Aïcha Goblet Explained

Birth Name:Madeleine Julie Gobelet
Birth Date:28 February 1894
Birth Place:Renescure
Death Place:Paris
Citizenship:French
Occupation:Artists' model and dancer
Known For:Figure of the Années folles in 1920s Paris.

Aïcha Goblet (born Madeleine Julie Gobelet) (28 February 1894 - 27 June 1972) was a French artists' model and dancer, a figure of the Années folles in 1920s Paris.

Early life

Madeleine Julie Gobelet was born on 28 February 1894 at Renescure, a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Her twin brother Henri was born a few hours before her.[1] They were the children of Marthe Joseph Calin and Jules Améry Gobelet. Their father had died in Brazil on 1 September 1893, whilst their mother was pregnant. Their mother travelled back to France a month before the twins' birth. Both parents came from Renescure, and were a domestic servant and day labourer when they married in 1880.[2] Madeleine had an older brother, Jules Charles and two sisters, Marie Antoinette and Marie Julienne, born in 1885 and 1887 in Clairmarais in the Pas-de-Calais.[3]

In 1911, Madeleine settled with her mother and older sister in Nœux-les-Mines.[4] Later, many false or hard-to-verify accounts of her youth were circulated in the press: it was said (or she herself said) that she was born in Hazebrouck[5] or Roubaix,[6] that her parents had ten children,[7] or that she started out as a circus rider at the age of 6.[8] It was suggested that her mother was Flemish, and that her father was South American,[9] Argentinean[10] or from Martinique.[11] In his 1950 book Montparnasse, André Salmon suggested that her father was an artist in a travelling circus.[12] Aïcha later described herself as the only black woman in her family[13] and said that her twin brother was ‘as blond as wheat’.[14]

Artists' model

Goblet recounted different versions of how she became an artists' model in 1911. In one, she was approached in the street in Paris by the painter Jules Pascin, whom she later met again at the Café de l'Ogive; another version claimed that while working in a circus in Clamart, two men approached her and asked her to become a model; she agreed to go to the café du Dôme and meet Pascin there. What is known is that she did become the painter's exclusive model for a time, but never posed nude for him.

After a year, Goblet stopped modelling for Pascin, but remained close to him until his death in 1930. She lived for a time at the Villa Falguière, sculptor Alexandre Falguière's pink villa at no. 14 Cité Falguière, which developed into something of an artists' hotel in 1920s in support of the nearby artists studios. Under the name of Aïcha, she became an icon of Montparnasse,[15] dominated at the time by Alice Prin, alias ‘Kiki’ the unofficial Queen of Montparnasse. She carried a card-case containing cards painted with forget-me-nots and with scalloped gilt edges, engraved with just her name. Other artists of the period took her as their model, including Félix Vallotton, Man Ray, Henri Matisse, Tsuguharu Foujita and Moïse Kisling.[16] Aïsha most often appeared wearing a brightly coloured turban. She also organised numerous debates and meetings,[17] such as the ‘Aïcha dinner’ at La Coupole brasserie.[18]

In 1920, Aïcha inspired the novelist André Salmon to write his novel La Négresse du Sacré-Cœur.[19] [20]

Performance career

That same year, Aïcha began working as a music hall actress and dancer.[21] She appeared in several plays directed by Gaston Baty, alongside the black actor Habib Benglia, with whom she became friends. the plays included Le Simoun (1920), Haya (1922) and À l'ombre du mal (1924) by Henri-René Lenormand. In 1925, in Paul Demasy's play La Cavalière Elsa, based on the novel by Pierre Mac Orlan Aïcha appeared with bare breasts, at a time when nudity was not yet accepted on stage. According to historian Sylvie Chalaye, critics at the time praised her only for ‘her figure and her nudity’. As with Habib Benglia, the press and the public were more interested in her appearance than her acting. In 1928, she appeared nude in Simon Gantillon's Départs, eliciting ambiguous reviews: whilst her performance was praised, it was described through a racist viewpoint and language.[22] [23]

By 1926, Aïcha Goblet was living at 11, rue Jules-Chaplain.[24] She became the companion and model of the painter Samuel Granovsky.[25]

Later life

At the turn of the 1930s, her modelling career over, she continued to frequent the cafés of Montparnasse and recounted her memories to journalists such as Henri Broca and Emmanuel Bourcier.[26] [27] [28]

André Salmon put her in touch with the director of a magazine, who she presented with an outline of her memoirs. Salmon later recounted: "After reading it, he courteously invited Aïcha to come to the studio adjoining the literary office, for the express purpose of stripping off all veils and posing for the camera as simply as she had done in the studio, on the model's board. The result was two fascinating photographs". However, all that emerged from this interview was a short article, illustrated with three nude photographs, published in Mon Paris.

In 1935, Aïcha Goblet appeared in her last play, Hôtel des masques by Albert-Jean. She left Montparnasse for Montmartre, and never returned.[29]

Aïcha Goblet died in 1972, at her home at 100 rue Lamarck in Monmartre, Paris.[30]

Legacy

Michel Fabre has stated that Aïcha Goblet paved the way for Joséphine Baker, as did other black artists such as Lucy (Julie Luce) and her daughter D'al-Al (Simone Luce), despite the obscurity into which they fell in the years after they stopped performing.

In 2018, Villa La Fleur, a private Polish museum, presented portraits of Aïcha Goblet in an exhibition entitled Kobiety Montparnassu (The Women of Montparnasse). The following year, several works depicting Aïcha were included in the exhibition Le Modèle noir, de Géricault à Matisse (The Black Model, from Géricault to Matisse) at the Musée d'Orsay.[31]

Works featuring Aïcha Goblet

(non exhaustive list)

Paintings and drawings

Photographs

Sculptures

Theatre productions

Bibliography

Documentaries

References

  1. Actes de naissance (avec mention marginale de mariage) et (avec mention marginale de décès), 01/03/1894, Renescure, Archives départementales du Nord
  2. Acte de mariage, 4 février 1880, Renescure, Archives départementales du Nord
  3. Actes de naissance, 17 April 1880 (with mention in margins of marriage), Renescure, Archives départementales du Nord;, 6 March 1885 (with mention in margins of marriage);, 4 March 1887, Clairmarais, Archives départementales du Pas-de-Calais
  4. Recensement de population, 1911, Nœux-les-Mines, p. 16, Archives départementales du Pas-de-Calais
  5. Web site: 1936-06-01 . Mon Paris : son visage et sa vie ardente . 2024-09-19 . Gallica . EN.
  6. Web site: 1935-04-22 . Au pays du café crème in L'Intransigeant . 2024-09-19 . Gallica . EN.
  7. Web site: Broca . Henri . 15 August 1929 . La princesse Aïcha et le mage Pascin in Paris Montparnasse : mensuel illustre . 2024-09-19 . Gallica . EN.
  8. Web site: Broca . Henri . 5 September 1933 . Aïcha, modèle préféré de Pascin, évoque quelques souvenirs... in L'Intransigeant . 2024-09-19 . Gallica . EN.
  9. Web site: 17 April 1931 . La Vénus de Montparnasse in Paris-soir . 2024-09-19 . Gallica . EN.
  10. Web site: Emmanuel Bourcier . 1933-12-20 . Sysytème D. VI Chez les modèles de Montparnasse in L'Intransigeant . 2022-10-30 . Gallica . 1–2 . FR .
  11. Web site: Michel Fabre S&F Online Josephine Baker: A Century in the Spotlight . 2024-09-19 . sfonline.barnard.edu.
  12. Book: Salmon, André . Montparnasse . 1950 . Paris : A. Bonne . Preservation Department UCLA Library.
  13. Web site: Goblet . Aïcha . 1 June 1936 . Aïcha vous parle in Mon Paris : son visage et sa vie ardente . 2024-09-19 . Gallica . EN.
  14. Web site: 28 December 1929 . L'idole sombre ressuscite les morts in Le Petit Journal . 2024-09-19 . Gallica . EN.
  15. Book: Broca, Henri . T'en fais pas, viens à Montparnasse ! : enquête sur le Montparnasse actuel . 1928 . Paris . 15 . FR . 2022-11-05.
  16. Web site: Valérie Oddos . 2 April 2019 . Les artistes et la figure noire au musée d'Orsay : six modèles et leurs peintres . francetvinfo.fr .
  17. Web site: VILLA LA FLEUR - L'art de l'école de Paris . 2024-09-19 . lepetitjournal.com . fr.
  18. Web site: 15 September 1929 . Le dîner Aïcha in Paris Montparnasse . Gallica . 26 . FR.
  19. Web site: . 28 November 2021 . De la Vénus hottentote à Joséphine Baker, voyage dans l'" éroticolonialisme " . 2022-11-04 . L'Obs . fr.
  20. Book: Salmon, André . La Négresse du Sacré-Coeur . 1920 . Nouvelle Revue française . Paris . 2022-11-04.
  21. Book: Sylvie Chalaye . Race et Théâtre . January 2020 . Actes Sud Théâtre . 978-2-330-13138-8 . 158.
  22. William Speth, «Le théâtre», La Revue mondiale, 15 December 1928, p. 517
  23. Étienne Rey, «Départs, spectacle en 15 tableaux de M. Simon Gantillon», Comœdia, 28 November 1928, p. 1-2
  24. Recensement de population, Paris, quartier Notre-Dame des Champs, 1926, Archives de Paris
  25. Book: Pineau, Gisèle . Ady, soleil noir . 2021-01-07 . Philippe Rey . 978-2-84876-810-6 . fr . 2022-11-05.
  26. Web site: Georges Omer . 1929-08-08 . Femmes de Montparnasse. Aïcha la mûlatresse, modèle favori de tous les grands peintres in Paris-midi . Gallica . FR.
  27. Web site: Jean Amoretti . 1930-02-13 . De Montmartre à Montparnasse. Les modèles sont pour le genre " pompier " in L'Œuvre . 2022-10-31 . Gallica . 1–2 . FR.
  28. Web site: Emmanuel Bourcier . 1931-04-17 . La Vénus de Montparnasse in Paris-soir . 2022-10-30 . Gallica . 2 . FR .
  29. Web site: Marius Richard . 1942-01-06 . Mais où sont les Montparnos d'antan? in Paris-soir . Gallica . 2 . FR .
  30. Acte de décès, 27 June 1972, Paris, Archives de Paris (vue 28/31)
  31. Book: Le modèle noir: de Géricault à Matisse [exposition, Paris, Musée d'Orsay, 26 mars-21 juillet 2019, Pointe-à-Pitre, Mémorial ACTE, 13 septembre-29 décembre 2019] . 2019 . Musée d'Orsay Flammarion . 978-2-35433-281-5 . Établissement public des musées d'Orsay et de l'Orangerie . Paris . Miriam and Ira D. Wallach art gallery . Mémorial ACTE.
  32. Web site: Henri Hayden . Portrait d'Aïcha . 2022-11-04 . www.artnet.fr.
  33. Web site: Aïcha . 2022-11-04 . Oger-Blanchet . fr.
  34. Book: Buisson . Sylvie . Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita . Buisson . Dominique . 2001 . www.acr-edition.com . 978-2-86770-149-8 . 580 . fr . 2022-11-04.
  35. Web site: Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita . 1914 . Aicha . 2022-11-04 . www.artnet.com.
  36. Web site: Associés . Beaussant Lefèvre & . Tsuguharu Léonard FOUJITA (1886-1968) . 2022-11-04 . Beaussant Lefèvre & Associés . fr.
  37. Web site: 2019 . Le Modèle noir de Géricault à Matisse, dossier de presse de l'exposition, Paris, musée d'Orsay .
  38. Web site: Edgar Chahine . Portrait d'Aïcha . 2022-11-04 . Musée Arménien de France . fr-FR.
  39. Web site: Nu (Aicha), 1925 - Samuel Granovsky (Ukrainien, 1882-1942) . 2022-11-04 . AnticStore . fr.
  40. Web site: Samuel Granovsky . Nu de dos, Aïcha . 2022-11-05 . www.artcurial.com.
  41. Web site: Mathyeu . LE BAL . galerielesmontparnos . 2022-11-01 . galerielesmontparnos . 19 December 2017 . fr.
  42. Web site: Kees van Dongen . Aïcha allongée . 2022-11-04 . www.artnet.com.
  43. Portrait d'Aïcha, 1922, vente du 14 November 2004, Artcurial, Paris
  44. Web site: Marc Vaux . Portrait d'Aïcha . 2022-11-04 . www.photo.rmn.fr.
  45. Marc Vaux, Portrait d'Aïcha, modèle de Montparnasse (contretype?), 19??, Paris, Centre Pompidou-MNAM/CCI-Bibliothèque Kandinsky, CRE 8.44
  46. Web site: Albert Harlingue . Intérieur d'un café de Montparnasse . limited . 2022-11-10 . Roger-Viollet . fr.
  47. Book: Cecil Howard . Nubienne d'après le modèle Aïcha, réalisée par le sculpteur américain Cecil Howard en 1912-13, et présentée aux Gorham Galleries de New York en 1916 . 1912–1913 . 2022-11-05.
  48. Web site: 2016-10-17 . Tercafs Jeanne, Femme Malgache, ou portrait d'Aïcha Goblet . 2022-11-01 . Galerie Tourbillon, sculptures 19e, sculptures 20e, arts décoratifs, verrerie art nouveau . fr-FR.
  49. Web site: Haya . 2022-10-31 . Les Archives du Spectacle . 21 February 1922 . fr.
  50. Web site: La Cavalière Elsa . 2022-10-31 . Les Archives du Spectacle . 3 June 1925 . fr.
  51. Web site: Montparnasse - Eugene Deslaw -1929. Banda sonora: Ortiz Morales & La Insostenible big band . . 6 May 2021 . 2022-11-01 . fr-FR.
  52. Book: Drot, Jean-Marie . Pascin, l'oublié . 2022-10-31.

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