Description
RARE! An artist’s studio in the legendary Studio Raspail
This duplex flat is located in Studio Raspail, a building commissioned by Helena Rubinstein from architect Bruno Elkouken in 1932 to house her flat and artists’ studios. The building was listed as a Historic Monument in 1986.
Facing east-west, the flat is located on the 3rd and 4th floors of the building and offers 90.13 sqm living space.
In excellent condition, the first floor comprises an entrance hall, a large 36 sqm living room with dining area and double-height ceiling, a separate fitted kitchen opening onto an inner courtyard and a guest toilet. This space is flooded with natural light thanks to the vast double-height glass roof that opens up the room to the sky.
A beautiful, streamlined staircase leads upstairs to a large mezzanine area with dressing room, a bedroom overlooking the courtyard and a bathroom.
A cellar completes this property.
The building has a lift and a caretaker.
The Studio Raspail enjoys a privileged location just a stone’s throw from Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the heart of the Montparnasse district, the centre of Parisian cultural life between the wars.
Close to the Musée Zadkine and the Jardin du Luxembourg, it enjoys a rich neighbourhood life, with all the local shops and amenities, and is served by the Vavin and Raspail metro stations.
The Raspail studio: a modernist programme
Commissioned by Helena Rubinstein in the early 1930s, the Studio Raspail is in the Art Deco vein that was very much in vogue at the time. Located in the Montparnasse district, the building included flats, artists’ studios and an avant-garde cinema. It comprises three residential buildings with a minimalist aesthetic: the street façade features simple, functional lines, underlined by gigantic glass bow windows. The pure white design contrasts with the black joinery, creating graphic effects with Cubist overtones. At the top of the building, the “stepped” treatment of the top floors adds dynamism to the composition, while at the same time creating balconies that maximise sunlight.
The lower flats are designed in the style of an “artist’s studio”, with large volumes and a mezzanine. However, the orientation of the east-facing skylights does not respect the usual northern exposure, indicating that the building was targeted at a bourgeois clientele seeking to “live” by exploring the artists’ way of life.
The building, which housed a 278-seat cinema until 1982, was partly listed (facade, roof and cinema) in 1986.
Helena Rubinstein : a forefront woman
Born into a Polish Jewish family, Helena Rubinstein (1872-1965) was a visionary businesswoman and founder of a successful cosmetics brand. Nicknamed “the empress of beauty” by Jean Cocteau, she was also a passionate art collector who moved in artistic circles between the wars. Attracted by the idea of a synthesis of the arts, and sensitive to fashion, she frequented designers such as Coco Chanel, Cristobal Balenciaga and Paul Poiret in Paris. Very early on, she spotted the avant-garde artists of Montparnasse and Montmartre and collected paintings by Picasso, Modigliani and Raoul Dufy, who portrayed her on numerous occasions. As part of this vibrant cultural ecosystem, she commissioned the architect Bruno Elkouken to build her a modern building in Montparnasse, where she wanted to settle. Helena Rubinstein, known as “Madame”, took up residence in the studio on the 5th floor, where her collections were displayed alongside modern furniture designed by Erno Goldfinger, a former student of the Beaux-Arts.
Bruno Elkouken: a modern architect in Paris
Bruno Elkouken (1893-1968) was an architect of Polish origin. He lived in Paris from 1920 until 1937, when he fled to the United States to escape Nazism. During his effervescent years in Paris, he designed five buildings as a modern architect; he rubbed shoulders with the artistic avant-garde and eminent personalities of his time, such as Le Corbusier and Helena Rubinstein, for whom he designed the Studio Raspail building in 1932. In 1928, he took part in the first CIAM (International Congress of Modern Architecture) in La Sarraz (Switzerland), and in 1945 became a member of the Union of Modern Architects (UAM).
Technical info
Asking price: €1,560,000
Fees payable by the vendor
Property tax for 2022: €1,942
Property ownership. Number of lots: 25
Monthly share of running costs: €485
No proceedings in progress.
Gas collective heating.
ENERGY CLASS: E / CLIMATE CLASS: E
Estimated annual costs: between €1,610 and €2,220 per year, average energy prices indexed to 1 January 2021