Winsor McCay – Page 2 – { feuilleton }

Exposition Universelle catalogue

Regular visitors here will know that the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900 is never far away, and this is another addition to the surfeit of information about that event. Following last week’s delve into University of Heidelberg’s digital archives—which I really ought to have properly investigated when I first looked at them last year—I’ve been going deeper into their collection which isn’t always easy when many parts of the site are German-only. One section is devoted to books from 19th century expositions with a sub-section of works concerned with the Exposition Universelle.

The Palace of Electricity.

Among various publications they have the lavish three-volume exposition catalogue which is a real treat to see, not least for its quality. Much of the content is familiar from other books but new views of these remarkable Winsor McCay-like structures are always welcome.

The three volumes are here, here and here.

Main entrance gate.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Exposition Universelle publications
• Exposition cornucopia
• Return to the Exposition Universelle
• The Palais Lumineux
• Louis Bonnier’s exposition dreams
• Exposition Universelle, 1900
• The Palais du Trocadéro
• The Evanescent City

Further tales from the Obscure World

L’enfant penchée.

We’re at the penultimate post in this week-long tribute to the Cités Obscures series of François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters, and there isn’t enough space left to cover some of the more recent volumes in detail. What follows is a quick skate through three more major works.

L’enfant penchée.

L’enfant penchée (1996), or The Leaning Child, is an expanded version of a 1995 children’s story by Schuiten and Peeters, Mary la penchée. Mary is the young daughter of wealthy industrialists from Mylos struck down one day by some cosmic calamity which shifts her centre of gravity, causing her to permanently lean at an apparently impossible angle. When she’s bullied at school she runs away and joins a circus. A meeting with scientists and astronomers leads to a resolving of her affliction, and the repairing of her ruined life. This is a fascinating story for a number of reasons, not least the existence of a parallel narrative taking place in our world which is conveyed using photographs, and which unveils some of the metaphysical aspects of the Obscure World. The story of Mary is also flawlessly drawn. Schuiten uses a black-and-white style modelled on the work of old magazine illustrators like Franklin Booth, and there are further references to Winsor McCay and Jules Verne.

Continue reading “Further tales from the Obscure World”

La route d’Armilia by Schuiten & Peeters

Ferdinand and Hella look down on the skyscrapers of Brüsel.

La route d’Armilia (1988) by François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters is the next substantial story in the Cités Obscures series after La Tour; there was also a book about transportation in the Obscure World, L’Encyclopédie des transports présents et à venir, published the same year. La route d’Armilia is the book where Schuiten and Peeters’ Jules Verne influence comes to the fore, with the story of a young boy whose name is derived from Verne characters, Ferdinand Robur Hatteras, undertaking an airship journey to Armilia at the Obscure World’s northern pole. As with the earlier L’archivist, this is mainly an excuse for Schuiten to demonstrate his prodigious architectural invention and draughtsmanship, although the story this time is more of a piece. The journey takes us from the city of Mylos—a dismal place of factories, chimneys and smoke, like one of the polluted cities of the early Industrial Revolution—over the cities of Porrentruy, Mukha, Brüsel, Bayreuth, Calvani, Genova and København. Each city is substantially different from the last, and one of the pleasures is seeing what the next stop along the way will be like.

left: the airship passes through the canyon streets of Porrentruy; right: in Brüsel a woman hangs perilously from a ledge. Acrobatics or accident, we never discover which.

Continue reading “La route d’Armilia by Schuiten & Peeters”

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

The Palais Lumineux

A final visit to the Exposition Universelle of 1900 with this photograph of the Palais Lumineux, a piece of period Chinoiserie built in the Champ de Mars close to the Eiffel Tower. I forget where I found this tinted view but Wikipedia has what appears to be the same photograph coloured so as to resemble a night scene.

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