Ground floor — Reception area

The mural created by artists Alexandre & Florentine Lamarche-Ovize is a portrait of Josephine Baker at the time of her arrival at Paris-Montparnasse. This artist is a figurehead of Paris during the Roaring Twenties and of an artist who refashioned her era’s ideas of exoticism to make something new. Josephine rolls her large eyes, sways her hips decked in a belt made of bananas or ostrich feathers: in their monumental work of art, the artists have taken a fresh look at these iconic images and memories of an unusual personality. The mural was conceived as a collage of simple forms, and the rug that welcomes you on your arrival at the Drawing House is a continuation of it; as are the lamps in the shape of banana leaves that hang above reception.