« I was asked for permission to photograph my house for a special issue of the magazine «Élites Françaises», which describes the curious homes of some Parisian and provincial people. This issue is set to be published in May, and you will thus get to know a bit of my intimacy and my magnificent blue Persian cat, Poupinet, with his pure golden eyes ».
Louis Cattiaux lived in Paris, on rue Casimir-Perier, in the shadow of the Sainte-Clotilde church, facing a small, peaceful provincial square. He put on his business cards: «Louis Cattiaux, poet, painter, and apothecary». In his mysterious shop at street level, he painted strange and magnificent canvases, featuring hieratic virgins surrounded by forgotten symbols.
His tiny shop, magically decorated, seemed to enclose the entire universe. One could breathe in the scent of some very privately guarded Eden garden; one often returned there, not quite knowing why, perhaps simply drawn by the warmth. For a warmth unlike any other, a warmth that was something entirely different from ordinary cordiality, emanated from this man, along with the premonition of an immense secret, alive but jealously kept, like the philosophical fish swimming in deep waters.
The Cattiauxs had transformed the ground floor of this old shop into an art gallery, which they titled «Gravitations», a rallying center for the group of transhylist painters and poets. At the back, there was a small kitchen, and to the left, the space where the artist stood while painting. In the upper part, behind a railing, there was a mezzanine serving as a bedroom.
In May 1949, the magazine titled «Élites Françaises» published a report in its issue dedicated to «Comfort» about a model of Parisian housing: that of the Cattiauxs, where the living space combines with the painting studio and the art gallery «Gravitations».
Cover of the magazine Élites Françaises – Comfort, 1949
Table of contents of the magazine Élites Françaises
Élites Françaises – pg.22
Élites Françaises – pg.23
Élites Françaises – A simple shop has become the home of painter Cattiaux and his wife
Élites Françaises – A charming room arranged in the loggia
Élites Françaises – The back shop transformed into a kitchen
Élites Françaises – Small dining room in a corner of the kitchen
Casimir Perier Street
Élites Françaises – The shop serves as a small studio with its openings: at the back, the kitchen; on the first floor, the bedroom in the loggia
Élites Françaises – At street level, the studio is only defended by a small sign: private residence
Photo montage of Henriette
Louis Cattiaux the artist, circa 1938
Louis, Henriette, and Poupinet
© 2025 All rights reserved | Jean-Christophe Lohest
From a shop, an artist has made a studio
Painter Cattiaux has made his home in a shop that opens onto the square of the Sainte-Clotilde church: a corner of Paris that is essentially provincial where he lives at street level, cultivating flowers sown in wooden boxes at the storefront. A lover of trinkets bearing a symbol, from Etruscan statues to Buddhas and objects from all cults, he has given his home a strange fragrance that suits his inspiration as a painter drawn to alchemy (Élites Françaises, May 1949).
« GRAVITATE IS NOT SURREALIZE
We receive the following statement: The press having classified their works under the surrealist label, the painters and writers named below specify that the purpose and spirit of their works being different from those of the surrealists, there is no reason to confuse them with their own. «Gravitations», a title borrowed from a poetic collection by Mr. Jules Supervielle, sufficiently situates the spirit of the works of this group.
Painters: Jean Lafon, Pierre Ino, Jean Marembert, Louis Cattiaux, Erik Olson, René Paresce.
Writers: André Guilliot, Jean Le Louët, Raoul Auclair, Edouars Seurin. »
