René Binet – Page 2 – { feuilleton }

Le Manoir a l’Envers

The only place of amusement which was an unqualified success was Le Manoir a l’Envers (The Upside-Down Manor). One entered this building through the roof. The furniture was suspended in the air and in the drawing-room people could walk round a chandelier whose lamps illuminated their feet; through the ventilator holes of the cellar there was a view of the surrounding district.

Philippe Jullian, The Triumph of Art Nouveau (1974).

A slight return to the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900; don’t think you escape so easily. Complaints will be referred to the word “obsessions” at the top of this page.

To date this is the only decent picture I’ve seen of the Upside-Down Manor and I’ve yet to find a credit for the architect. This seems surprising considering Philippe Jullian’s remarks about the success of the attraction but something of this nature wouldn’t feature prominently in the official guides or catalogues. Most of the printed matter produced for the exposition exudes the high seriousness of nations posturing and preening before each other, frivolities and entertainments were pushed to the margins.

For more upside-down houses, go here.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Suchard at the Exposition Universelle
• Esquisses Décoratives by René Binet
• Le Palais de l’Optique, 1900
• Exposition Universelle films
• Exposition jewellery
• Exposition Universelle catalogue
• Exposition Universelle publications
• Exposition cornucopia
• Return to the Exposition Universelle
• The Palais Lumineux
• Louis Bonnier’s exposition dreams
• Exposition Universelle, 1900

Suchard at the Exposition Universelle

A pair of adverts from the Guide Lemercier for the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900, available as either a PDF or individual page scans at the University of Heidelberg’s archive. This looks like it would have been a very usable guide, with coloured maps and a good selection of photographs. The Suchard adverts provide splashes of colour throughout and this is the only guide I’ve seen to date which favours a single company this way. The space for notes on each ad page is rather generous as well as being something you can’t imagine anyone trying now.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Esquisses Décoratives by René Binet
• Le Palais de l’Optique, 1900
• Exposition Universelle films
• Exposition jewellery
• Exposition Universelle catalogue
• Exposition Universelle publications
• Exposition cornucopia
• Return to the Exposition Universelle
• The Palais Lumineux
• Louis Bonnier’s exposition dreams
• Exposition Universelle, 1900

Esquisses Décoratives by René Binet

The work of French architect and designer René Binet (1866–1911) has been featured here before with one of his most famous creations, the monumental gate he designed for the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900. Philippe Jullian in his 1974 book about the exposition, The Triumph of Art Nouveau, calls the gate the “Porte Binet” and also notes that it was referred to as “the Salamander” for its resemblance to the salamander stoves of the period.

The reference to nature is apt, albeit for a different reason, since it was Ernst Haeckel’s Kunst-Formen der Natur which Binet used as inspiration for his designs, the encrustation on the gate being based on Haeckel’s studies of shell forms. This influence was developed four years later in Binet’s Esquisses Décoratives, a series of speculative designs which applied Haeckel’s work to architecture and interior design as a whole; the Porte Binet can be seen on the title plate above and the print there seems to have been either signed by or dedicated to Haeckel.

Art Nouveau design is usually thought of in terms of the curvaceous style derived from Alphonse Mucha and others, but there were several designers of the period looking to nature for inspiration in a way which went beyond William Morris’s application of plant forms to flat surfaces. Binet’s lamp designs below show how Haeckel’s sea-life could be transmuted into enclosures for electric lights. These designs hint at a direction which went unexplored in the 20th century; the Art Nouveau style was steadily vulgarised after the Exposition Universelle until it was replaced altogether by the development of Art Deco following the First World War. Binet went on to design the extension of the Paris department store, Printemps, but his huge Art Nouveau atrium was later destroyed by fire.

There aren’t many examples of Binet’s designs on web pages, the ones here are from this Flickr set and a vintage print seller. There is a recent study of Binet’s work available, however, René Binet: from Nature to Form by Olaf Breidbach. For an idea of how an entire city based on Haeckel might look, we have Schuiten and Peeters’ imaginary metropolis of Blossfeldtstad whose “Vegetalistic” architecture was featured in an earlier post.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Le Palais de l’Optique, 1900
• Exposition Universelle films
• Exposition jewellery
• Exposition Universelle catalogue
• Exposition Universelle publications
• Exposition cornucopia
• Return to the Exposition Universelle
• The Palais Lumineux
• Louis Bonnier’s exposition dreams
• Exposition Universelle, 1900

Return to the Exposition Universelle

Main entrance gate by René Binet.

I can’t leave the 1900 Paris exposition alone, and with good reason. If further proof were required that this event brought Winsor McCay’s Slumberland to earth for a few weeks, this stunning Brooklyn Museum Flickr set has the evidence. Not only five pages of high-resolution views but they’re all hand-tinted which adds to the splendour and highlights the ladies’ parasols.

For earlier posts on the Exposition Universelle, see the links below. Via Things Magazine.

Esplanade des Invalides.

Palace of Electricity.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Palais Lumineux
• Louis Bonnier’s exposition dreams
• Exposition Universelle, 1900
• The Palais du Trocadéro
• The Evanescent City
• Winsor McCay’s Hippodrome souvenirs