck who only drank water and Picasso who drank a small amount of shochu, what they often did was binge drinking.Therefore, the wine glasses of the Montmartre Mountain Bar are neatly placed on the bar counter every day, waiting for them. They stopped going to the Munter's Bar, which was shut down by the police because its regulars were spreading anarchism, but they still followed Papa Fred.He took over the "Assassin's Tavern" opened by the former Aunt Adair.Aunt Adair was a friend of Gurut, who had inherited the tavern from the poet and illustrator of the Paris Commune, André Gilles.The sign of the tavern is a rabbit jumping over a pot, which symbolizes a famous dish made by Aunt Adair-rabbit stewed in white wine.The poets borrowed the original owner's surname Gill and renamed the tavern "Le Lapin a Gill" (Gill's Rabbit), which is a homonym for "Lapin Agile", which means "smart rabbit"-this is "smart rabbit" History of the tavern.Located on Liuyin Street, the tavern later became a famous entertainment venue in Montmartre, and it was also the first choice for Picasso's activities.Calco, Dorjeles, Mark Orlan and others also came. "Smart Rabbit" is a masonry building located among lush flowers and trees, surrounded by birds and flowers. There are bar counters, private rooms in the building, and a platform outside.The room is dim, but Mrs. Fred, the diligent Burgundian Berthe, cleans and scrubs it spotlessly every day.The kerosene lamps hung on wires fixed to the roof cast a miserly yellow light under the red shades.Hanging on the wall is a huge white statue of Christ and some paintings by Utrillo, Boulport, Susan Valadon, and a garlanded self-portrait created by Picasso in 1905. "Tavern".An oversized plaster fireplace became a hiding place for an army of white rats.They compete for territory with a monkey, a makeshift crow, and especially Fred's donkey, nicknamed Lolo.Lolo eats everywhere and everything.There was also a portrait of it at the "Independent Art Exhibition" in 1910.We will refer to it later in this book. Belt was in charge of the kitchen and Fred was in charge of the cash register, but he often allowed credit.The poets drink good wine, and all of them drink a lot.Their preferred drink, also recommended by the boss, is a concoction of cherry juice, white wine, pomegranate juice and kirsch.On weekends, the lobby and private rooms of the tavern are full. Most of the customers are regulars, and a few of them are curious about the artistic atmosphere here. Everyone in Montmartre comes to the "Smart Rabbit" tavern.It was here that Picasso and Fernand met Harry Ball (Picasso nicknamed him El Capo) and Charles Durin, who was very straightforward.The latter can only show enthusiasm and high spirits after he has satisfied his taste for drama by reciting a large number of poems by Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Vellenes and Laforgue.When he recited these poems, he was not talking, but spitting out.His hair was disheveled, his eyes sparkled, and his whole body and mind were integrated into the reciting poems.All the audience were awed by his emotional involvement, quietly and attentively listening to his recitation.After each show, Mr. Du Lin rolled up his sleeves and cheerfully took the sandwiches Belter handed him. Fred was more than happy to host Picasso and his friends.Picasso is not only a frequent visitor to this tavern, but also a frequent visitor to Fred's house.He painted portraits of Berthe's daughters.Berthe's daughter later married Marc Orlan.The painting completed by Picasso in 1904 (Fig. 9) shows Margot and her tamed bird.Picasso always came with friends such as Fernand, Max Jacobs, Guillaume Apollinaire, and all the poets or painters who formed his bodyguard.Picasso was the central figure of all the gang that often gathered around him.When Berthe saw him for the first time accompanied by the big fat Apollinaire, the thin and tall Salmon, and the big and round Brac, Delan and Flemish came to her house, his majestic expression was not in the slightest. Ayutthaya Napoleon I, Emperor of France, escorted by his bodyguard. The others may not have been his bodyguards, but Picasso was undoubtedly the leader of their gang, that cannot be denied.