TheZutistes or theCircle of Poets Zutiques was an informal group of French poets, painters and musicians who met at theHôtel des Étrangers, at the corner ofrue Racine andrue de l'École-de-Médecine, in Paris in September and October 1871.
The Zutistes were a fringe spin-off from a splinter group ofParnassians, known as the "Nasty Fellows" or "Villains Bonshommes",[1] who formed a Parisian dining club at the close of the 1860s. Without having a formal manifesto, and taking their name from the French exclamation of baffled exasperation,Zut,[2] this informal gathering of artists known as the Zutistes gathered around the figure of the pianistErnest Cabaner, who worked as a bartender/piano player at the hotel. Anarchic in spirit, they looked back regretfully to the atmosphere of theParis Commune of March to May 1871.[3] A significant figure in the circle wasCharles Cros, while other members were later better known, likeVerlaine andRimbaud.
The most significant trace of the movement came with the re-discovery in the Thirties of the Zutique Album, with some 101 literary entries accompanied by (sometimes pornographic) drawings,[4] including "Sonnet to an Asshole."[5]
Shot through with black humour, and riddled with parody and pastiche of contemporary styles and attitudes,[6] the album is the best guide to the Circle's membership of some fourteen names. A central target of the Album's mockery was the recently successful ParnassianFrancois Coppee, while other more established figures likeJosé-Maria de Heredia andLeconte de Lisle were also in the line of fire.[7] This album is in the form of an in-quarto Italian, black hardback cover, about thirty sheets handwritten, the other pages remained blank.
Nostalgia for the circle persisted among its members long after its break-up, perhaps as early as the winter of 1871–1872: thus for example the young ZutisteRaoul Ponchon was one of only seven recipients of Rimbaud'sA Season in Hell;[8] Charles Cros in 1883 used "zutique" to name a new poetry circle; while (perhaps coincidentally) as late as in 1897 the claim would be made that "man is by nature essentially 'zutique'".[9]