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Paris Mansions & Apartments, 1893

Facades, Floor plans & Architectural Details

Dover Publications, Inc.

§ 1. Gélis-Didot's Purpose in Publishing Hôtels et maisons de Paris.

The one hundred plates of views, plans, and measured drawings contained in Hôtels et maisons de Paris (1893) present the reader with a cross-section of some of the most sophisticated recent domestic architecture in the French capital. The authors of the book, Pierre-Henri Gélis-Didot and Théodore Lambert, were both trained as architects, and their book was intended for the use of professionals, not for tourists or the general public. Many similar publications appeared in the nineteenth century, serving to disseminate ornamental motifs and model plans throughout Europe and farther afield. French buildings of the Belle Époque such as those reproduced in Hôtels et maisons de Paris inspired the architects who designed the opulent mansions lining Fifth Avenue in New York and the vast American country houses of the Gilded Age. The architects whose work is illustrated in these pages shaped a vision of architecture projected around the world through their involvement in universal exhibitions and in work for the most elite cultural establishments and commercial enterprises of fin-de-siècle Paris.

The choice of buildings illustrated in Hôtels et maisons de Paris is far from systematic, but gives a general sense of the character of elite residential buildings of the 1880s and early 1890s located on tony thoroughfares and in the more exclusive neighborhoods around the city. In his preface, Gélis-Didot explains that none of the buildings had been published when he began the project, and that each building represented either innovative solutions to contemporary design problems or incorporated newly developed materials and construction techniques. As the title indicates, the book illustrated private, single-family hôtel particuliers and multi-story apartment buildings [maisons de rapport or maisons à loyer]. Two structures of a non-residential nature round out the selection, a commercial building on the rue d'Uzès [plates 84-85] and an administrative building for the Compagnie des Chemins de fer de l'Est adjacent to the Gare de l'Est [plates 65-68]. What is perhaps most consistent in all these buildings is their modest height: the private, custom-designed houses never exceed five stories above a basement, while the tallest apartment building includes no more than seven stories under the roof.

Overall, Gélis-Didot believed that the architecture reproduced in Hôtels et maisons de Paris stood for the spirit of progress that animated contemporary European culture, his publication appearing between the two great Universal Expositions of 1889 and 1900 that showcased Paris to the world and demonstrated the technical and artistic sophistication of the French nation. Though the range of structures illustrated was limited almost exclusively to domestic architecture, it was felt that the design of such buildings required the greatest care in order to best accommodate the needs of modern urban life. The sites illustrated in Hôtels et maisons de Paris were highly constrained and sometimes irregular in form, necessitating that the architect develop intricate plans to accommodate the client's life-style and to capitalize on exorbitant land values. Simultaneously, the architect had to be mindful of expense and produce designs that were economical yet appropriate to both the neighborhood and the purpose of the building.

Evoking the important chapters on architecture in Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris (1830), Gélis-Didot described buildings as "stone books" in which the wealth and degree of civilization of their builders will be read by posterity. The type of architecture illustrated in Hôtels et maisons de Paris has been read in a number of ways during the past century; for his part, Gélis-Didot sought to capture what he described as a "happy transformation" in the decades prior to his publication, signaling a renewed vitality in the arts. Architects participated in this transformation by close attention to principles of construction, a subject Gélis-Didot felt had until recently been neglected in architectural education. When Hôtels et maisons de Paris appeared in 1893, iron was everywhere apparent in contemporary cities, permitting the construction of colossal structures for a range of new purposes. Brick (rarely used in Paris before the late nineteenth century) and glazed ceramic tile also afforded new possibilities to architects. Though the illustrations in Hôtels et maisons de Paris are black and white, many of the buildings incorporated vivid coloristic effects through contrasting materials and painted motifs which can only be appreciated on-site or in color photographs.

Gélis-Didot's embrace of modern industry and excitement at the possibilities offered by new techniques and materials were nothing new. From the 1840s, the architect and journalist César Daly promoted the salutary effects of technology on the development of architecture in the pages of the Revue générale de l'architecture et des travaux publics, one of the most influential professional journals of the nineteenth century. Similarly, the architect and theorist Eugène-Émmanuel Viollet-le-Duc wrote in his Entretiens sur l'architecture [Lectures on Architecture] (1858-72) about ways of integrating metal into all kinds of modern buildings and described new structural systems incorporating large expanses of glass and lightweight terracotta tile. Gélis-Didot's book demonstrates how by the end of the nineteenth century such ideas had become common currency in architectural discourse.

§ 2. Architects in Hôtels et maisons de Paris.

The 47 buildings illustrated in Hôtels et maisons de Paris are the work of some 31 contemporary French architects executed in a variety of historical styles. Listening to the polemics of modernist architects of the early twentieth century such as Le Corbusier, it is easy to be persuaded that the architecture of late nineteenth-century France represented little more than an incoherent hodge-podge of ornamental motifs applied to the surfaces of buildings. The types of façades illustrated by Gélis-Didot perfectly embody the concept of architectural "eclecticism," evoking a non-rigorous embrace of history regarded by critics as the principal impediment to the development of an appropriate style for the modern world. This historicizing approach to design is closely associated with the pedagogy of the École des Beaux-Arts, the elite state school of fine arts in Paris where architecture, painting, and sculpture were taught and which produced many of the most significant architects of nineteenth-century France. Gélis-Didot took it for granted that French architects of the late nineteenth century had mastered the repertoire of stylistic solutions offered by a close study of architectural history and placed little emphasis on this dimension of the buildings he chose to illustrate.

Many of the architects whose work appears in Hôtels et maisons de Paris were trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and three became members of that most elite of French cultural institutions, the Institut de France [Jean-Louis Pascal (1837-1920), Charles-Louis Girault (1851-1908), and Victor Laloux (1859-1937)]. Thus, while most of the names associated with the buildings illustrated by Gélis-Didot have little or no resonance today and some are totally forgotten, these designers should generally be regarded as among the vanguard of architects operating in France in the last decade of the nineteenth century. As students of the École des Beaux-Arts, four won of the prestigious grand prix de Rome competition, namely Julien Guadet (1834-1908; grand prix 1864), Pascal (1866), Laloux (1878), and Girault (1880). A fifth architect whose work figures in Hôtels et maisons de Paris, Jacques- René Hermant (1855-1930), came in second to Girault in the 1880 grand prix competition. At the time of the book's publication, Guadet, Laloux, and Pascal were all heads of ateliers where architecture students enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts received practical training as part of their formal education. Laloux, for example, was a chef d'atelier from 1890 to 1936, training over 600 French and foreign students in the course of his career. A comparable number of students probably passed through Pascal's atelier between 1872 and 1920. In addition to being a chef d'atelier, Guadet served as professor of architectural theory at the École des Beaux-Arts from 1894 to 1908 and authored a major textbook—his four-volume Éléments et théorie de l'architecture (1901-04).

Though the houses and apartments illustrated in Hôtels et maisons de Paris are relatively minor commissions, many of the architects were involved in more significant commercial and public work. Pascal, the dean of French architects at the moment Gélis-Didot's book appeared, succeeded Henri Labrouste as architect of the Bibliothèque Nationale (1875- 1912) and designed the wing encompassing the large oval reading room. Guadet, one of Charles Garnier's collaborators on the Opéra, designed the Central Post Office in Paris (1880-92) and oversaw the reconstruction of the Théâtre Français in the Palais Royal after it burned in 1900. Girault designed the Petit Palais (1897-1900) for the Universal Exposition of 1900 and served simultaneously as the coordinating architect for the construction of the Grand Palais. Hermant, who began his career working with his father Achille Hermant (1823-1903) on buildings such as the apartment houses illustrated in this book [plates 81, 90-92], was catapulted to fame when he won a competition to design the Caserne des Gardes Républicains on the Boulevard Henri IV (1890-1905). Hermant subsequently designed the French pavilion for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893) and produced a range of commercial buildings in Paris, most notably the opulent headquarters for the Société Générale banking establishment (1909-10). Laloux produced city halls for the towns of Roubaix and Tours, as well as what is perhaps now the most famous railway station in the world, the Gare d'Orsay (1898-1900), transformed into the Musée d'Orsay in the 1980s.

Other architects of major note whose works are represented in Hôtels et maisons de Paris are Lucien Magne (1849-1916), a student of the École des Beaux-Arts who worked with Laloux on the Gare d'Orsay and completed the basilica of Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre after the death of Paul Abadie in 1884. Charles Mewès (1858-1914), who studied under Pascal at the École des Beaux-Arts, went on to a brilliant international career in partnership with the English architect Arthur Joseph Davis (1878-1951), also one of Pascal's students. Together, Mewès and Davis designed the Ritz Hotels in London (1905-06), Madrid (1908-10), and Paris (1898), as well as the Royal Automobile Club on Pall Mall (1910) and luxury steam-ship interiors for the Hamburg-Amerika Line. Stephen Sauvestre ( 1847-1919), who received his formal education at the École spéciale d'architecture in Paris, was involved in the design of the Eiffel Tower ( 1887-89) and collaborated with Ferdinand Dutert on the design of the Gallerie des Machines for the Universal Exposition of 1889. Finally Paul Sédille (1836-1900) studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and is best known for designing the flagship building for the Magasins du Printemps on the Boulevard Haussmann (1882-85).

Though Le Corbusier characterized students of the École des Beaux-Arts as hothouse flowers incapable of accepting the advent of new technologies, a number of the architects represented in Gélis-Didot's book enthusiastically took up the use of iron, concrete, and other technical innovations in their work. Sédille's Printemps department store is perhaps the most obvious example of a new building type for a new form of merchandizing, incorporating large iron and glass vaults to light the interior spaces. Both Charles Mewès and Jacques Hermant drew inspiration from the heating, ventilation, and structural systems developed by American architects, the latter visiting Chicago in 1893, where he studied skyscraper technology at first hand. Working with Edmond Coignet, Hermant subsequently pioneered in the use of reinforced concrete in Paris around 1900.

§ 3. The Buildings in Hôtels et maisons de Paris.

The buildings illustrated by Gélis-Didot in Hôtels et maisons de Paris reveal little about new materials or construction techniques: they appear to be sophisticated exercises in style and in the careful planning of private interior spaces. Since the eighteenth century, French architects regarded the art of "distribution" or interior planning as one of their major contributions to modern architecture. Jacques-François Blondel, an influential teacher in eighteenth-century Paris, published a number of works illustrating the principles of distribution that remained authoritative well into the twentieth century. In The Decoration of Houses (1897), Edith Wharton cites Blondel's work among numerous other French publications on interior planning and design, leaving no doubt that at the time of writing France was the leading nation when it came to domestic architecture.

The complexity of interior distribution, especially in elite Paris residences, lay in properly accommodating a variety of conflicting functions ranging from the formal and intimate spaces occupied by members of the family to service spaces such as stables, kitchens, and laundries. The plans of elite residential buildings illustrated in Hôtels et maisons de Paris reveal the finely tuned techniques for separating the different individuals who occupied these buildings and for accommodating a range of specialized functions. Covered passages for carriages, courtyards separating the main house from service quarters, and such specialized spaces as winter gardens appear in many of the designs and speak to a heightened desire for comfort and privacy. Strategies employed for reinforcing class boundaries and providing for hygiene may be gleaned from close attention to the organization of spaces and circulation patterns in the building plans. Though these seem to be a minor element of the book, Gélis-Didot notes that the plans throughout are illustrated at the same scale for easy comparison and their individual rooms are labeled, making them legible to a trained eye.

One notable sub-category of residential building included in Hôtels et maisons de Paris are houses for artists, three of which may be identified. These buildings attest not only to the special interior spaces and distributions required for work, display, and the transaction of business, but also to the elevated social status enjoyed by elite artists whose residences spoke to their professional success. Gélis-Didot's collection opens with a house at 36 boulevard des Invalides designed by Charles Mewès, which happens also to have been the architect's own residence. The relatively modest exterior—embellished with Mannerist detailing such as rustication and exaggerated voussoirs—suggests a sixteenth- century Italian palazzo [plates 1-2]. The architect's studio and office were located on the ground floor of the building, adjacent to the main entrance. Mewès's house might be compared to Otto Wagner's exactly contemporary house and studio on the Renweg in Vienna (1889), an even more opulent statement of the architect's social ambitions and debt to Renaissance masters.

A similar statement of an artist's professional and social status is the house located at 61 rue Ampère designed for François Flameng (1856-1923), a hugely successful history painter, portraitist, and illustrator elected to the Institut de France in 1905 [plates 27-28]. Though the plans for this house only illustrate the first two floors, Flameng's large, brightly lit studio at the top of the building is apparent in the elevation. Gélis-Didot also illustrated a more modest artist's residence at 7 place des États-Unis [plate 33], which included two superimposed ateliers. The studio on the upper level is accessible both from within the house and by an "escalier des models" with a separate entrance, suggesting the careful segregation of the artist's models from the private domestic spaces. The building was occupied until 1907 by the portrait painter Julian Story ( 1857-1919), son of the American neoclassical sculptor William Wetmore Story, and was subsequently demolished for the construction of an apartment building.

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Excerpted from Paris Mansions & Apartments, 1893 by Pierre Gélis-Didot. Copyright © 2011 Christopher Drew Armstrong. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
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