Another Lavirotte building

I have several times talked about “art nouveau” (Guimard and others). A couple of months ago, I made a post on « Ceramic buildings », presenting among others two buildings by one of the foremost “art nouveau” architects, Jules Lavirotte (1864-1928) (Example from Avenue Rapp on the left).

Very close to the large and nice Parc Monceau and its spectacular gates, on Avenue Messine (8th arrdt.), we can find another example of a Lavirotte building.

This one which has been recently renovated is some six years younger than the ones I showed last time and is not so “extreme” in its design (1907); the “art nouveau” had possibly already passed its fashion peak. There is not any coloured ceramic anymore but you can still find some rather extravagant glazed earthenware and some typical ironworks on the balconies.
The “signatures” of the architect and the sculptor responsible for the decorations are very typical for “art nouveau”,

... so is the mosaic street address.

You can find some of the pictures on my photo blog.











Extra news

Although I’m a happy metro user and walk a lot, I decided to invest in an additional means of locomotion. This is a modern version of the Solex, very popular in France in the 50’s and 60’s. Today’s version is electrically powered and is designed by Pininfarina.

Some ceramic buildings

Walking in area you would seldom visit, unless you live there, I found a building which is worth some attention (rue Belliard, 18th arrdt., see below). It was built in 1912 and the architect was Henri-Louis Deneux (1874-1969). He had his own apartment in the top floor and lived there his last thirty years. Apart from this building, Deneux hardly created any new buildings, but spent most of his active years to save and reconstruct the Reims Cathedral (the place where most French kings have been coroneted), seriously damaged during the First World War. This reminded me of some other remarkable ceramic buildings. Here you can see two buildings created 1900-01 (Avenu Rapp, 7th arrdt.), in a rather extreme “art nouveau” style by Jules Lavirotte (1864-1928). The façade, especially on one of them, has a very rich decoration, a mixture of vegetal and more or less erotic symbols (the entrance door - top picture - was almost “censored”). The last building I wanted to show today was built in 1903 (rue Franklin, 16th arrdt.) and the architect here is Auguste Perret (1874-1954). Perret later worked in a style, much closer to Le Corbusier. One of his major achievements was the reconstruction of Le Havre after the Second World War, much criticised in the beginning, but today in much higher esteem.
Perret is also the architect of one of Paris’ top theatres, often used for classical music, le Théatre-des-Champs Elysées (built 1913, Avenue Montaigne, 8th arrdt.) which also hosted the famous “Ballets Russes”.

You may possibly wish to refer to my previous posts on Guimard, Le Corbusier…

You can find some of the original photos from this post on my other blog, "Peter - photos".