The Assayag was never just a residential building. From its first years it housed artists’ studios and classes. The Casablanca press kept track of them: advertisements, short notices, a full-page report. This page brings them together, from the most discreet to the most famous, and stays open to new finds.
1935: the studio of Mlle de Blonay, sculptor
On 27 March 1935 La Vigie marocaine printed a notice a few lines long: “The studio of Mlle de Blonay, sculptor, has moved to 46 avenue Poeymirau, corner of Léon-l’Africain.” 46 avenue Poeymirau was then one of the Assayag’s addresses: it appears in its residents’ notices until 1939. And the corner of the rue Léon l’Africain is the one where François Cogné would set up his studio less than two years later.
The notice sets out the programme: “Sculpture, drawing, classes for children, fortnightly competitions, sketching on Wednesdays and Fridays, from 6 to 8 pm (50 francs a month). Visitors received on Thursdays from 3 to 5 pm.” A studio-school, then, for children as much as for evening amateurs.
We know almost nothing else about Mlle de Blonay: not her first name, not her works, not how long she stayed at the Assayag.
1935: Eric Audouin, tenor, singing lessons on the rue de l’Horloge
On 21 March 1935 La Vigie marocaine announced that “Eric Audouin, the famous tenor of the Opéra” was settling in Casablanca for good. The paper praised a thirty-one-year career and the school he had run for eight years in Brussels, where “the directors of the greatest stages” came to find their future artists. Singers whose voices were failing consulted him there, which had earned him the nickname of “voice doctor”. Health reasons had taken him away from “the mists of the North”.
He taught voice placement, stagecraft and the French and Italian repertoire, and wanted to stage operas, opéras-comiques and operettas in Morocco “without having to call on performers from metropolitan France”. Enrolment was “from 10 am to noon and from 2 to 4 pm, with M. Audouin, Immeuble Assayag, building F, rue de l’Horloge”.
The advertisement ran almost daily until the end of April. When the new season began, at the end of September 1935, Le Petit Marocain and La Vigie marocaine printed a new notice: “Mme and M. Eric Audouin, Immeuble Assayag, rue de l’Horloge, have resumed their singing, voice placement and stagecraft lessons.” It ran until mid-October. The rue de l’Horloge is today’s rue Allal Ben Abdellah.
1937–1938: François Cogné, sculptor
At the corner of the avenue Poeymirau and the rue Léon l’Africain, behind a shop window that carried nothing but a visiting card, the sculptor François Cogné modelled in 1937 the maquette of the equestrian statue of Marshal Lyautey and the seven bas-reliefs of its pedestal. Resident General Noguès came to see him there on 18 February 1937, and so did the Maréchale Lyautey. The statue was unveiled on 5 November 1938 in front of Casablanca’s law courts.
His story is told in the article “François Cogné, Lyautey’s sculptor on the Assayag’s ground floor”; the photographs and press cuttings are gathered in the album “François Cogné’s studio”.
Today: the basements
The Assayag still welcomes artists. In May 2023 two residents explained how the co-owners had decided to open up the basements and restore them. During the 2025 Heritage Days, ten artists of “Citadelle” showed their work there, at “Chez Marius”. The building’s cultural programme is presented on the page Events and Culture.
Do you know more?
Did another studio, another class, another artist work at the Assayag? If you have a photograph, a visiting card or a family memory, write to us: this page will be completed.
Frequently asked questions
Which artists had a studio at the Immeuble Assayag?
The press of the 1930s names three: the sculptor Mlle de Blonay, who moved in in March 1935 at the corner of the avenue Poeymirau and the rue Léon l’Africain; the tenor Eric Audouin, who gave singing lessons there in 1935; and the sculptor François Cogné, who prepared the equestrian statue of Lyautey there in 1937.
Where were these studios?
Mlle de Blonay’s studio was announced at the corner of the avenue Poeymirau, today’s rue Hassan Seghir, and the rue Léon l’Africain; François Cogné’s occupied a ground-floor shop at the same corner, opposite the site of today’s CTM bus station. Eric Audouin’s lessons were given in “building F”, on the rue de l’Horloge.
Sources: La Vigie marocaine, 21 March 1935 (p. 4), 27 March 1935 (p. 2), 29 September 1935 (p. 2); Le Petit Marocain, 26 September 1935 (p. 2), 19 February 1937 (p. 5), 22 October 1938 (p. 4), 16 September 1939 (p. 4), all on Gallica. Translations from the French are ours.