{"id":12511,"date":"2015-01-20T11:40:27","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T10:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colleensparis.com\/?p=12511"},"modified":"2015-01-20T16:41:51","modified_gmt":"2015-01-20T15:41:51","slug":"exhibit-viollet-le-duc-visions-of-an-architect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-wptechsupport.com\/colleensparis\/2015\/01\/exhibit-viollet-le-duc-visions-of-an-architect\/","title":{"rendered":"Exhibit: Viollet-le-Duc, Visions of an Architect"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lady<\/a>My question to Christine, my French friend, was \u201cwould you like to see the Viollet-le-Duc exhibit\u201d? Her response was \u201cI have already seen it, all of the French will go to this exhibit\u201d. With French nationality, I was obliged to go, wasted no time and went. I marveled at the drawings and visions of Eug\u00e8ne Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc with the rest of the French at la Cit\u00e9 de l\u2019architecture & du patrimoine<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 (until March 9, 2015). I was already fascinated with the Notre-Dame de Paris renovator because of his unique signature left on the Paris cathedral.<\/p>\n

\"Statues<\/a>

Evangelists on Notre Dame;oOne looking at spire represents Viollet le Duc reviewing his work<\/p><\/div>\n

Viollet-le-Duc renovated the crumbling walls of and put his imprint on about one hundred French monuments, including V\u00e9zelay, Pierrefonds, Notre-Dame de Paris, Carcassonne, Saint-Sernin. The poster for the exhibition resembles a Pierre-Jules Hetzel edition of a Jules Verne novel. Cit\u00e9 gives no reason for the choice of cover but my guess is that like Jules Verne, Viollet-le-Duc was seen as a visionary with an active imagination; someone who saw the future.<\/p>\n

The exhibit has two objectives: An opportunity for the public to see for the first time a considerable quantity of newly acquired graphic drawings and writing and relate to the public the various facets of this temperamental artist. This retrospective exhibit (English and French explanations and labels) celebrates the\u00a0two hundredth anniversary of his birth.<\/p>\n

The themes of the exhibition are: A man of his times, Romanticism and voyages through France, his voyage throughout Italy, working on Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, architecture and the living organism (study of building, nature and human structure), restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris, the new d\u00e9cor, furnishings and decorative arts for the interior of Notre-Dame de Paris, understanding the Middle Ages through medieval architect thoughts to understand the French identity and its reason for being, Viollet-le-Duc\u2019s desire to write and teach and pass on his knowledge, his museum and legacy for comparative sculpture. I can highly recommend the magazine Beaux Arts<\/em> (hors-s\u00e9rie) on sale at the museum shop for 7,90 euros on the exhibit and Viollet-le-Duc. All of the signage and labels are in French and English.<\/p>\n

What I learned from the exhibit is that Eug\u00e8ne Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc<\/a> (1814-1879) was an artist, a climber and a very independent thinker. He grew up surrounded by an elite, influential society and absorbed the knowledge of artists, architects, writers, journalists, romantics and liberals, all concerned with conserving French monuments. Often the name of the writer Prosper M\u00e9rim\u00e9e<\/a>, first inspector-general of historical monuments in 1840, is mentioned in relation to Viollet-le-Duc. He was admired, detested, scorned. He was seen either as a savoir or a destroyer of medieval architecture.<\/p>\n

\"\u00abLa<\/a>

\u00abLa jonction au-dessus des Grands Mulets\u00bb. Aquarelle de 1869, Viollet-le-Duc<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

Interactive gargoyle drawing activity using paper, pencil and the shadows seen in the Camera Lucida<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the interactive activities at the exhibit is the Camera Lucida.<\/a> Using the optical device, draw the gargoyle on a piece of paper using the eye piece.<\/p>\n

Many of his drawings and models in the exhibit use nature, with its leaves, its swirls and its branches. The drawings predate and predict the movement, by almost fifty years, of Art Nouveau (Jugendstil in Germany, Modern in Russia, Modernisme in Catalonia\/Spain, Secession in Austria-Hungary and Stile Liberty in Italy).<\/p>\n

[gss ids=”12533,12530,12547,12548,12538,12534,12532,12531,12521″]<\/p>\n

Viollet-le-Duc was often in the Tuilleries palace because his father worked as a civil servant for building conservation. He attended the Friday salons of his other whose guests included the writer Marie-Henri Beyle Stendahl and literary critic, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve. This was the era of Romanticism, Hugo, English and German travelers on the Grand Tour. Without formal training, he learned everything by doing, being tutored, observation and having a vision and vivid imagination. When he returned from Italy he was hired to work immediately in a new field of service, preservation of historical monuments.<\/p>\n

Greatly influenced by his uncle, maternal uncle \u00c9tienne-Jean Del\u00e9cluze, who himself had been a student of David, was a journalist and an art critic. They undertook several voyages through France and Italy. The voyages played a fundamental role in architecture and restoration careers. The voyages attuned his eye to nature. He learned to combine “a positivistic<\/a> outlook, sensitivity and combined scientific observation with poetic vision.”<\/p>\n

Although it is not mentioned in the exhibit, Viollet-le-Duc left his signature on Notre-Dame de Paris. A sculpture represents him on the south side of the cathedral looking up at the spire. It acts as the signature of his work and represents the apostle, Saint Thomas, patron saint of architects.<\/p>\n

More of his designs and drawings in the Joconde portal<\/a> to the collections of the French museums.<\/p>\n

Cit\u00e9 de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine
\nViollet-le-Duc, les visions d’un architecte (until March 9, 2015)
\n1 Place du Trocad\u00e9ro et du 11 Novembre, 75016 Paris Metro: Trocad\u00e9ro
\nClosed Tuesday, January 1, May 1 and December 25
\nOpen 11 am to 7 pm; late Thursday 11 am to 9 pm<\/p>\n