What Is the Origin of the Bellas Artes Metro Station Name

When I traveled to Paris in the 1980s every bit a teenager, I fell madly in love with the Métro entrances. In retrospect, that visit must have been my first come across with Art Nouveau. The appearance of the organic shapes and 'triffid-similar' lamp poles never left my retentiveness. Decades later on, when I started blogging about Art Nouveau, the Paris Métro became my 'gorilla in the room'. This element of our Fine art Nouveau heritage was só obvious to me that it never occured to me to write almost information technology. However, as I discovered plentiful black and white pictures of demolished Métro entrances, I figured those would be actually worth sharing. And then here we are, at last…

Porte Dauphine Métropolitain Paris by Hector Guimard, 1902

Le Métropolitain or Le Métro

Fulgence Bienvenüe

The history of the Paris Métro began in the mid-nineteenth century, when the assistants of the city of Paris, to decongest surface traffic, began to remember of an underground métropolitan train. It took another half century for the project to commence under the force per unit area of the imminent 1900 Exposition Universelle. In 1896 Paris city officials selected Fulgence Bienvenüe (1852-1936) to become chief engineer for the Paris Métro and on the 9th of July 1897 his plans were approved. The projection was declared of public utility with a law dated 30 March 1898 and the works began on the 4th of Oct that aforementioned twelvemonth. The get-go line was inaugurated without much ceremony on 19 July 1900, during the Exposition Universelle. The subway was a hit from day i.

As with all subway systems, Métro entrances were to exist designed visible too as recognisable. Yet, to alleviate the public's fright that they would mar the cityscape with an industrial appearance, the CMP (Compagnie du Chemin de Fer Métropolitain de Paris) launched a design competition. They were careful to avoid criticism. Subsequently all, in 1886 Charles Garnier, architect of the Opera, had declared in a letter to the minister of public works that:

The metropolitan railroad, in the eyes of about Parisians, will simply be excused if it rejects absolutely all industrial character so as to be completely a work of art. Paris must non be made into a manufacturing plant, it must stay a museum.

Hector Guimard 1907

The new entrances were stipulated to be "as elegant as possible but higher up all very light, prioritising fe, drinking glass and ceramic". The winner of the contest was Henri Duray. Yet his designs were all as well bulky and unoriginal and CMP'due south president, Adrien Bénard, proposed the young architect Hector Guimard (1867-1942). Although Guimard did not compete, he drew two types of entrances, kiosks and more than simple entourages. Equanimous of cast iron, the elements were modular and made it possible to build entrances of variable dimensions. Despite several disagreements (particularly financial) Hector Guimard'due south cast iron Fine art Nouveau entrances – made by the foundry of Val d'Osne – were installed. 80-six are still in existence, most one-half of the original collection.

Guimard'due south Paris Métro Entrances

Guimard used cast iron set in concrete both to reduce costs and to suit the sinuous Art Nouveau forms; the cast iron was painted in a dark-green emulating weathered bronze. The standardized components, including railing cartouches incorporating the letter of the alphabet "M" and signs in Guimards distinctive lettering reading "Métropolitain" or, at narrow entrances, "Métro", gave the system its distinctive identity.

Metropolitain Sign Photograph © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d'Orsay) Hervé Lewandowski (enamelled cast iron)

Guimard designed 3 different types of entrances

• Pavilions, known equally pagode (station, including waiting rooms)
• Glass canopies, known as édicule A and édicule B (kiosk)
• Bandage iron balustrades, known equally entourage  (enclosure)

Virtually spectacular were of course the pavilions! I find it fascinating to run into how much Guimard was influenced by Japanese pagodas! Unfortunately, non everybody liked them. And equally presently every bit Fine art Nouveau started to lose its charm, all three pavilions (Étoile Station, its electrical substation on the other side of Avenue de Wagram, and Bastille station) were demolished. Étoile already in 1926, Bastille followed in 1962.

Well-nigh as spectacular were his glass-covered "dragonfly" kiosks, some of which were decorated with wall panels in reconstituted lava. Guimard first designed a prototype, known as Édicule A. Two of those kiosks were installed, at Saint-Paul and Reuilly-Diderot. However, equally these kiosks were judged not spectacular enough, Guimard went back to the drawing board and designed an Édicule B. That type was installed at Portes Maillot, Vincennes, Porte Dauphine, Argentine republic (Obligado), and Nation. (At some stations, there was a kiosk on both sides of the route)

Porte Reuilly-Diderot Métropolitain édicule A

Porte St. Paul Métropolitain édicule A

Édicule A had ii essential differences compared to édicule B: a classic roof with a left and right slope, and the square bottom. In add-on, a glaze of artillery with the arms of the Urban center of Paris adorned the pediment of these kiosks. Édicule B had a round flooring programme, and three instead of four pillars to hold a iii-sided glass-roofed structure (resembling a dragonfly) enclosing the stairway.

Porte Dauphine Métropolitain édicule B

Porte Maillot Métropolitain édicule B

Porte Nation Métropolitain édicule B

Porte Obligado Métropolitain édicule B

From the beginning, voices were raised to criticize Guimard's kiosks. Not as much for their aesthetics equally for their massiveness. Guimard therefore designed two new models of covered surrounds, directly inspired by the kiosks. Yet he removed the enamelled lava panels and the glazing, replacing the lower part with balustrades of cast iron shields.

Porte Hotel de Ville Métropolitain

The model installed at Hôtel de Ville, derived from the édicule A (Saint-Paul, Reuilly-Diderot) is therefore square-bottomed. A model derived from édicule B (Porte Dauphine), with a rounded bottom, was installed at Gare de Lyon. These two types of covered entrances, little appreciated by the administration, were simply built once. At Gare de Lyon the glass roof would be removed in 1943, while the archway at Hôtel de Ville would be completely dismantled in 1974, and relocated to Abbesses.

Porte Gare de Lyon Métropolitain

Only 2 of all x édicules even so exist: at Porte Dauphine and Abbesses. Porte Dauphine was inaugurated on 13 Dec 1900, registered as a historic monument in May 1978 and completely restored in October 1999 for the celebrations of the centenary of the Paris Métropolitain. Abbesses opened on 30 January 1913. Equally said earlier, the awning was originally located at Hôtel de Ville until it was moved to the Montmartre district in 1974. A replica of the édicule at Abbesses was installed at Châtelet station in 2000.

Porte Breguet-Sabin Métropolitain enclosure

The métro entrances consisting only of cast iron balustrades and lamp posts were by far the well-nigh numerous. And of this type we can find the nearly remaining entrances today. The balustrades are decorated with organic whiplash motifs and floral cartouches. The Métropolitain sign is held upward by two orangish moulded 'blossom buds' atop sinuously curved cast-iron lampposts in the shape of found stems. The proper noun of the station, and the give-and-take METROPOLITAIN are written in a font designed by Hector Guimard himself.

Graphics for the entourage sign 1901 – Photograph © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d'Orsay) Tony Querrec

In the spirit of cultural commutation several of the iconic Guimard entrances have been given to other cities. The only original one outside Paris is at Square-Victoria-OACI station in Montreal. Replicas bandage from the original moulds have been given to Lisbon (Picoas station), Mexico City (Metro Bellas Artes) and Chicago (Van Buren Street). Moscow has a Guimard entrance at Kievskaya station, there is an entrance on display at the Sculpture Garden in Downtown Washington, D.C., the New York Museum of Mod Art has an original restored Guimard archway outdoors in their Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden and at that place is one at the Toledo Museum of Fine art in Ohio.

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Cast Iron Cartouche Métropolitain Paris with "M"

Guimard'due south use of Enamelled Lava

Quite early on in his career, Guimard became fascinated past the properties of enamelled lava rock: remarkable conditions, frost and acid resistance. Guimard turned to the Gillet company, which is historically linked to its discovery and exploitation. In 1882, François Gillet innovated by creating reconstituted lava for which he practical for a patent. The process involved grinding natural lava (two parts) and adding cements (one office) and dirt (i part) to obtain a plastic paste which could be pressed into a mould before firing and enameling.

Plate 62 from the Castel Béranger Anthology (detail) 1898

The commencement time Guimard practical this enamelled lava seems to exist in the interior blueprint for Castel Béranger, around 1897-1898. He used it for a chimney that was installed at Castel Béranger, in Guimard's own architectural office. Afterwards the same chimney was installed at Castel Henriette (1899-1903). (In postcard nr. 10 beneath the 'green' plates inserted in the cast atomic number 26 burn down place are of enamelled lava)

Panels of reconstituted enamelled lava, external face, Porte Dauphine

Guimard seems to take liked this mouldable enamelled lava stone a lot because immediately after his experience with the fireplace, he practical the cloth on the façade of the Hôtel Roy in 1898. Then followed a major projection: the outside and interior decoration of the house of ceramic merchant Louis Coilliot in Lille. A second major order involving enamelled lava is that of the Paris metro (1900-1903).

Panels of reconstituted enamelled lava, internal confront

Le Fashion Métro or Le Style Guimard

The Guimard entrances received a generally warm reception. By fashion of what became known as Le style Métro, they popularized Art Nouveau in France. Merely the mode would also be called Le style Guimard and Guimard himself was promoting this by means of a serial of postcards of his completed works! Nevertheless, modernization later World State of war I led to the demolition of many, specially the more elaborate of his Métro entrances. Shortly earlier World State of war II, it was even suggested that those remaining should be scrapped for their metal. Clearly, Art Nouveau was out of fashion.

Le Style Guimard Postcard nr. 10 – Hector Guimard

Back in 1894, Guimard had met the Belgian architect Paul Hankar, who recently completed his own townhouse. It was one of the first examples of Art Nouveau, in Brussels. The post-obit year, Guimard had traveled to Brussels where he met Victor Horta. The gentlemen adult a close correspondence and Guimard expressed not bad adoration. He was highly moved when he visited Horta'south Tassel house, completed two years earlier and often considered the start Art Nouveau building. Like Guimard, Horta was looking to nature for inspiration in modern architecture, and he told Guimard that he preferred, when looking at a plant, to cutting off the flower and concentrate on the stalk, the essential construction. So fifty-fifty though Guimard liked to refer to Art Nouveau as Le Style Guimard, he certainly took some of his inspiration from elsewere!

Model of the sign support of the metropolitan environment – Photo ©RMN-M Palais (Musée d'Orsay) René-Gabriel Ojéda

Like Horta, Guimard mastered the sinuous line. Like no-1 else he could draw a 3D shape that resembled nature as nature was supposed to exist. Drawings I found in museum collections are simply stunning. And it is only just that Guimard'southward work is slowly being revalued. In 1992, the 125^th ceremony of his nativity, the Musée d'Orsay devoted a large bear witness solely to Guimard and some of the first monographs devoted solely to the architect appeared in that decade. The year 2000 saw a flood of publications commemorating 100 years since 1900, that year's Exposition Universelle in Paris, and, by extension, Art Nouveau. And last but non least, a society known every bit Le Cercle Guimard, made up mostly of Art Nouveau enthusiasts in French republic, actively promotes his legacy. The Cercle aims to create a Guimard Museum in Paris, preferably at the Hôtel Mezzara – currently vacated and in the process of being sold – at 60 rue de la Fontaine. The association has begun working towards acquiring the mansion to convert it into a living testimony to the builder.

Maison Coilliot in Lille

Continue Reading:
DecArts Podcast: Parsons-Cooper Hewitt Chief's candidate about Hector Guimard
Hector Guimard: Art Nouveau to Modernism
La lave émaillée Gillet « façon Guimard »
Le Cercle Guimard – l'Art nouveau du métro
Listing of all remaining métro entrances by Guimard
Paris Insiders Guide
Paris Perfect
Series of old postcards of the Paris Métro in the 1900s
The Art Story – Hector Guimard Biography
The Beauty of Send
The Epidemic of Faux Statuary Subway surrounds in the U.s.
Why Paris' Greatest Fine art Nouveau Metro Stop Is No More
Wikipedia near the Paris Métro
Wikipedia about the Paris Métro Compages
Wikipedia about Paris Métro entrances by Hector Guimard
www.hguimard.fr
www.lartnouveau.com – artistes – Guimard

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