Ba 5

The Lapin Agile

etching, dry point (1900)

A night view of the cabaret terrace, with some customers sitting under the trees. In the background, we can make out the facades of Montmartre in the dark.

2^nd state, 227 mm × 211 mm.
Printed at 15 impressions.
BN, BPL 12, Worcester (MA, USA).

After the shading on the central group was strengthened, in particular on the shade of the oil lamp.

Worcester Art Museum

The deep blacks are obtained by scribbling with etching, the lighter shades by fine drypoint squaring. The scribbled technique connects this plate to the Paysages de Paris (Ba 11) and the [Carte pour Delâtre] (Ba 3). "You have to go to the top of the Butte to find some remnants of the cabarets of yesteryear. The Lapin Agile is perhaps the only one that has survived, clinging to the side of a steep slope, with its two large trees covering it with foliage and its terrace surrounded by a curious fence [Frédé] knows how to keep his cabaret in the beautiful style of past times by ruthlessly keeping out pimps and other miscreants" (Warnod, 1911).