Scene · 1885-1897
Le Chat Noir cabaret
Address · 12, rue Victor-Massé (alors rue de Laval), 75009 Paris
Metro · Pigalle (2, 12)
Today · Private, seen from the street. Private building, seen from the street; the cabaret closed in 1897.
The story
The Chat Noir is the most famous artistic cabaret of Montmartre. Rodolphe Salis opened it in 1881 at 84, boulevard de Rochechouart, then moved it in 1885 to a town house on rue de Laval, now rue Victor-Massé. Poems were read and songs sung there, and its shadow theater, run notably by Henri Rivière and Charles de Sivry, drew a very mixed public. The cabaret also published an illustrated paper bearing its name, which brought together the cartoonists, poets and songwriters of Montmartre.
Churton places Erik Satie's arrival in artistic Paris here: in December 1887, accompanied by the poet Contamine de Latour, the young Norman introduced himself to Salis as a “gymnopédiste” and became the cabaret's pianist. He is said to have worked on his Gymnopédies there. Péladan also frequented the establishment, and Churton notes that jokes about bewitchment and “fluids” were going around there at the time of the Boullan affair in 1893. The hall thus served as a link between the bohemia of Montmartre and the more serious circles of the Chaussée-d'Antin.
The Chat Noir closed in 1897, shortly after Salis's death; other cabarets later took over the building. The building on rue Victor-Massé, a stone's throw from place Pigalle, is now private. Steinlen's cat, which has become a tourist image, mostly recalls the sign, but the 1885 address is the one Satie and the Symbolists knew. Visitors can combine this stop with nearby place Pigalle, where several cafés frequented by the same artists once stood.
To be checked · The first Chat Noir (1881-1885) was at 84, boulevard de Rochechouart; the sign on boulevard de Clichy is a 20th-century revival.