Residence · 1890-1898
Erik Satie's room, rue Cortot
Address · 6, rue Cortot, 75018 Paris
Metro · Lamarck – Caulaincourt (12) / Abbesses (12)
Today · Private, seen from the street. Commemorative plaque on the facade; the Musée de Montmartre is next door (12, rue Cortot).
The story
Rue Cortot is a peaceful street at the top of Montmartre, a few steps from the vineyards and from the house that is now home to the Musée de Montmartre. In 1890 this was still a semi-rural village, without the completed Sacré-Cœur basilica. Erik Satie rented a tiny room here, where he lived in poverty until he left for Arcueil in 1898. The street is named after an early 19th-century sculptor, and several painters, including Renoir, had studios here.
Churton places the composition of the Gnossiennes here, a title he links to gnosis. In January 1893 Suzanne Valadon moved in with Satie for a six-month affair, the composer's only known romantic relationship. After the breakup, Satie created, on paper, the Metropolitan Church of Art of Jesus the Conductor, of which he proclaimed himself “parcier” and chapel master. Churton sees it as a personal and defensive version of Péladan's Rose+Croix.
A plaque now recalls that the composer lived in this house from 1890 to 1898. The building is private, but the street is open to all, and the neighboring museum evokes the artistic life of the Butte in the same period. Satie left for Arcueil in October 1898, after several years of great poverty. You can extend the visit toward place du Tertre or rue de l'Abreuvoir, bearing in mind that the neighborhood was then much more rural.