ACADEMIE DE LA GRANDE CHAUMIèRE
It was in 1904 that Martha Stettler (1870-1945), a Swiss painter, created the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, a private school and free workshop which then offered an alternative to the institution of the Paris School of Fine Arts, which had become too conservative in the eyes of many artists. A workshop dedicated to painting and sculpture from a live model for women artists in the Montparnasse district. The Académie de la Grande Chaumière, inseparable from Montparnasse, is the only institution which, at the beginning of the 20th century, opened the way to Independent Art, allowing all forms or techniques to be expressed, liberating its visitors and its artists of academic trends that are artistically, but also intellectually, restrictive. It will be a place of resistance and pure creation. The most famous painters will come to the Grande Chaumière, sit in this mysterious workshop to practice their timeless art, mainly from a live model: sketches, drawing, oil painting. oil, sculpture such as Chagall, Modigliani, Bourdelle, André Lhote, Foujita, Calder, Friesz, Krémègne, Lempicka, Fernand Léger, Louise Bourgeois, Joan Miró, Zao Wou-Ki, Chaïm Soutine, Zadkine, Paul Rebeyrolle and many others. 120 years after its creation, La Grande Chaumière, enjoys an international reputation, is a private academy, open to lovers of drawing, painting, sculpture, modeling of all ages, with or without teachers. It is one of the last places in France to offer an equivalent artistic offering: free workshops, courses, internships, etc.