'Au Lapin Agile' is a famous Montmartre cabaret. It existed in around 1860, as the 'Au rendez-vous des voleurs' which meant 'Where the Thieves Meet'. Later it became known as the Cabaret des Assassins, with its walls decorated with portraits of famous murderers. According to legend, its name relates to the murder of the owner's son in an attempted robbery by a band of gangsters.
In 1875, the artist Andre Gill painted the sign that suggests its current name (see below). It was a picture of a rabbit jumping out of a saucepan, from which the name Au Lapin Agile evolved, meaning the Nimble Rabbit. The Lapin Agile became the favourite spot for struggling artists and writers, including Picasso, Modigliani, Apollinaire, Roman Greco and Utrillo.
Pablo Picasso's 1905 oil painting, Au Lapin Agile helped to make the cabaret world famous, and undoubtedly added to the reputation of its namesake.
The Lapin Agile operates today largely unchanged and maintains its tradition as an informal cabaret venue. It has also been the inspiration for a 1993 play written by Steve Martin, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, which depicts an imagined meeting between Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein at the Lapin Agile.