Le Bon-Bock - 321 Letterpress Invitations in two Folio Albums -
Various
1886-1936 - Printed for Le Bon-Bock, Paris
An incredibly rare collection of 321 original illustrated letterpress dinner invitations from Le Bon-Bock society (each approximately 33x23cm), whose soirees on the second Tuesday of each month near Montmartre were frequented by Paris’ most flamboyant and original writers and artists of La Belle Époque and Les Années Folles.
The artists competed to have their work used for the next invitation, and together with their work each invitation provides an account of the previous dinners activities, beginning with opening speeches, notices and announcements, and then other activities, which usually include poems, prose, texts, songs, instrumental pieces.
The invitations are dated from April 1886 to April 1936, with the first thirty or so addressed to Monsieur Régnier, one of the founders of the association. Individually rare, a collection of this size and association provides one of the most important associations of these periods in Paris.
Inspired by Edouard Manet’s painting Le Bon Bock (The Good Pint), and the democratic, nationalistic ideals that it symbolised, Emile Bellot (the printmaker and model for Manet’s beer drinker) established the Bon-Bock Society in 1875. Consisting mainly of artists, writers and performers, the society sought to re-define France’s national spirit by delving into the country’s cultural past. The inseparable ideals of freedom and humour within their community created opportunities for artistic experimentation; the Bon Bockers and their carefree attitude would go on to inspire generations of Montmartre natives for years to come. Invitations in the first album begin with the 128th dinner of April 7, 1886 to the 311th dinner of October 5, 1906, and the second album from the 320th dinner of October 4th, 1907 to the 462nd dinner of April 5, 1936. The 130th invitation lists 138 people who attended the previous dinner of May 11, 1886, later invitations do not list previous attendees.
Individually tipped into the bindings, and unfolded, original quarto folds show that these would have been folded for delivery. Many of the illustrations are tinted, some using red as well as black coloured text, a few with water colour highlights, the 447th dinner the invitation is in colour.
From 1879 the Bon-Bock was held at the Vendanges de Bourgogne, 14 Rue de Jessaint, 14 [east of Montmartre]. The 144th invitation of March 1888 notes that due to expansion dinners will now be held at the Restaurant Vantier, 8 Avenue de Clichy. Attached to the invitation to the 363rd dinner of November 7, 1912, is a note advising members that the Bon-Bock wil be moving its dinners to the Restaurant Coquet, 80, Boulevard de Clichy, (Place Blanche), where it remained throughout the remainder of the invitations.
From the 131st [1st November 1886] to the 156th dinner [5th May 1889] the invitations are addressed to Monsieur Régnier, who was one of the founders of the association, after which they have been left blank [from the 204th dinner of 13th November 1894 onwards there was no longer ‘A Monsieur’ and a space for the invitees name on the invite].
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Manet and the invitations of Bon Bock
A day in Paris
For the majority of the "people", Paris is a city where you can experience extraordinary emotions. Its beauty is offered immediately to the eye, in the vastness of the buildings, boulevards and museums, with a city life unmatched in the rest of the world. For me as a "collector", as a boy was one of my city of choice, starting from the stalls along the Seine, to those of Montmartre, ultimately, for the great antiquarian bookshops on the left bank.
One day, thirty years ago, I was telephoned by the owner of one of the largest antiquarian booksellers in Paris who told me: "I have for you a truly extraordinary collection, come to me as soon as possible." I wanted to ask what it was, but I answered immediately: "Keep it for me." The following week I rushed to him to see what he would show and offer me.
With much emotion he went to take out a large folder in which was a collection of very delicate papers, saying: "This is a real rarity, to find a considerable number of Bon Bock invitations is almost impossible, and if you do it is one or two scattered about. In this folder is described the life of one of the most important associations of the Belle Époque in Paris. "
Very gently, and with emotion as he opened each sheet, we began to leaf through "invitations" masterfully conceived and designed by the best artists of the time. We did not fail to have fun in commenting on the variety, gaiety, irony and the freedom to be daring with the woman's body, without ever becoming vulgar.
The bookseller told me: "I am happy to sell to you, knowing your passion as a collector. Certainly you will keep them with great care, and so retain the memory of an era truly unique. Rather than sell them one by one, and so disperse them, I prefer to give them all to you. "
This delicacy of thought I found suited the mentality of the collector, you would never want to be forced to disperse the documents in a collection.
When I came out from my beloved bookseller with the Bon Bock folio, for a moment, my emotion was so strong that I thought I saw Paris with new eyes, and its citizens as a century earlier, immersed in the Belle Époque.
And so it is that in Italy, today, we can find a collection that perhaps even no longer exists in France, and which preserves the precious memory of a very special partnership and gastronomic friendship.
We must remember that these sheets, especially the first of 1877 have more than 125 years that have passed unscathed through the world wars of the twentieth century with their destruction. It's a real "miracle" to present a collection so interesting and large, now preserved in Parma, the capital of the Italian Food Valley, at the very rich ‘Biblioteca Gastronomica di Academia Barilla’.
I am therefore extremely happy that Parma, a city that for centuries has strong cultural and emotional ties with France, can present this completely new and unique "exhibition" in Italy.
- Livio Cerini of Castegnate
--
Le Bon Bock
To know what was the Bon Bock it is necessary to know and understand the phenomenon that was the cause of the extraordinary diffusion of Menu in France in the last decades of the nineteenth century.
The intense prodigality, which accompanies the sudden development of the Amicable Association in France, was the primary cause of the spread of the invitation card, that will reach in that country, artistic qualities of the highest order.
At the end of the nineteenth century in Paris alone, there were several hundred associations and all had their "dinner", and a dinner worthy of respect had to have it’s own menu, with the keen eye for aesthetics and another gastronomic content which had to be original and attractive. If it had been conceived and executed by a wealthy master, by a well known and worldly artist, and the members "gloated" for the honor of belonging to such a noble fellowship.
After the fall of the Second Empire, the French discovered the freedom of the press, the truth, absolute, intolerant and rebellious of any censorship, and this took shape in a visible way through caricature: the satirical drawings of merciless criticism of costume is an "invention" of the Belle Epoque and became one of its most characteristic and significant.
The newspapers were rich in caricatures and satirical drawings, such as Le rire”, “L’Assiette au beurre”, “La vie parisienne”, “Le canard sauvage”, “Le crie de Paris”, “La culotte rouge”, “Le corbeau” and many others, you still look at with astonishment and curiosity. And many of the best illustrators and collaborating caricaturists of those times, participated in person at various Diners Clubs, contributing with their creativity and skill to make these pleasurable gatherings prestigious, and entrust them in some way to immortality.
The purpose of these meetings was the "aimable" distraction of people who, in turn, spent their time in distracting and "charming" their contemporaries to make sure they were being seen. It does not escape our attention, the superficiality and frivolous aspect of this curious race to show off, that is perhaps the most obvious feature of the Belle Epoque.
Associations active in Paris towards the end of the nineteenth century were numerous and among them some really valid lasted for many years, gathering around them personalities from politics, high society, writers, musicians and artists. Many of these are remembered for their remarkable Menus: Alouette, Arche de Noè, Avant Garde, Bibliophiles Contemporains, Boef-Nature, Bonshommes, Cercle de la Critique, Dîner de l’Hyppopotame, Dîner de Six Francs, Dîner Dèntu, Evohè, La Canigou, La Chasse Illustre, La Cigale, La Macédonie, La Soupe et le Bœuf, Le Dîner Celtique, Le Dîner de Garouche, Le Dîner de la Modestie, Le Dîner de Poitou, Le Dîner de Tètes de bois, Le Dîner Molière, Le Pluvier, Le Sartan, Le Vilains, Les Acquafortistes, Les amis des Livres, Parnasse, Pris de Rhum, Radis Noir. But the most important and enduring were definitely the Bon Bock, Le Cornet, La Marmite and La Plume.
THE HISTORY OF THE BON BOCK.
Emile Bellot, engraver and a model for the burly beer drinker of the painting by Manet, gave birth to the Association of Bon Bock, which held its first friendly meeting in March 1875, and that same Bellot presided for ten years. The frequency of the meetings was monthly. The members met on the first Tuesday of each month and the reasons for the meeting and the presence of distinguished guests was anticipated by a "strictly personal invitation" of the President to be shown at the entrance on the evening, when people went to celebrate, confident it will be wonderful and that you will always eat well.
These "Invitations", now very rare and sought after, have remained really unique for their creativity and the series of the artists involved in their realization.
The invitation is not about food, it is assumed that you will eat well, what matters is the joy, the fine irony and the joy of unpublished music, an ode or a poem rather than a play, even if there are plenty of tombola games and jugglers that will delight the members and their friends, and especially the ladies, who were permitted only twice a year.
And they were so many people in line for access to the Association, that the committee was forced, during the dinner on 19 October 1880, to formulate, with a quite explicit manuscript of great hilarity, a form of statute with certain rules, terrible torturous fines with enforced downing of beer from a huge Bock.
The bonbockisti, as they called themselves, were the jokers, the seekers of happiness, with good cheer they headed to the Bastille and out of Paris, finally arriving at the "Vendages de Bourgogne", the favorite location for the meetings that were held at seven on the dot in the evening, at a price that did not change of 5.50 francs for dinner. When, according to Bellot, the number of members increased so as to prevent artistic development with hundreds of guests, then the association moved to a more spacious and comfortable restaurant in the Batignolles district at the "Vantier", 8 Avenue de Clichy.
The motivations of the various parties and the presence of the guests provide us with the vision of a glimpse of life in Paris, where there are, among the names that are now lost in the past, prominent personalities like poets, musicians and painters who have passed down their art to us. All artists, and there are hundreds of them, would compete to illustrate the invitation, offering today an extraordinary testimony of Parisian social life, that had no equal in France and throughout the rest of the world. In 1875, then, the same Bellot, wanted to publish (in only 500 units sold at 15 francs), with Ludovic Baschet, Parisian typesetter and a member of the association, the album du Bon Bock, a book of 50 pages full of pictures, texts and improvisation stemming from the first months of get-togethers, and now virtually impossible to find. Thanks to these sheets precious as they are fragile, we can still breathe the unique and unrepeatable heady experience of the Belle Époque.
It is Léon Maillard, who wrote in 1898 and is contemporary with the events recounted, provides more information on the special association in its unsurpassed Menus et Programmes that illustrates the history of the Menu with competence and dignity: "Bellot, founder of this famous meeting, was painted by Manet, and represented with pint of beer in hand. The name of the portrait is left to the Association, one of the most famous and certainly the largest in Paris. It has about 1000 members and their "dinners" are the most followed, because these continue to be evenings of “numerous” highly artistic events, where poetry, music and fantasy alternate, to the enjoyment of all who hear them. So recounts M. Albert Rousseau who presided over one of the dinners: "They held 30 banquets at the restaurant" Minerva", 60 at the "Grand Turc”, 100 at the “Boule Noire”, 200 at the “Vendages de Bourgogne". The founders, apart from Bellot were: Jules Gros (former president of the République de Counani), Guillois, Alphonse Laffitte, the musician Frédéric Ben-Tayoux and the painter Eugène Cottin, immediately followed by Etienne Carjat (photographer, illustrator, poet), the painter Léon Foulard, the mystic Léon Chedel, Adrien Dézamy, Victor Dupre, Lassale, Charles Leroy, Gilbert Radon, Régnier, the painter Rene Keep and singer Charles Vincent. "
The first invitations were very modest: a simple signed letter. The first illustration appeared in July 1875 on the occasion of the change of location from the "Grand Turc" to "Boule Noir." The designer Alfred Petit, then famous for his line drawn landscapes, depicted the partisans of Bon Bock under the protection of the companions of Saint Antoine. They were not very refined, but the allegory of naturalistic taste returned repeatedly over time, always imbued with a decidedly satirical verve.
Some menus are of the first order, such as those signed by André Gill, Adolphe Léon Willette, Emile Bayard, Eugène Carrière, Henry Pille, José Frappa, Théophile Steinlen. [...]. Émile Jean-Baptiste Bin, artist, painter, former mayor of Montmartre, is to be remembered among the most fervent propagators of the Fraternity. [...]. And then the repetition of these and a hundred other names that would be annoying to enumerate, the number increases every month. "
After a long run at the "Vendages de Bourgogne", in 1885 the guests moved to the restaurant "Vantier", and even in the post-Bellot era, with all the innovations implemented at that time: still the invitation printed by letterpress, the Presidency taken in turn for a single night and the Association run by a committee.
On October 28, 1892 at the Museo Grévin Paris was shown for the first time ‘Un bon bock’, a pantomime of light conducted by Charles-Émile Reynaud, and composed of 700 hand-painted pictures on glass plates, for a total duration of 15 minutes silent projection, accompanied by sound effects and a soundtrack composed and performed by musician Gaston Paulin. It is one of the first animated short films ever made and now lost, destroyed because the same Reynaud threw it into the Seine. Inspired by the title of the famous painting by Manet, it told the semi-serious story of a customer so busy courting the beautiful bartender he did not notice that others emptied his mug of beer.
The end of the Belle Époque and the First World War did not exhaust the vitality of the Association, which continued, albeit at a slower milder pace, their meetings in the name of love of life and happiness. And even after the Second World War, the Association of Bon Bock was reborn, but in a different social climate, the meetings further tapered off to two to three a year.
Fernand Woutaz, in the book Le grand livre des Societés et Confreries gastronomicques de France, published in Paris in 1973 by Halévy thus recalls: "It was at the" Guerbois ", 11 Grand Rue des Batignolles, the present day Avenue Clichy, this famous Café [of Émile Bellot] where he met over a long time, "the group of Batignolles", meaning Manet, Degas, Rivière George, Steven, the young Forain and some others, or was at the "Wepler", or somewhere else? What does it matter. We are in 1873 and Manet is mad with joy returning from the sale of his first painting, Le Bon Bock -
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NYU - The Grey Art Gallery
After Edouard Manet, detail from the Album du Bon Bock, photolithograph (Paris: Ludovic Baschet, 1878).
The swift defeat of France by Germany in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 ended the eighteen-year reign of Napoleon III and ushered in the conservative government of the Third Republic. France’s humiliation by Germany, followed by the brutal suppression of the Paris Commune by the army of the Third Republic, led French intellectuals to question traditional institutions along with notions of patriotism and national identity. Edouard Manet’s painting Le Bon Bock (The Good Pint), created for the Salon of 1873, was widely identified as a French Alsatian patriot drinking his regional beer. The picture came to serve as a popular symbol of the recent loss of the Alsace-Lorraine region by France to the Germans and a liberal political symbol of national introspection.
This association of Le Bon Bock with democratic ideals inspired Emile Bellot, a printmaker and the model for Manet’s corpulent beer drinker, to organize the Bon Bock Society in 1875. For almost fifty years this group hosted monthly dinners in and around Montmartre for its membership, which consisted mostly of artists, writers, and performers. The Bon Bockers rummaged through French cultural history for new ways to define the national spirit, settling on the gutsy humor of François Rabelais, the sixteenth-century satirist. The Bon Bock Society promoted a concept of French national identity, combining a commitment to liberal republicanism with boisterous Rabelaisian laughter. This indivisibility of liberty and humor supported a climate of artistic experimentation and engendered tongue-in-cheek, anti-academic, and anti-institutional satire.
While Bon Bock dinners served for more than forty years as constant reminders of France’s forfeiture of its eastern citizens to the Germans, they also kept this Rabelaisian model of parody and raucous humor alive in the minds of two generations of artists and intellectuals. Beginning in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, political thought and aesthetic innovation were unified in the minds of many writers and artists in Paris, and most of those who frequented Montmartre attended the Bon Bock dinners. First inspired by Manet’s painting, the Bon Bockers and their freewheeling attitude paved the way for generations of Montmartre denizens to follow.
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The Varshavsky Collectipion, San Francisco, California.
“Le Bon-Bock” was a monthly dinner of artists and men of letters, who gathered in Paris for good food, good company, and artistic performances, from 1875 to at least 1925. The story behind these gatherings as told by Emile Bellot, the founder, is this:
In February 1875, Pierre Cottin1 came to me and said: ‘I discovered a poet and tragedian of immense talent and who interprets the poems of the Great Victor Hugo in an astonishing way. Monsieur Gambini. I promised him that I would make it heard by an audience of artists and men of letters. I am counting on you who have many connections to keep my promise to him’. I gathered about 25 of my friends and acquaintances in a picnic dinner which took place at a restaurant ‘Krauteimer’ on the rue Rochechouart in Montmartre. They heard from Mr Gambini first, then my friends Étienne Carjat2, J. Gros3, Adrien Dézamy4, etc. performed. These gentlemen completed the evening so brilliantly that it was unanimously decided that we would start a similar dinner every month. Poets, musicians, men of letters, singers would be invited to this dinner. I was in charge of the organization of this little party and as it was the dream of my life to bring together old comrades, I was careful not to refuse and I pursued this good idea. Cottin and René Tener5 were kind enough to help me in this joyous task and especially my old friend Carjat. The following March began our 1st monthly dinner.
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See also http://www.academiabarilla.it/biblioteca-gastronomica/storie-menu/manet-inviti-bock.aspx
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Housed in two folio albums (binding size 33.4x17.5cm and 33.4x28.5cm). In early 19th century crushed morocco over hand marbled boards, spines lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers In contemporary binding of half crimson crushed morocco over hand marbled boards, spine titled and dated in gilt, marbled endpapers Condition: Very good, overall toning to invitations, only one or two with marginal liquid stains, some offsetting but generally sharp and clean, in near fine bindings with light chipping to marbled edges. Ref: 111509 Price: HK$ 90,000
The artists competed to have their work used for the next invitation, and together with their work each invitation provides an account of the previous dinners activities, beginning with opening speeches, notices and announcements, and then other activities, which usually include poems, prose, texts, songs, instrumental pieces.
The invitations are dated from April 1886 to April 1936, with the first thirty or so addressed to Monsieur Régnier, one of the founders of the association. Individually rare, a collection of this size and association provides one of the most important associations of these periods in Paris.
Inspired by Edouard Manet’s painting Le Bon Bock (The Good Pint), and the democratic, nationalistic ideals that it symbolised, Emile Bellot (the printmaker and model for Manet’s beer drinker) established the Bon-Bock Society in 1875. Consisting mainly of artists, writers and performers, the society sought to re-define France’s national spirit by delving into the country’s cultural past. The inseparable ideals of freedom and humour within their community created opportunities for artistic experimentation; the Bon Bockers and their carefree attitude would go on to inspire generations of Montmartre natives for years to come. Invitations in the first album begin with the 128th dinner of April 7, 1886 to the 311th dinner of October 5, 1906, and the second album from the 320th dinner of October 4th, 1907 to the 462nd dinner of April 5, 1936. The 130th invitation lists 138 people who attended the previous dinner of May 11, 1886, later invitations do not list previous attendees.
Individually tipped into the bindings, and unfolded, original quarto folds show that these would have been folded for delivery. Many of the illustrations are tinted, some using red as well as black coloured text, a few with water colour highlights, the 447th dinner the invitation is in colour.
From 1879 the Bon-Bock was held at the Vendanges de Bourgogne, 14 Rue de Jessaint, 14 [east of Montmartre]. The 144th invitation of March 1888 notes that due to expansion dinners will now be held at the Restaurant Vantier, 8 Avenue de Clichy. Attached to the invitation to the 363rd dinner of November 7, 1912, is a note advising members that the Bon-Bock wil be moving its dinners to the Restaurant Coquet, 80, Boulevard de Clichy, (Place Blanche), where it remained throughout the remainder of the invitations.
From the 131st [1st November 1886] to the 156th dinner [5th May 1889] the invitations are addressed to Monsieur Régnier, who was one of the founders of the association, after which they have been left blank [from the 204th dinner of 13th November 1894 onwards there was no longer ‘A Monsieur’ and a space for the invitees name on the invite].
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Manet and the invitations of Bon Bock
A day in Paris
For the majority of the "people", Paris is a city where you can experience extraordinary emotions. Its beauty is offered immediately to the eye, in the vastness of the buildings, boulevards and museums, with a city life unmatched in the rest of the world. For me as a "collector", as a boy was one of my city of choice, starting from the stalls along the Seine, to those of Montmartre, ultimately, for the great antiquarian bookshops on the left bank.
One day, thirty years ago, I was telephoned by the owner of one of the largest antiquarian booksellers in Paris who told me: "I have for you a truly extraordinary collection, come to me as soon as possible." I wanted to ask what it was, but I answered immediately: "Keep it for me." The following week I rushed to him to see what he would show and offer me.
With much emotion he went to take out a large folder in which was a collection of very delicate papers, saying: "This is a real rarity, to find a considerable number of Bon Bock invitations is almost impossible, and if you do it is one or two scattered about. In this folder is described the life of one of the most important associations of the Belle Époque in Paris. "
Very gently, and with emotion as he opened each sheet, we began to leaf through "invitations" masterfully conceived and designed by the best artists of the time. We did not fail to have fun in commenting on the variety, gaiety, irony and the freedom to be daring with the woman's body, without ever becoming vulgar.
The bookseller told me: "I am happy to sell to you, knowing your passion as a collector. Certainly you will keep them with great care, and so retain the memory of an era truly unique. Rather than sell them one by one, and so disperse them, I prefer to give them all to you. "
This delicacy of thought I found suited the mentality of the collector, you would never want to be forced to disperse the documents in a collection.
When I came out from my beloved bookseller with the Bon Bock folio, for a moment, my emotion was so strong that I thought I saw Paris with new eyes, and its citizens as a century earlier, immersed in the Belle Époque.
And so it is that in Italy, today, we can find a collection that perhaps even no longer exists in France, and which preserves the precious memory of a very special partnership and gastronomic friendship.
We must remember that these sheets, especially the first of 1877 have more than 125 years that have passed unscathed through the world wars of the twentieth century with their destruction. It's a real "miracle" to present a collection so interesting and large, now preserved in Parma, the capital of the Italian Food Valley, at the very rich ‘Biblioteca Gastronomica di Academia Barilla’.
I am therefore extremely happy that Parma, a city that for centuries has strong cultural and emotional ties with France, can present this completely new and unique "exhibition" in Italy.
- Livio Cerini of Castegnate
--
Le Bon Bock
To know what was the Bon Bock it is necessary to know and understand the phenomenon that was the cause of the extraordinary diffusion of Menu in France in the last decades of the nineteenth century.
The intense prodigality, which accompanies the sudden development of the Amicable Association in France, was the primary cause of the spread of the invitation card, that will reach in that country, artistic qualities of the highest order.
At the end of the nineteenth century in Paris alone, there were several hundred associations and all had their "dinner", and a dinner worthy of respect had to have it’s own menu, with the keen eye for aesthetics and another gastronomic content which had to be original and attractive. If it had been conceived and executed by a wealthy master, by a well known and worldly artist, and the members "gloated" for the honor of belonging to such a noble fellowship.
After the fall of the Second Empire, the French discovered the freedom of the press, the truth, absolute, intolerant and rebellious of any censorship, and this took shape in a visible way through caricature: the satirical drawings of merciless criticism of costume is an "invention" of the Belle Epoque and became one of its most characteristic and significant.
The newspapers were rich in caricatures and satirical drawings, such as Le rire”, “L’Assiette au beurre”, “La vie parisienne”, “Le canard sauvage”, “Le crie de Paris”, “La culotte rouge”, “Le corbeau” and many others, you still look at with astonishment and curiosity. And many of the best illustrators and collaborating caricaturists of those times, participated in person at various Diners Clubs, contributing with their creativity and skill to make these pleasurable gatherings prestigious, and entrust them in some way to immortality.
The purpose of these meetings was the "aimable" distraction of people who, in turn, spent their time in distracting and "charming" their contemporaries to make sure they were being seen. It does not escape our attention, the superficiality and frivolous aspect of this curious race to show off, that is perhaps the most obvious feature of the Belle Epoque.
Associations active in Paris towards the end of the nineteenth century were numerous and among them some really valid lasted for many years, gathering around them personalities from politics, high society, writers, musicians and artists. Many of these are remembered for their remarkable Menus: Alouette, Arche de Noè, Avant Garde, Bibliophiles Contemporains, Boef-Nature, Bonshommes, Cercle de la Critique, Dîner de l’Hyppopotame, Dîner de Six Francs, Dîner Dèntu, Evohè, La Canigou, La Chasse Illustre, La Cigale, La Macédonie, La Soupe et le Bœuf, Le Dîner Celtique, Le Dîner de Garouche, Le Dîner de la Modestie, Le Dîner de Poitou, Le Dîner de Tètes de bois, Le Dîner Molière, Le Pluvier, Le Sartan, Le Vilains, Les Acquafortistes, Les amis des Livres, Parnasse, Pris de Rhum, Radis Noir. But the most important and enduring were definitely the Bon Bock, Le Cornet, La Marmite and La Plume.
THE HISTORY OF THE BON BOCK.
Emile Bellot, engraver and a model for the burly beer drinker of the painting by Manet, gave birth to the Association of Bon Bock, which held its first friendly meeting in March 1875, and that same Bellot presided for ten years. The frequency of the meetings was monthly. The members met on the first Tuesday of each month and the reasons for the meeting and the presence of distinguished guests was anticipated by a "strictly personal invitation" of the President to be shown at the entrance on the evening, when people went to celebrate, confident it will be wonderful and that you will always eat well.
These "Invitations", now very rare and sought after, have remained really unique for their creativity and the series of the artists involved in their realization.
The invitation is not about food, it is assumed that you will eat well, what matters is the joy, the fine irony and the joy of unpublished music, an ode or a poem rather than a play, even if there are plenty of tombola games and jugglers that will delight the members and their friends, and especially the ladies, who were permitted only twice a year.
And they were so many people in line for access to the Association, that the committee was forced, during the dinner on 19 October 1880, to formulate, with a quite explicit manuscript of great hilarity, a form of statute with certain rules, terrible torturous fines with enforced downing of beer from a huge Bock.
The bonbockisti, as they called themselves, were the jokers, the seekers of happiness, with good cheer they headed to the Bastille and out of Paris, finally arriving at the "Vendages de Bourgogne", the favorite location for the meetings that were held at seven on the dot in the evening, at a price that did not change of 5.50 francs for dinner. When, according to Bellot, the number of members increased so as to prevent artistic development with hundreds of guests, then the association moved to a more spacious and comfortable restaurant in the Batignolles district at the "Vantier", 8 Avenue de Clichy.
The motivations of the various parties and the presence of the guests provide us with the vision of a glimpse of life in Paris, where there are, among the names that are now lost in the past, prominent personalities like poets, musicians and painters who have passed down their art to us. All artists, and there are hundreds of them, would compete to illustrate the invitation, offering today an extraordinary testimony of Parisian social life, that had no equal in France and throughout the rest of the world. In 1875, then, the same Bellot, wanted to publish (in only 500 units sold at 15 francs), with Ludovic Baschet, Parisian typesetter and a member of the association, the album du Bon Bock, a book of 50 pages full of pictures, texts and improvisation stemming from the first months of get-togethers, and now virtually impossible to find. Thanks to these sheets precious as they are fragile, we can still breathe the unique and unrepeatable heady experience of the Belle Époque.
It is Léon Maillard, who wrote in 1898 and is contemporary with the events recounted, provides more information on the special association in its unsurpassed Menus et Programmes that illustrates the history of the Menu with competence and dignity: "Bellot, founder of this famous meeting, was painted by Manet, and represented with pint of beer in hand. The name of the portrait is left to the Association, one of the most famous and certainly the largest in Paris. It has about 1000 members and their "dinners" are the most followed, because these continue to be evenings of “numerous” highly artistic events, where poetry, music and fantasy alternate, to the enjoyment of all who hear them. So recounts M. Albert Rousseau who presided over one of the dinners: "They held 30 banquets at the restaurant" Minerva", 60 at the "Grand Turc”, 100 at the “Boule Noire”, 200 at the “Vendages de Bourgogne". The founders, apart from Bellot were: Jules Gros (former president of the République de Counani), Guillois, Alphonse Laffitte, the musician Frédéric Ben-Tayoux and the painter Eugène Cottin, immediately followed by Etienne Carjat (photographer, illustrator, poet), the painter Léon Foulard, the mystic Léon Chedel, Adrien Dézamy, Victor Dupre, Lassale, Charles Leroy, Gilbert Radon, Régnier, the painter Rene Keep and singer Charles Vincent. "
The first invitations were very modest: a simple signed letter. The first illustration appeared in July 1875 on the occasion of the change of location from the "Grand Turc" to "Boule Noir." The designer Alfred Petit, then famous for his line drawn landscapes, depicted the partisans of Bon Bock under the protection of the companions of Saint Antoine. They were not very refined, but the allegory of naturalistic taste returned repeatedly over time, always imbued with a decidedly satirical verve.
Some menus are of the first order, such as those signed by André Gill, Adolphe Léon Willette, Emile Bayard, Eugène Carrière, Henry Pille, José Frappa, Théophile Steinlen. [...]. Émile Jean-Baptiste Bin, artist, painter, former mayor of Montmartre, is to be remembered among the most fervent propagators of the Fraternity. [...]. And then the repetition of these and a hundred other names that would be annoying to enumerate, the number increases every month. "
After a long run at the "Vendages de Bourgogne", in 1885 the guests moved to the restaurant "Vantier", and even in the post-Bellot era, with all the innovations implemented at that time: still the invitation printed by letterpress, the Presidency taken in turn for a single night and the Association run by a committee.
On October 28, 1892 at the Museo Grévin Paris was shown for the first time ‘Un bon bock’, a pantomime of light conducted by Charles-Émile Reynaud, and composed of 700 hand-painted pictures on glass plates, for a total duration of 15 minutes silent projection, accompanied by sound effects and a soundtrack composed and performed by musician Gaston Paulin. It is one of the first animated short films ever made and now lost, destroyed because the same Reynaud threw it into the Seine. Inspired by the title of the famous painting by Manet, it told the semi-serious story of a customer so busy courting the beautiful bartender he did not notice that others emptied his mug of beer.
The end of the Belle Époque and the First World War did not exhaust the vitality of the Association, which continued, albeit at a slower milder pace, their meetings in the name of love of life and happiness. And even after the Second World War, the Association of Bon Bock was reborn, but in a different social climate, the meetings further tapered off to two to three a year.
Fernand Woutaz, in the book Le grand livre des Societés et Confreries gastronomicques de France, published in Paris in 1973 by Halévy thus recalls: "It was at the" Guerbois ", 11 Grand Rue des Batignolles, the present day Avenue Clichy, this famous Café [of Émile Bellot] where he met over a long time, "the group of Batignolles", meaning Manet, Degas, Rivière George, Steven, the young Forain and some others, or was at the "Wepler", or somewhere else? What does it matter. We are in 1873 and Manet is mad with joy returning from the sale of his first painting, Le Bon Bock -
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NYU - The Grey Art Gallery
After Edouard Manet, detail from the Album du Bon Bock, photolithograph (Paris: Ludovic Baschet, 1878).
The swift defeat of France by Germany in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 ended the eighteen-year reign of Napoleon III and ushered in the conservative government of the Third Republic. France’s humiliation by Germany, followed by the brutal suppression of the Paris Commune by the army of the Third Republic, led French intellectuals to question traditional institutions along with notions of patriotism and national identity. Edouard Manet’s painting Le Bon Bock (The Good Pint), created for the Salon of 1873, was widely identified as a French Alsatian patriot drinking his regional beer. The picture came to serve as a popular symbol of the recent loss of the Alsace-Lorraine region by France to the Germans and a liberal political symbol of national introspection.
This association of Le Bon Bock with democratic ideals inspired Emile Bellot, a printmaker and the model for Manet’s corpulent beer drinker, to organize the Bon Bock Society in 1875. For almost fifty years this group hosted monthly dinners in and around Montmartre for its membership, which consisted mostly of artists, writers, and performers. The Bon Bockers rummaged through French cultural history for new ways to define the national spirit, settling on the gutsy humor of François Rabelais, the sixteenth-century satirist. The Bon Bock Society promoted a concept of French national identity, combining a commitment to liberal republicanism with boisterous Rabelaisian laughter. This indivisibility of liberty and humor supported a climate of artistic experimentation and engendered tongue-in-cheek, anti-academic, and anti-institutional satire.
While Bon Bock dinners served for more than forty years as constant reminders of France’s forfeiture of its eastern citizens to the Germans, they also kept this Rabelaisian model of parody and raucous humor alive in the minds of two generations of artists and intellectuals. Beginning in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, political thought and aesthetic innovation were unified in the minds of many writers and artists in Paris, and most of those who frequented Montmartre attended the Bon Bock dinners. First inspired by Manet’s painting, the Bon Bockers and their freewheeling attitude paved the way for generations of Montmartre denizens to follow.
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The Varshavsky Collectipion, San Francisco, California.
“Le Bon-Bock” was a monthly dinner of artists and men of letters, who gathered in Paris for good food, good company, and artistic performances, from 1875 to at least 1925. The story behind these gatherings as told by Emile Bellot, the founder, is this:
In February 1875, Pierre Cottin1 came to me and said: ‘I discovered a poet and tragedian of immense talent and who interprets the poems of the Great Victor Hugo in an astonishing way. Monsieur Gambini. I promised him that I would make it heard by an audience of artists and men of letters. I am counting on you who have many connections to keep my promise to him’. I gathered about 25 of my friends and acquaintances in a picnic dinner which took place at a restaurant ‘Krauteimer’ on the rue Rochechouart in Montmartre. They heard from Mr Gambini first, then my friends Étienne Carjat2, J. Gros3, Adrien Dézamy4, etc. performed. These gentlemen completed the evening so brilliantly that it was unanimously decided that we would start a similar dinner every month. Poets, musicians, men of letters, singers would be invited to this dinner. I was in charge of the organization of this little party and as it was the dream of my life to bring together old comrades, I was careful not to refuse and I pursued this good idea. Cottin and René Tener5 were kind enough to help me in this joyous task and especially my old friend Carjat. The following March began our 1st monthly dinner.
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See also http://www.academiabarilla.it/biblioteca-gastronomica/storie-menu/manet-inviti-bock.aspx
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Housed in two folio albums (binding size 33.4x17.5cm and 33.4x28.5cm). In early 19th century crushed morocco over hand marbled boards, spines lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers In contemporary binding of half crimson crushed morocco over hand marbled boards, spine titled and dated in gilt, marbled endpapers Condition: Very good, overall toning to invitations, only one or two with marginal liquid stains, some offsetting but generally sharp and clean, in near fine bindings with light chipping to marbled edges. Ref: 111509 Price: HK$ 90,000