‘Left-Bankish’: meaning and origin

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The adjective Left-Bankish means: characteristic or reminiscent of the Left Bank (Rive Gauche in French), the part of Paris south of the River Seine, noted for its intellectual and artistic life.

This adjective occurs, for example, in the following from Come sit by the fire: Where to get cozy and warm on a winter day in Cleveland, published in The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio, USA) of Friday 26th January 2018 [page T6, column 1]:

Le Petit Triangle, 1881 Fulton Road, Ohio City; 216-281-1881: For an evening with cozy French flavor, there are few places as charming as the Left Bankish Le Petit Triangle Cafe, which pairs a nice wine list with quiches, crepes and other French favorites.

These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the adjective Left-Bankish that I have found:

1-: From the column New York Day by Day, by ‘O. O.’ McIntyre (1884-1938), published in many U.S. and Canadian newspapers on Wednesday 15th July 1936—for example in the Lafayette Journal and Courier (Lafayette, Indiana, USA) [page 6, column 6]:

NEW YORK, July 14.—The New York Public Library went very Left Bankish at the beginning of summer with its Open Air Reading Room and most New Yorkers regarded it with a smug little smile. How could a hurrying city such as this pause to pore over books during working hours?
But the off-shoot has been a singular success. It is smack back of the big library in Bryant Park with pert Vassar-like ladies 1 in charge. They have umbrellaed desks in front of the portable rows of books. There is no charge nor deposit. And free browsing a la The Seine Stalls.

1 Vassar College, in Poughkeepsie, New York, was initially an all-women’s college.

2-: From the column Comment of The Country, published in The Springfield Union (Springfield, Massachusetts, USA) of Saturday 4th January 1941 [page 6, column 7]:

Artist as Best-Dressed Man
From the Worcester Telegram

In the past, artists were known by the poor clothes they wore. They liked to dress that way. In the ateliers, it was smart to be sloppy. On the left bank, the best-dressed man was the one who looked as though he had been rolled in bread crumbs and fried in deep fat. Mimi, Sari, Fifi, and all those other girls who stepped out of the fireplace from the past, liked to be seen with the man who was dressed to look like a veal cutlet.
There has been a change. Bond salesmen look like artists and artists like bond salesmen. Peter Arno 2, artist, has been voted by a guild of tailors the first of the 10 best-dressed men. There is nothing left-bankish about Mr. Arno.

2 Peter Arno (Curtis Arnoux Peters, Jr. – 1904-1968) was a U.S. cartoonist.

3-: From the caption to the following photograph, from Push-Button Pictures By Yardley, published in The Sunday Sun (Baltimore, Maryland, USA) of Sunday 16th July 1950 [Magazine: page 10, column 1]:

SOME time ago Sun cartoonist Yardley read in a national magazine that Picasso, a Frenchman 3 who also makes his living by drawing and painting, was trying out a new art form—drawing with light. At the time, that novelty from the Left Bank of the Seine didn’t appeal too much to the man who once lived on the Right Bank of the Patapsco. But it stuck in his mind, and recently he decided to try it himself, just to see what would happen. These two pages show what happened.

First, a warmup exercise—and maybe it’ll help to wear a beret and some other togs that look a bit Left-Bankish.

3 Although he spent most of his adult life in France, the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) never took French citizenship.

4-: From the following advertisement, published in the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Virginia, USA) of Tuesday 11th September 1951 [page 9, column 7]:

FRENCH BERETS
magnificent in their fall tones!
“Norfolk’s Lowest Price” .98

ALL WOOL . . . soft supple, so very arty . . . so very left bankish! You’ll love the price, you’ll love the colors—choose yours in navy, brown, wine, green, red, white or black.

L. SNYDER
CHURCH STREET AT CITY HALL AVENUE

5-: From the Daily News (New York City, New York, USA) of Saturday 5th January 1952 [page C3, column 3]:

Rob the Right Bank

Paris, Jan. 4 (U.P.).—Two long-haired, left-bankish bandits, using a 1924 car that had to be cranked by hand, robbed a Paris bank of $26,000 today.

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