The Cité fleurie is a historic artists’ studio complex in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. It comprises a group of 29 timber-framed artist workshops arranged around a shared garden courtyard and is located between 61 and 67 Boulevard Arago.
The studios, built in the Anglo-Norman style, retain their original use and are partially protected as a historical monument.
Notable past residents include Modigliani, Gauguin, Munch, Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum, the Polish painter Mela Muter, Ford Madox Ford, César Domela and Doctor Dolittle author Hugh Lofting.
Context and construction history
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Paris saw a proliferation of purpose-built artist studio constructed with inexpensive materials salvaged from the stands of the city’s recent World’s Fairs. Besides the Cité fleurie, notable examples include La Ruche studio complex, which incorporated ironwork from the 1900 Exposition’s Wine Pavilion, and the Cité des fusains in Montmartre.
The Cité fleurie was built in two stages on a 2,000m2 plot of wasteland owned by Jules Hunebelle, mayor of nearby Clamart. The project included input from architect Hilaire Renault and engineer M. Montmorin-Jentel and reused materials from the pavillon de l’Alimentation of the 1878 World's Fair.
The row of studios forming the initial part of the complex is situated at the back of the plot. According to construction permits preserved in the Paris archives, the second row of studios facing the new Boulevard Arago was added in 1888.
The structural design remained consistent between both phases: a masonry base with half‑timber upper parts, with each unit offering a tall studio space with large front and roof windows, and living quarters behind or above. According to secondary sources, the stonework used was salvaged from the recently destroyed Palais des Tuileries, while the low height of the buildings was dictated by the presence of catacombs beneath.
The studios, relatively comfortable and spacious by Parisian standards, attracted many who chose to settle for decades at a time. Sculptors in particular favoured the high-ceilinged ground-floor spaces.
Name For most of its history, the site had no formal name. It the late 19th century, due to resident artists' unusual behaviour and attire, it was nicknamed "la petite Sainte Anne" (little Saint Anne) after the nearby asylum. In the early 1970s, during efforts to protect the complex from demolition, French painter Henri Cadiou popularised the name the Cité fleurie (“Flowered Hamlet” or “Flowery Studio Complex”). Cadiou argued that providing a name would help preserve the site as, “un endroit qui n’a pas de nom n’existe pas” (“a place with no name does not exist”).
Cadiou’s naming of the Cité fleurie and the nearby Cité verte drew attention to the two artist residences' verdant, bucolic character, highlighting campaigners’ calls for the preservation of urban green spaces.
Early years of the Cité fleurie (1878-1899)
From its inception, the Cité Fleurie served as both a residence and workspace for artists. Quickly the address developed into a community of international residents prominent in both art and politics. Members of the early colony include the Viennese orientalist painters Charles Wilda and Ludwig Deutsch, sculptor Arthur Strasser, and the Colombian painter Wenceslao de la Guardia.
In 1888, the Canadian artists George Agnew Reid and Mary Hiester Reid arrived at Boulevard Arago at the invitation of their friend Paul Peel, who had already established a studio there. The Reids’ workshop was adjacent to that of Eugène Grasset, a leading figure in the emerging Art Nouveau movement, who helped them settle in. Other residents and studio neighbours who associated with the Canadian group of this time include the celebrated Filipino artists Félix Resurrección Hidalgo and Juan Luna. Luna’s large studio at the Cité fleurie was a gathering place for Filipino students, artists, and reformist intellectuals, brought together by the writer José Rizal, who also lodged there for a time. This informal grouping became known as Los Indios Bravos (The Brave Indians), a colonial slur which Rizal reappropriated as a marker of collective identity and pride.The name was inspired by a visit to the 1889 World's Fair, where Rizal witnessed a Wild West show featuring Native Americans hailed as "the Brave Indians." A plaque outside the Cité fleurie commemorates the site's significance in the Filipino anti-colonial movement. In the 1890s, the complex also became home to an important circle of Danish and other Northern European Symbolist artists centred around the sculptor Niels Hansen Jacobsen. Among the first to arrive was the Swede Per Hasselberg, followed by the Dane Anders Bundgaard, who found the address at the request of his teacher Stephan Sinding. Sinding occupied one studio, while a neighbouring workshop was used by his students, among whom were Menga Schjelderup, Thomas Bærentzen, and Axel Ebbe.Besides Bundgaard, Schjelderup, Bærentzen, and Ebbe, Sinding's students at Boulevard Arago included Rasmus Harboe, Johanne Pedersen-Dan, and a Ms. Heiberg. See: The Nordic colony of the 1890s expanded to include artists such as Swedish sculptor Agnes de Frumerie, Danes Axel Hou and Carl Johan Bonnesen, and the Finn Emil Wikström. The Danish-American sculptor Gutzon Borglum, later renowned for creating Mount Rushmore, also worked at the Cité fleurie at this time at studio 26.
During the same period, a number of figures associated with the decorative arts were also resident. Eugène Grasset, a leading figure in the development of the 1900 style, and decorative ceramicist Alexandre Bigot both maintained workshops at Boulevard Arago.Grasset had a studio at the Cité Fleurie from at least 1883, remaining there until his death in 1917. Paul Jeanneney, an engineer with a substantial fortune, assembled an important collection of Japanese stoneware in his studio there. In 1888, this interest brought him into contact with ceramicist Jean Carriès who also occupied the Cité fleurie and was often visited by the designer Georges Hoentschel. These decorative artists interacted closely with the Nordic circle, and facilitated introductions in the French art world.
In its early years, the complex became home to a number of students of the history painter Jean-Paul Laurens, including Richard Hall, Burt Harwood, and William Blair Bruce. Laurens himself was closely associated with the site, maintaining a studio at number 22 for many years.
One of the most well-known figures associated with the Cité fleurie in the late 19th century is Paul Gauguin. Returning to Paris from Tahiti in 1893, Gauguin stayed at the complex in the studio of his friend Daniel de Monfreid. After his later return to Tahiti, Gauguin continued to use the Boulevard Arago to forward his paintings.
Early twentieth century (1900-1917) In the early 20th century, the Cité fleurie continued to attract artists from diverse nationalities and to nurture creative collaboration. Residents sometimes worked together in a common studio on the grounds, sharing the cost of models and assisting one another in their work.
Beginning in 1900, Rodin was a regular visitor, at times calling on father and son patination specialists Jean François Germain Limet and Jean Élie Auguste Limet almost daily. The Limets' studio at the Cité fleurie was a regular meeting place for sculptors and was also frequented by Bourdelle, Maillol, and Despiau.
At this time, Boulevard Arago also became home to a small but notable community of Polish artists. Among them were the painter Mela Muter, later one of the most prominent female artists of the 20th century, and her close friend Leopold Gottlieb. Others include the painter and critic Czesław Zawadziński, who lived for many years at studio 12.The Polish colony of this time also included medallist Wincenty Trojanowski, Tadeusz Ulanowski, sculptor Stanisłas Ostrowski, and painter Bolesław Nawrocki.
In the spring of 1903, Edvard Munch set up his studio at Boulevard Arago during a brief visit to Paris. Munch's cousin Anna Elisabeth Munch had been a member of the Northern European colony who frequented Niels Hansen Jacobsen's studio in the 1890s.
The Breton sculptor Jean Boucher also maintained a studio at the Cité fleurie, where he created the models for his celebrated monumental works. In a feature published in Gil Blas on 18th June 1904, art critic Louis Vauxcelles described Boucher's workshop:
"On the walls, coated in lime plaster, a few photographs of masterpieces: a Madonna by Da Vinci, the Colleone, Ligier Richier, Rodin. Shelves piled with books, many books. On the floor, between a bucket of water and a tub of clay, a long-haired barbet stretched out and slept. On the sofa, a friend read aloud [...]. The model, a young painter, son of a famous philologist, posed with one foot on the pedestal…"
Works created by Boucher at the Cité fleurie include his monument to Ernest Renan (1903), Victor Hugo in Guernsey (1908) and the War Memorial at the École des Beaux-Arts (1923).English Impressionist Ethel Carrick and the Australian painter Emanuel Phillips Fox arrived shortly after their marriage in May 1905, becoming prominent figures in the expatriate community. When their friend Penleigh Boyd moved to Paris in spring 1912, he joined them at the Cité fleurie, where he met his future wife, Edith Gerard Anderson. After Fox's death in 1915, Carrick remained at Boulevard Arago for many years, giving lessons in her studio where Rupert Bunny, a frequent guest, also instructed students.
Hilda Rix, a visitor to Carrick and Fox's studio, describes "an archway off the wide Boulevard [Arago], and beyond it a surprise of quaint courtyards and creepers, twisting cobble paths, wicker gates, and the loveliest little gardens on to which open doors and windows of studios and flats."
The early twentieth century continued to see students of Laurens settling at the plot. These include proto-surrealist Pierre Roy, who arrived in November 1904, as well as his friend Charles Péquin. Roy also studied under neighbour Eugène Grasset. Other of Laurens' students include the Dutch painter Richard Reimans, whose studio at Boulevard Arago was preserved by his widow into the 1970s, and Gaston Balande, who established himself at the Cité fleurie in March 1910.
The year Balande arrived, Russian mosaicist Boris Anrep also settled at Boulevard Arago, opening his studio at number 6. Anrep was a well-loved member of the colony and hosted numerous other artists over the years including Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov. Henry Lamb was also a frequent guest at Anrep's studio, which the Russian artist kept until his death in 1969.
The German artist Max Bezner, who caused a scandal attempting to exhibit a bust of Kaiser Wilhelm at the Salon, moved from la Ruche to the Cité fleurie in 1910. Following the outbreak of the war, his studio on Boulevard Arago was sequestered, revealing 28 statuettes of Wilhelm II in marble, bronze, and plaster, along with numerous portraits of the Kaiser.
Several years before the First World War, Mexican painter Angel Zárraga was living at studio number 9 of the Cité fleurie with his mother and grandmother. According to secondary sources, Amedeo Modigliani sublet Zárraga's studio on a number of occasions.
The Interwar period (1918-1939)