Frédé and Boronali

1872

PICASSO, BRUANT, APPOLINAIRE, THE OTHERS...

Just before the turn of the century, Frédé, that unforgettable figure in Montmartre, gave a definite artistic impetus to the cabaret. For the first time, perhaps, the different arts were in harmony. Writers, poets, musicians, comedians, painters, sculptors, -- all unknown at the time -- were united, criticising, poking fun, even influencing each other.

The historic richness of the Lapin Agile was born in the evenings, around the guitar and cello of Père Frédé, when everyone played, recited, sang their music and joined together singing popular songs. Their common denominator : humour in friendship.These "unknowns" were called Picasso, Utrillo, Derain, Braque, Modigliani, Guillaume Apolinaire, Max Jacob.
In 1905, Picasso gave his famous painting "Au Lapin Agile" to the cabaret, wherein Picasso is represented as a harlequin and Frédé plays the guitar. This painting belonged to the cabaret for years; until, in 1912, Frédé sold it for twenty dollars... In 1989, it was auctioned at Sotheby's for 41 million dollars!
Of all the stories which make up the folklore of the Lapin Agile, perhaps the most famous is the legend of the painter "Boronali" whose work,exhibited at the annual Salon des Independants in Paris in 1910, earned lavish praise from the leading art critics of the time. The admiration turned into laughter when it became known that the picture "Sunset on the Adriatic sea" had been painted in front of the door of the Lapin Agile, and before an officier of the court, by Frédé's donkey Lolo, to whose tail Dorgelès and Warnod had tied a paint brush ! Next