École des Beaux-Arts: Queen Margot's Convent and Rodin's Rejection
Why is it significant?
Peer through the gates at number 14 Rue Bonaparte into the courtyard: a jumble of classical facades, arches, columns and fragments of old buildings, as if someone had collected pieces of French history and set them up like a puzzle. Which is more or less exactly what happened.
Key Facts
| Place | École des Beaux-Arts: Queen Margot's Convent and Rodin's Rejection |
|---|---|
| Address | 14 Rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris, France |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.85690, 2.33370 |
| Part of Walk | Ink, Coffee and Revolution: A Literary Walk Through Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris |
| Generated | Generated |
Peer through the gates at number 14 Rue Bonaparte into the courtyard: a jumble of classical facades, arches, columns and fragments of old buildings, as if someone had collected pieces of French history and set them up like a puzzle. Which is more or less exactly what happened.
In 1608, Marguerite de Valois, the famous Queen Margot, first wife of Henri the Fourth, founded a convent here for Augustinian friars. She lived across the street in a grand house by the river, and had the monks sing day and night. The chapel of that convent still stands in the courtyard, one of the oldest pieces of the site.
During the Revolution, mobs were smashing royal tombs and statues across France. A young painter named Alexandre Lenoir gathered as much as he could rescue into this empty convent, and in 1795 opened it as the Museum of French Monuments. He saved sculptures that would otherwise have been lost for ever. Some of the stone fragments built into these courtyards are leftovers from his collection.
From 1816 the site became the École des Beaux-Arts, the most prestigious art school in France, with its competition for the Prix de Rome. Degas, Renoir and Seurat studied here, and architects came from as far away as America. But the most famous name of all is a rejection. A young man called Auguste Rodin applied three times, in the 1850s, and was turned down every time. He went on to become the most celebrated sculptor in the world without them.
And this very street has one more birth certificate: Édouard Manet was born just a few doors north, in 1832, when the street was still called Rue des Petits-Augustins after Margot's friars. Now cross Rue Bonaparte into Rue des Beaux-Arts, the short street running east, and look for a discreet hotel at number 13.