La contribution de l’Art déco à la reconstruction des monuments historiques
The city of Arras, in the Pas-de-Calais department, was largely destroyed during the First World War. Thanks to its reconstruction, during the 1920s and 1930s, it became one of the North of France’s Art Deco laboratories, alongside the cities of Cambrai and Saint-Quentin. However, unlike these neigh...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fra |
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Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication
2025-04-01
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| Series: | In Situ |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/insitu/44441 |
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| Summary: | The city of Arras, in the Pas-de-Calais department, was largely destroyed during the First World War. Thanks to its reconstruction, during the 1920s and 1930s, it became one of the North of France’s Art Deco laboratories, alongside the cities of Cambrai and Saint-Quentin. However, unlike these neighbouring cities, the fame of Arras is based today on its emblematic buildings, the cathedral, the town hall, the squares and the Saint-Vaast Palace. These were all reconstructed under the direction of one of the head architects of the national historic monuments administration Pierre Paquet (1875-1959). These monuments overshadow the city’s private Art Deco architecture but also give a misleading impression of a city rebuilt in identical form. The reality is more complicated, and the head architect took pleasure in re-reading, reinterpreting and rationalising the pre-war buildings. The historic monuments of the city become receptacles for plural and extremely rich artistic creation bearing witness to the development of Art Deco. The Saint-Vaast Palace integrates the monumental decoration of Gustave Louis Jaulmes (1873-1959) taken from the festival hall of the 1925 Art Deco exhibition at Paris and, for the restored cathedral, Pierre Paquet brought together a host of artists he had met during that event. Wall painting, sculpture, silverwork and copperware offer examples of the renewal of the decorative arts between the two wars. Dominated by the architecture, these creative productions give subtle overall coherence to the monuments which still today characterise the image of the city. |
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| ISSN: | 1630-7305 |