Chapter 46 II From Montparnasse to the Battle (2) The Guardian

Be a janitor?Yes, however, the gatekeepers of the houses in which the artists lived. Andre Salmon The young girls were set free.Infidelity happened from time to time, beginning in the evening and ending in the morning.Sandras believes this is because of the outbreak of war.The war drove many men to the front, and the women looked for their substitutes to fill the void in the bed... Love makes people's minds like stalks burn wildly, burn. Kisling is in love with 20-year-old blonde Renee-Jean.The girl, with neat bangs and straight eyebrows, is enthusiastic and lively, dressed in Italian futurist style: trousers, poor matching shoes (two shoes are different).

Inherited from the legacy of the American sculptor he used to drink with before 1914, the groom, Keasling, was able to organize the most lavish wedding in the region during the war: the whole of Montparnasse was honored. Invitation; the welcoming procession departs from Kisling's residence - Rue Joseph-Barra, the frenzied and drunken people stop at Rotonde and Dome on the way to the district office, and at the Dome pub, Papa Chambon Give everyone something to eat and drink for strength.The welcoming team drank when they met a tavern, so more and more people joined in.When the groom Kisling and the bride Renee-Jean exchanged tokens in front of the deputy head, and expressed their wish of "willing to marry (marry) each other", the deputy head found that he had never seen such a messy, well-dressed Disorganized welcoming team.Many soldiers on vacation were mixed among them, and their military shoes rattled the floor of the wedding hall.The bride wished her husband a "ridiculous little Pole", while the groom married the daughter of a Republican Guard commander.Faced with such a messy scene, Kisling was disappointed.He's a tried and tested anti-militarist with a military father-in-law!What a disgrace!It was his great misfortune!

After the banquet, the newlyweds walked around the Boulevard Saint-Germain and finally returned to Kisling's workshop.Max Jacob is there imitating the symbolic poet Jules Laforgue in the role of bridegroom, with Modigliani running after him, chasing him, begging him to let him recite Dante, Rimbaud and Bode Lyle's poetry or whoever's, just let him play the comic part.Modigliani rushed into the small bedroom next to Kisling's studio, and when he came out, he had the newcomer's quilt on his head.He climbed up a table, played the devil and recited Macbeth, and then played Hamlet, the title and hero of Shakespeare's tragedy. .Renee-Jean cried out in rage that she could not allow her wedding quilt to be tampered with, not even to recite poetry.What followed was Amdo Modigliani's white-tailed eagle-like shouts and Mrs. Salomon's cursing, mixed with the chaotic noise and hysterical screams on the stairs.

Mrs. Salomon is the caretaker.She was a stubborn, obstinate Breton, small and comical, like a witch.But she was loyal and honest to the little artists who lived here, conscientious and responsible for her work, and defended her tenants in front of her colleagues on the street. In summer, she sleeps lying in front of the gate; in winter, although she returns to the house, she always sleeps with her clothes on, just like Rousseau.She maintains a high level of vigilance at all times, and no one or anything can escape her eyes.Whenever someone outside lifts their feet or throws their feet, she will rush out of the room like an arrow.Day or night, she watches over all the chicks under her wing with a stern watchful eye.

She has a special love for Kisling.When Kisling returned from the front wounded, she encouraged him to drink more milk to quench his thirst.Every time he went out or came back, she rushed out from the observation tower, straightened her aquiline nose, and asked, "Where's the milk?" The answer she got was: "Drink it tomorrow! Drink it tomorrow!" He used to kiss her matted hair, and she wasn't happy with his behavior. When Renee-Jean first arrived, Mrs. Salomon always treated her like a little baby bird.She hoped that the sweet life of the young couple could bring Kisling back.Because he used to come home every day at dawn, always drunk, and rarely came back alone.

But she was quickly disappointed.The conjugal life has not converted her protégé.The door of Kisling's workshop was always open: from nine o'clock in the morning, the door was open for the models, who came and waited behind the canvas in succession; in the afternoon for friends; in the evening for pleasure.Poor Mrs. Salomon had to endure the terrible noise of the Kisling's gramophone all the time. "The noise was deafening and I was distracted all day long!" Since then, she has hated the singing of French female singer Freyel and the music of Argentine tango. The music had just stopped, and then there was the harsh noise of the painter pushing the pedestal on pulleys on which the models sat: he pulled it in, pushed it out, turned it left and right as the light required.After finally choosing a good angle, he needed to take a breath, take a break, sing a funny ditty hoarsely, and dance a world-shattering dance at the same time.

This is only the noise on the top floor, not counting the other floors.Because it wasn't just the Kislings who lived at 3 Joseph-Barra Street.André Salmon also lived here before moving to number 6.Every night, a dog walker tells him it's time to go home and sleep.Every night at 11:00 p.m., the dog walker routinely utters the word "bad guy."One night at 11 o'clock a man was bitten by a bug, and he verbally cursed at the dog's owner, who at the same fixed moment responded with the same "bad guy". No one knew the names of the dogs. Their owner lived on Stanislas Street and worked for the French Courier magazine. His name was Paul Leoto.

The younger brother of the car manufacturer Ettore, the animal painter Rembrandt Bugat, who used to live on the ground floor of 3 rue Joseph-Bara, committed suicide in 1915. In 1914, Jules Parsons moved from the top floor to Montparnasse in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. The tenants who later moved into the two houses caused Mrs. Salomon a lot of trouble.Especially the last one to come in, the art dealer Leopold Sporowski.He lived in a two-room apartment on the second floor.He lived with a lot of people, including Anka Sporowski, the wife of an art dealer, which was not unusual; and a friend, Lunia, the wife of a Pole who went to the front, which was a bit strange; Amdo Modigliani lived elsewhere but painted in the other of the two rooms.The Polish couple was very generous, but the other tenants in the same house could not stand their noise.

The people going up and down the stairs never stopped, chaotic all day long: Modigliani went to Kisling’s house to get paint; Kisling went downstairs to retrieve his paint; Kisling met Salomon on the stairs; Apollinaire pushed away door, a model looking for a painter; Renee-Jean fainted; Lunia went around asking if there was an affair between her and Amdo, and Anka was so disgusted that she almost vomited; someone reported that Soutine was coming ;Soutine went up to the house of Leopold Sporowski; while Leopold Sporowski was walking downstairs with the last few paintings of Modigliani... Mrs. Salomon watched the people coming and going.When they made too much noise, she thought: Some of their colleagues died in the front line defending the motherland, so she forgave them.She had worked hard all day, and when she lay in bed at night, her ears were still pricked up for the noise that might at any moment be harsher than the shouting and laughing of five or six poets and painters.