Rue Vivienne

Research Status: Basic Last Updated: 2025-01-23 Diary Coverage: 1877-10-16 to 1880-11-02

Rue Vivienne is a street in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, running north from the Palais Brongniart (Stock Exchange) area.

In November 1880, Rodolphe Julian opened a new women's atelier at 51 rue Vivienne, where 22 students transferred from Marie's original atelier. The organization of this new atelier followed the same system as "our old one."

Marie remained at the original atelier (location not specified in this entry), which now had only 8 students but offered a more advanced program modeled after the men's atelier - with the same model holding the same pose all day, allowing students to paint large-scale academic studies.

Marie notes she had been working for three years by November 1880, and this new arrangement was exactly what she needed at her current skill level - earlier it would have served no purpose, but now she was ready for this more intensive training.

1877–78, no. 36: the women's studio of the Académie Julian that Marie joined on 3 October 1877 was at no. 36 rue Vivienne: «faire six fois le trajet du n° 71 Champs-Elysées au n° 36, rue Vivienne» (075.0325, 16 October 1877). In May 1878 she complains of being left alone for half an hour «sur l'escalier de la rue Vivienne», where men pass on their way to «le Cercle qui est dans la maison», «une des moins respectables de Paris» (080.0139).

Historical note: Rue Vivienne was close to the Palais Brongniart and the commercial heart of Paris, making it a convenient location for an art studio accessible to bourgeois women students.