Barbara Chase-Riboud Studio (1st)

48 Rue Blomet, in Paris’s 15th arrondissement, marks the first Paris residence of Barbara Chase-Riboud following her arrival in 1961. Located within a historically layered environment long associated with artistic activity, including earlier interwar avant-garde circles, the address was situated nearby a large bronze sculpture by Max Ernst and just a few doors from the famed Bal Nègre, a pioneering Afro-Caribbean nightspot (33 rue Blomet),— Chase-Riboud later recalled:

“Rue Blomet was the site of the famous Le Bal Nègre, where Josephine had started her whole career in Paris. Just next door, down the street. I thought it was this incredible sign that something was going to happen between us.”

The symbolic connection with Josephine Baker resulted in a major series of sculptures, begun in the early 1970s and developed most prominently from 1973 onward. Barbara Chase-Riboud created The Josephines as a tribute to the legendary Josephine Baker (1905–1975).