In Montmartre, Sue Roe
In Montmartre, Sue Roe
List: $20.00 | Sale: $14.00
Club: $10.00

In Montmartre
Picasso, Matisse and the Birth of Modernist Art

Author: Sue Roe

Narrator: Emma Bering

Unabridged: 12 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 04/21/2015

Synopsis

A lively and deeply researched group biography of the figures who transformed the world of art in bohemian Paris in the first decade of the twentieth century

In Montmartre is a colorful history of the birth of Modernist art as it arose from one of the most astonishing collections of artistic talent ever assembled. It begins in October 1900, as a teenage Pablo Picasso, eager for fame and fortune, first makes his way up the hillside of Paris’s famous windmill-topped district. Over the next decade, among the studios, salons, cafés, dance halls, and galleries of Montmartre, the young Spaniard joins the likes of Henri Matisse, André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, Georges Braque, Amedeo Modigliani, Constantin Brancusi, Gertrude Stein, and many more, in revolutionizing artistic expression.Sue Roe has blended exceptional scholarship with graceful prose to write this remarkable group portrait of the men and women who profoundly changed the arts of painting, sculpture, dance, music, literature, and fashion. She describes the origins of movements like Fauvism, Cubism, and Futurism, and reconstructs the stories behind immortal paintings by Picasso and Matisse. Relating the colorful lives and complicated relationships of this dramatic bohemian scene, Roe illuminates the excitement of the moment when these bold experiments in artistic representation and performance began to take shape.A thrilling account, In Montmartre captures an extraordinary group on the cusp of fame and immortality. Through their stories, Roe brings to life one of the key moments in the history of art.
Praise for In Montmartre

"Lively and engaging….[Readers] will find a fresh sense of how all these people—the geniuses and the hangers-on, the wealthy collectors and the unworldly painters—related to each other…..In [Roe’s] entertaining, ingeniously structured account Roe brings Montmatre’s hedyday back to life." —Sunday Times (London)
 
"With evocative imagery Roe sketches out the intensely visual spectacle on which Montmatre’s artistic community was able to draw…. Roe is particularly good at communicating the extraordinary devotion of Matisse and Picasso to their work." —Financial Times

About The Author

SUE ROE is the author of several books, including a New York Times bestselling collective biography of the Impressionists and a widely praised work on the artist Gwen John. She lives in Brighton, England.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Susan on May 27, 2016

This is a extremely well researched book and there is a ton of information here. I'm slightly perplexed as to why I didn't find it more compelling reading than I did...perhaps it's partly because I just read a biography of Picasso and a lot of this was repetitive, maybe it was because of the way the......more

Goodreads review by Doug on January 15, 2022

I really enjoyed this book in the end, despite having some worries in the beginning. At first I felt like it was going to be almost a historical novel, because Roe inserted dialogue that seemed likely to be invented - how do we know exactly what Picasso said to Fernande on a certain day? But that co......more

Goodreads review by Katy on February 12, 2019

Just as I did not want to leave Montmartre when I visited last August, I did not want this book to end. I love biographies that are dedicated to place over person, to capturing a small group of individuals that come to characterise a place and create an unforgettable atmosphere that reverberates thr......more

Goodreads review by Ria on February 21, 2017

With nonfiction, it's often hard to say whether my reaction to a book is because of the writing or because of the general reality of the topic. I started reading this last April because I was teaching Picasso but ended up basically giving up until I decided a few weeks ago (January 2017) that I was......more

Goodreads review by Maxine on November 13, 2020

For all Paris and art lovers this is a must read-- the author takes you into the heart of Montmartre where Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Modigliani and others all swirled around each other at shabby apartments, low-class cafes and of course at Gertrude Stein's. Depicts the rise of all these (and more) s......more

Quotes

Associated Press: 
“A lively and concise account...[Roe is] very good at synthesizing and distilling complicated art movements and ideas without getting bogged down in technical details or jargon. And she offers up plenty of juicy tidbits about the artists' love affairs, infidelities, opium parties and eccentric habits…Roe's book is a great introduction to one of the most pivotal periods in 20th century art. Even those familiar with the era will likely find that it broadens their understanding of key players and events.”

Minneapolis Star Tribune: 
“Bold, bright and entertaining… Full of life and color…[Roe] is particularly gifted at describing paintings, conjuring them up in bold, strong strokes…Roe brings an equal incisiveness to her discussions of art, explaining the overlap among painting, music, literature, couture and dance and the driving forces behind the explorations that artists in all these fields were engaged in.”
 
Christian Science Monitor:    
“Engaging and insightful…Roe assembles the complex, disparate developments of the decade into a compulsively readable, fascinating story.”

Dallas Morning News: 
“[IN MONTMARTRE] reads at times like a novel…[and] has scholarly heft…The prose is lively and clear…Anyone who has stood before a work of art and wondered about the artist’s inspiration — particularly modernist art, which can be provocative and challenging — will appreciate Sue Roe’s ability to draw back the curtain on this critical period.”

Sunday Times (London): 
"Lively and engaging….[Readers] will find a fresh sense of how all these people—the geniuses and the hangers-on, the wealthy collectors and the unworldly painters—related to each other…..In [Roe’s] entertaining, ingeniously structured account Roe brings Montmatre’s hedyday back to life." 
 
Financial Times: 
"With evocative imagery Roe sketches out the intensely visual spectacle on which Montmatre’s artistic community was able to draw…. Roe is particularly good at communicating the extraordinary devotion of Matisse and Picasso to their work." 

The Guardian: 
"What an eye for art Roe has ... we're still gripped by the story of the dialogue between Picasso and Matisse ... and by this book's own brilliant dance." 

Daily Telegraph: 
"As an elegant synthesis of complex material, it excels : Roe is a skilled and graceful writer, capable of an accessible, nimble narrative .... In an important sense ... this book is timely ... it is a quintessential biography of the Facebook era, since its real subject is a social network."

The Spectator: 
"Sue Roe has written a portrait in words of an era."

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List