VICTOR BALTARD (1805-1874)

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Lot n° 214
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Result : 11 376EUR
VICTOR BALTARD (1805-1874)
MEDAL OF THE FRONTON OF THE MONUMENTAL DOOR OF THE WHEAT AND FLOUR PAVILION OF THE CENTRAL HALLS OF PARIS Important circular bas-relief with the coat of arms of the City of Paris, surrounded by oak leaves, surmounting the motto "Fluctuat nec mergitur". Cast iron. c. 1860. Diameter : 90 cm. PROVENANCE. Demolition site of several pavilions of the Halles Centrales, in 1971-1973, directed by the Crucy company. Kept in the Crucy family until today. REFERENCE. - A similar medallion, the only known surviving example, which was in the collection of Madame Roxane Debuisson, is in the permanent collection of the Musée Carnavalet, Paris. - Victor Baltard, le fer et le pinceau, Exhibition, 16 October 2012 - 13 January 2013, Musée d'Orsay, Paris. BIBLIOGRAPHY Victor BALTARD, Les Halles centrales de Paris construites sous le règne de Napoléon III, A. Morel et Cie, 1863. VICTOR BALTARD (1805-1874) MÉDAILLONS DES HALLES CENTRALES DE PARIS As part of the remodeling of Paris, desired by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Baron Georges Eugène Haussmann, Prefect of the Seine, launched a project to transform the Halles, which was one of the lungs of the commercial and economic activity, in the middle of a labyrinth of congested and overcrowded streets. Victor Baltard, architect of the City of Paris, winner of the Grand Prix de Rome, associated with Félix Callet, won the architectural competition launched in 1848. Initially, the project validated by the administration provided for a stone construction with almost enclosed premises. A first pavilion was built in September 1851 opposite the church of Saint-Eustache. It was nicknamed "le Fort de la Halle", a play on words evoking its massive character and the nickname of the Halles' handlers. Following a visit on June 12, 1853, Napoleon III asked that the work be stopped and that a metal construction system be adopted. Enthused by the recently built Gare de l'Est and the new Crystal Palace erected for the London World's Fair in 1851, he would have said to the prefect: "These are vast iron umbrellas that I need, nothing more!" The architect then developed a new project based on cast iron and iron. The zenithal light and the air purification allowed by large openings were to win the Emperor's approval. Begun in 1853, the construction was divided into two phases: the first until 1858, with the erection of six pavilions; the second continued from 1860 to 1889, with four other pavilions. Described as the "Belly of Paris" by the writer Émile Zola, the Halles is organized in a vast architectural complex of ten pavilions, opened on the street by ten monumental doors of nearly twenty meters high. Each of these doors is decorated with three medallions, the highest one systematically featuring the coat of arms of the City of Paris. The medallions were all designed by Victor Baltard, whose talent as a draughtsman is as much admired as his talent as an architect. The reproductions of the architectural plans, catalogued in the Monographie des Halles Centrales de Paris, show the diversity of the medallions, specific to the function of their pavilion. The twentieth century will have reason for this masterpiece, whose success is nevertheless prodigious (the architect will be inspired to design the slaughterhouses of La Villette, which remained). A thousand and one pretexts were put forward to decide on the destruction: that of the necessary displacement from Paris to the periphery of the activity of the halles, which were suffocating in the center of the city, or the construction of an underground station for suburban trains. Yet the buildings could have been maintained and used as a neighborhood market or cultural space. The first six pavilions were destroyed in 1971. The protest was strong. However, two years later, the complete demolition was completed. One pavilion, that of eggs and flour, is classified as a historical monument and installed in Nogent-sur-Marne. The upper part of another is installed in the Harbor View park in Yokohama, Japan. The materials of the other pavilions are sold at scrap price. One of the contractors in charge of the demolition, Mr. Crucy, saved the two medallions that we present, from the wheat and flour pavilion. The Halles de Baltard gave way to an underground shopping mall as banal as it was low-ceilinged, topped by uninteresting buildings and a concrete garden. This mall was recently partly destroyed, replaced on the surface by sad smoked glass buildings covered with an expensive roof, pompously entitled La Canopée. For good measure, the garden was further concreted and furnished with urban furniture for desperate walkers.
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