Editing Lapin Agile (section)

== History ==
[[File:André Gill - Au Lapin Agile.jpg|thumb|upright .8|Reproduction of the "Lapin à Gill" sign]]
The venue existed circa 1860 under the name '''Au rendez-vous des voleurs''', meaning "Where the Thieves Meet".<ref>{{cite web | title= Le cabaret des assassins| url=http://www.lemanoirdeparis.fr/spectacles/histoire-des-legendes-de-paris/177-le-cabaret-des-assassins.html| access-date=16 February 2016}}</ref> Some twenty years later, the walls were decorated with portraits of famous murderers and the place became known as the '''Cabaret des Assassins'''.<ref>{{cite web | title= Le Lapin Agile … l'ancien Cabaret des Assassins| url=http://www.pariszigzag.fr/histoire-insolite-paris/le-lapin-agile-ou-lancien-cabaret-des-assasins| access-date=11 February 2016}}</ref> Tradition relates that the cabaret received this name because a band of gangsters broke in and killed the owner's son in a robbery attempt.<ref>{{cite book | title= The Other Paris|isbn = 9780571325870| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ruSpCgAAQBAJ&q=luc+sante+lapin+agile&pg=PT366| access-date=9 January 2024|last1 = Sante|first1 = Luc|author-link=Lucy Sante|date = 2015| publisher=Faber & Faber }}</ref>

In 1875, the artist [[Andre Gill]] painted the sign that was to suggest its permanent name. It was a picture of a rabbit jumping out of a saucepan, and residents began calling their neighbourhood night-club '''Le Lapin à Gill''', meaning "Gill's rabbit". Over time, the name had evolved into "Cabaret Au Lapin Agile", or the Nimble Rabbit Cabaret. The original painting on canvas was stolen in 1893;<ref>{{cite web| title=Au Lapin Agile| url=http://www.au-lapin-agile.com/pdf/asslap2.pdf| access-date=26 February 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012203132/http://www.au-lapin-agile.com/pdf/asslap2.pdf| archive-date=12 October 2007| url-status=dead}}</ref> a reproduction on timber was painted to take its place.

The Lapin Agile was bought in the early twentieth century by the cabaret singer, comedian, and nightclub owner [[Aristide Bruant]] to save it from demolition.<ref>{{cite web | title= Butte montmartre : Au Lapin Agile| url=http://www.paris-a-nu.fr/le-lapin-agile-ou-le-lapin-a-gill/| access-date=5 March 2016}}</ref> The Lapin Agile became a favourite spot for struggling artists and writers, including [[Pablo Picasso|Picasso]], [[Amedeo Modigliani|Modigliani]], [[Guillaume Apollinaire|Apollinaire]], Roman Greco, and [[Maurice Utrillo]].

The Lapin Agile is located in the centre of the Montmartre district in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, behind and slightly northwest of [[Sacré-Cœur, Paris|Sacre Coeur Basilica]]. Since this was the heart of artistic Paris at the turn of the twentieth century, there was much discussion at the cabaret about "the meaning of art".

The Lapin Agile was also popular with Montmartre residents including pimps, eccentrics, poorer people, local anarchists, as well as with students from the [[Latin Quarter]] and a sprinkling of upper-class bourgeoisie.