The Académie de la Grande Chaumiere – academy of the large thatched cottage -  is an art school located at 14 rue de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris, near Hotel des Academies et des Arts. It offers full courses, but also a unique “one-sketch admission” service, for which one pays to draw nude models.

At the turn of the 20th century, it was one of the most famous art schools in Paris.
Former students who have probably stayed at Hotel des Academies et des Arts Paris : Tamara de Lempicka, Alberto Giacometti, Richard Miller, Amedeo Modigliani, Isamu Noguchi, Nat Mayer Shapiro.

In the legendary neighborhood of Montparnasse, the most celebrated painters and the most secretive amateurs came to the Grande Chaumiere and the Hotel des Academies et des Arts to sit in the huge and somewhat mysterious rooms in the Academy free to practice their timeless art: life drawing, the nude, sketch …

How was Montparnasse at the beginning of the 20th century? The heart of art with the Hotel des Academies et des Arts Paris. The Academie de la France Chaumiere is the only institution which at the beginning of the last century opened the way towards independant art leaving all forms of technics to be expressed freely.

Book an arty hotel Hotel des Academies et des Arts Paris
Artistic hotel in Montparnasse Hotel des Academies

Hotel des Academies et des Arts is a friendly and comfortable place for the reminiscent of the famous French artists living in the past centuries such as Amedeo Modigliani.
Modigliani was an Italian artist, practicing both painting and sculpture.
In 1906 Modigliani moved to Paris, then the focal point of the avant-garde. In fact, his arrival at the epicentre of artistic experimentation, near Hotel des Academies et des Arts Paris coincided with the arrival of two other foreigners who were also to leave their marks upon the art world: Gino Severini and Juan Gris.
When he first arrived in Paris, he wrote home regularly to his mother and he drank wine in moderation. He was at that time considered by those who knew him as a bit reserved, verging on the asocial. He is noted to have commented, upon meeting Picasso.
During his early years in Paris, Modigliani worked at a furious pace. He was constantly sketching, making as many as a hundred drawings a day. However, many of his works were lost – destroyed by him as inferior, left behind in his frequent changes of address, or given to girlfriends who did not keep them.
In May of 1919 he returned to Paris, where, with Hébuterne and their daughter, he rented an apartment in the rue de la Grande Chaumiere, near Hotel des Academies et des Arts Paris. While there, both Jeanne Hébuterne and Amedeo Modigliani painted portraits of each other, and of themselves.
Modigliani died on January 24, 1920. There was an enormous funeral, attended by many from the artistic communities in Montparnasse, near Hotel des Academies et des Arts Paris. Hébuterne was taken to her parents’ home, where, inconsolable, she threw herself out of a fifth-floor window two days after Modigliani’s death, killing herself and her unborn child. Modigliani was interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Hébuterne was buried at the Cimetière de Bagneux near Paris, and it was not until 1930 that her embittered family allowed her body to be moved to rest beside Modigliani.

Modigliani stayed at Hotel des Academies et des Arts Paris
Arty hotel in Montparnasse, Paris