📍12 Rue Cortot, 75018 Paris, France
1876 – 1877“I grew up in a crowded apartment near the Louvre, the son of a tailor, and at thirteen I was painting flowers on porcelain in a factory, which taught me lightness of touch. In 1875, poor and mocked by the critics, I rented a studio and a cottage in the big, wild garden at 12 Rue Cortot, high on the hill of Montmartre, so that I could be close to the Moulin de la Galette, the open-air dance hall just up the lane. Montmartre then was half village, half playground — windmills, vineyards, cabarets and working girls in their Sunday best. Every day that summer, my friends and I carried my enormous canvas from the studio up to the dance garden to paint the dancers under the trees, and I painted The Swing and the overgrown garden here too. Light falling through leaves onto faces was what I loved most. The house later sheltered other artists, including Suzanne Valadon and her son Maurice Utrillo, and today it is the Musée de Montmartre, with the gardens I painted restored.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today