The Académie de la Grande Chaumière () is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France. The impeding closure of the school in July 2025 received major criticism from art heritage groups.
The school over the years had trained major figures of the School of Paris as well as being staffed by well-known artists.
History
The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Académie Colarossi. From 1909, the Académie was jointly directed by painters Martha Stettler, Alice Dannenberg, and Lucien Simon. The school, which was devoted to painting and sculpture, did not teach the strict academic rules of painting of the École des Beaux-Arts, thus producing art free of academic constraints. One attraction was the low fees, even lower than those of the Académie Julian (which had to be paid in advance). It was said about the school that all that was provided was a model and warmth in the winter.
In 1957, the Académie de la Grande Chaumière was acquired by the Charpentier family, founders of the Charpentier Academy. It still operates under its original name, and provides two free workshops, one for painting and drawing, the other for sketches, as well as evening classes.
The Académie's building owner Yves Salats died in 2017, and the building was inherited by three different associations which decided to auction it for sale in 2018. The psychoanalyst Serge Zagdanski was named Director of the Académie in 2018.
In July 2025, the school faced closure with the building slated to be converted into a commercial project. The proposal and its developer Alexandre Garèse, who owns the school, drew major criticsm from conservation and artistic groups.
Teachers
{|class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto;"
!colspan="3"|Artists by country
|-
|20px
|Belarus
|Ossip Zadkine
|-
|20px|France
|France
|Jean Aujame – Jacques-Émile Blanche – Antoine Bourdelle – Yves Brayer – Gustave Courtois – Alice Dannenberg Co-director with Stettler – Charles Despiau – Othon Friesz – André Lhote – Édouard Georges Mac-Avoy – Émile-René Ménard – Jean Metzinger – René-Xavier Prinet – Lucien Simon – Auguste Leroux – Pierre Henri Vaillant – – Charles Picart Le Doux – Peter Lipman-Wulf
|-
|20px
|Poland
|Olga Boznańska
|-
|20px
|United States
|Margaret Ponce Israel
|-
|20px
|Spain
|Claudio Castelucho
|-
|20px
|Switzerland
|Eugène Grasset
|-
|20px
|United Kingdom
|Walter Sickert (for a time a weekly supervisor of Mlle. Stettler's classes)
|}
Former students
{|class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto;"
!colspan="3"|Artists by country
|-
|20px
|Argentina
|Noemí Gerstein – Alicia Penalba – Lino Enea Spilimbergo
|-
|20px
|Australia
|Lina Bryans – Bessie Davidson – Louis Kahan
|-
|20px
|Belgium
|Luc-Peter Crombé – Jos De Cock – – - – Berthe Dubail
|-
|20px|Canada
|Canada
|Madeleine Laliberté – Arthur McKay – Marthe Rakine – Jean-Paul Riopelle – René Marcil – Julien Hébert
|-
|20px|Chile
|Chile
|Juan Emar– José Perotti – Henriette Petit – – – – Jean Gorin (1899–1981) – Étienne Hajdu – – – René Iché – Richard Jeranian – Bernadette Kanter – Edmond Kiraz – – – – – – – – – – – Jean Piaubert – Richard de Prémare – Paul Rebeyrolle – Serge Rezvani – Colette Richarme – Germaine Richier – – Jérôme Savary – Émile Savitry – – Michel Siret-Gille – Jeanne Socquet – – Michel Thompson – – – – – Pierre Toutain-Dorbec –
|-
|20px
|Germany
|Alf Bayrle (1900–1982)- Charles Crodel – Peter Janssen – Katharina Heise – Albrecht von Urach
|-
|20px
|Greece
|Athanase Apartis – Sophia Laskaridou (1882–1965) – Socrate Sidiropoulos – Chryssa –
|-
|20px
|Hungary
| Elmyr de Hory – Anton Prinner – Árpád Szenes
|-
|20px
|India
|Chintamoni Kar – Krishna Reddy – Amrita Sher-Gil
|-
|20px
|Ireland
|Eileen Gray – Nano Reid – Patrick Swift – Seán O'Sullivan
|-
|20px
|Israel
|Yaacov Agam – Isaac Frenkel Frenel – Dani Karavan – Bezalel Schatz - Zohara Schatz - Avigdor Stematsky (1908–89)
|-
|20px
|Japan
|Kumi Sugai
|-
|20px
|North Macedonia
|Nikola Martinoski
|-
|20px
|Mexico
|Federico Cantu (1907–1989)
|-
|20px
|Netherlands
|Hubert Minnebo – Julie van der Veen
|-
|20px
|New Zealand
|Helen Stewart
|-
|frameless|20x20px
|Peru
|Elena Izcue
|-
|20px
|Poland
|Władysław Hasior – Tamara de Lempicka
|-
|20px
|Portugal
|Mário Cesariny de Vasconcelos – pt:Joaquim Lopes – :pt:Maluda – Mily Possoz – Maria Elena Vieira da Silva – Carlos Botelho
|-
|20px
|Romania
|Margaret Cossaceanu – Ion Irimescu – Magdalena Rădulescu - Vasile Kazar
|-
|20px
|Russia
|Boris Anrep – Alexandra Exter – Willy Guggenheim – André Lanskoy – Serge Poliakoff – Alexander Sachal – Zinaida Serebriakova
|-
|20px
|South Africa
|Lippy Lipshitz
|-
|20px
|South Korea
|Seund Ja Rhee
|-
|20px
|Spain
|Ramiro Arrue – Joan Miró – :es:Joaquín Peinado – :es:Manuel Ángeles Ortiz – Benjamín Palencia – Alejandro Conde López – Eduardo Úrculo – Remedios Varo
|-
|20px
|Sri Lanka
|Harry Pieris
|-
|20px
|Sweden
|Bror Hjorth – Siri Derkert
|-
|20px
|Switzerland
|Arthur Aesbacher – Otto Charles Bänninger – Otto Baumberger – :fr:Alfred Bolle – Rolf Brem – Hiram Brülhart – Serge Brignoni – :fr:Raymond Buchs – Coghuf – :de:Louis Conne – :de:Otto Ernst Fritsch – Franz Fedier – Alberto Giacometti – Max Gubler – Willy Guggenheim dit Varlin – André Lasserre – Meret Oppenheim – Oswald Pilloud – Charles Rollier – Kurt Seligmann – :de:Paul Stöckli – Victor Surbek – André Thomkins – :fr:Robert Wehrlin – :de:Otto Wyler – Jean Planque
|-
|20px
|Turkey
|Burhan Doğançay
|-
|20px
|United Kingdom
|Maxwell Armfield – Olivia Mary Bryden – John Craxton – Keith Henderson – Vivien John – Jacques Kupfermann – Lowes Dalbiac Luard – Lewis Morley – Isabel Nicholas – Viola Paterson – Basil Rakoczi – Isabel Rawsthorne – Mary Remington – John Walker – Josefina de Vasconcellos
|-
|20px
|United States
|Ward Bennett – Helaine Blumenfeld – Alexander Calder – Granville Carter – Edward Clark (artist)- Warrington Colescott – William F. Draper – Fannie Eliza Duvall – Adolphus Ealey – Dorothy Eisner – Hanna Eshel - Joseph Erhardy – Birgitta Moran Farmer – John Ferren – Paul Fjelde – Anne Flournoy – Michael Frary – Roy Charles Gamble – Herbert Gentry – Paul Georges – Charles Ginnever – Adolph Gottlieb – Angela Gregory – Al Held -Raymond Hendler – Hans Hofmann – Jack Hooper – Sylvia Shaw Judson – Adaline Kent – Albert Kotin – Margaret Lefranc – Michael Loew – Frank Lobdell – Jeanne Patterson Miles – Richard E. Miller – Clare Turlay Newberry – Isamu Noguchi – Jules Olitski — :fr:Bill Parker – Albert Pennoyer - Genevieve Pezet – Augusta Savage – Louis Schanker – Nat Mayer Shapiro – Irene Sharaff – Cesare Stea – George L. Stout – Shinkichi Tajiri – Beth Van Hoesen - Bradley Walker Tomlin – Laura Wheeler Waring
|-
|20px
|Ukraine
|
|-
|20px
|Uruguay
|José Cúneo – Amalia Nieto –
|-
|20px
|Venezuela
|Alirio Oramas – Tito Salas – Manuel Cabre–Elisa Elvira Zuloaga–Pascual Navarro
|}
See also
- School of Paris
- Art in Paris