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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2010 5:20:19 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on May 1, 2010 6:27:23 GMT
Great thread! The woman on the left, penultimate row, is so completely life-like!
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Post by Jazz on May 1, 2010 13:14:49 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2010 14:15:08 GMT
The woman on the left, penultimate row, is so completely life-like! Perhaps a bit bemused about her headgear.
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2010 17:24:46 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2010 17:28:00 GMT
The very first building in which I worked in Paris was American owned and had these 3 heads over the main windows. Would anybody like to give a guess as to what the building was?
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Post by bjd on May 1, 2010 18:10:18 GMT
Obviously somewhere to do with the military?
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Post by fumobici on May 1, 2010 19:39:51 GMT
Living in a town where the oldest buildings are hardly older than a century one misses out on all this exquisite architectural bric-a-brac.
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2010 22:08:23 GMT
It was American Legion Paris Post #1, bjd.
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2010 19:34:39 GMT
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Post by lagatta on May 9, 2010 22:42:06 GMT
What is the bottom trio (on reply #9 by kerouac)? It seems to represent ladies from different countries...
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Post by bixaorellana on May 10, 2010 0:49:58 GMT
They are SO wonderful, as are the two heads, a faun and ~?~, above them.
LaGatta, do this: hold down Control as you click repeatedly on the + button. You should be able to click about a dozen times. It will magnify them greatly. They are totally beautiful and I think you're right about their representing countries. I'm guessing the middle one is supposed to be China because of her eyes, headdress and fan, the one on the right appears to have a tulip in front of her which, along with the headress, makes me think Holland. The one on the left seems to have a veil across her chin, and the sunflowers must be a clue.
Hold down control and hit the 0 (zero) button to return to normal size.
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Post by lagatta on May 10, 2010 2:09:01 GMT
Sunflowers would indicate northeastern Europe: Russia, Ukraine or Poland. I can't seem to do as you say- remember I'm on a Mac. I may try elsewhere on a PC I also work on.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 10, 2010 2:38:46 GMT
What really gets me about some of the heads is that they were executed with such care and must surely be modeled on real people. The idealized heads are also beautifully done, but it's the "real" ones that intrigue me, not least because some of these figures must be where they can't easily be seen. Kerouac, are some of these more visible as photo images than they are with the naked eye?
Jazz, all the sea creatures in #2 are fabulous. Where was that taken?
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2010 5:13:12 GMT
What is the bottom trio (on reply #9 by kerouac)? It seems to represent ladies from different countries... The heads represent continents rather than countries. Here is a complete article (in French) about the building, which is currently the headquarter of HSBC France. But they sold the building to Qatar last year, and in about two years HSBC will leave and it will be converted into a shopping mall and luxury hotel (again).
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2010 5:18:04 GMT
Yes, Bixa, without a zoom lens, you can't really see a lot of this stuff.
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Post by lagatta on May 10, 2010 10:48:38 GMT
Merci bien! Oh drat, still more time to be wasted poring over the Net. A blog on art nouveau architecture in Paris? I could spend weeks reading that. Edited to add: I've already found something interesting - this profile relief of a working-class family a century ago adorning une Habitation bon marché - social housing, the ancestor of HLMs (not all of which are horrible slums, by the way). Indeed this attractive building would be a big improvement in ordinary people's lives. Kerouac, would these flats have had plumbing? paris1900.blogspot.com/2007/09/5-7-rue-ernest-lefvre-20e.htmlSome of these old HBMs are very attractive indeed. Click on the photo of the people to make it big. (I'm not awake yet - I made an error in French and another in English!)
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Post by lola on May 10, 2010 16:06:21 GMT
Wonderful, K.
bjd, what are those on #6? Hercules, I guess, in the lion's skin.
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2010 16:47:56 GMT
Yes, lagatta, I think that those buildings were built with plumbing -- giving people bathrooms and water closets was one of the main objectives of public housing at the turn of the last century.
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Post by lola on May 10, 2010 16:59:52 GMT
Too bad they didn't all use marble, instead of messing around with wash-away limestone.
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Post by lagatta on May 10, 2010 17:14:08 GMT
Where, in the public housing building? Marble would have been over their budget.
WCs and baths would have made a huge difference in people's lives and public hygiene. I wonder if they had any lighting?
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Post by lola on May 10, 2010 17:25:25 GMT
Marble baths for the masses! No, sorry; I mean for the sculpted heads.
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2010 17:42:16 GMT
Yes, they had electricity.
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Post by lagatta on May 10, 2010 17:47:58 GMT
That would have been paradise for a working-class family in Paris circa 1900.
And aren't some of the heads just plaster?
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2010 6:46:57 GMT
I'm sure that there are heads made out of every conceivable building material. Everybody knows that "plaster of Paris" (does anybody still use that?) doesn't last forever.
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Post by bjd on May 11, 2010 6:55:57 GMT
Lola, those heads are on a building in the main square of Lviv, now in Ukraine, but formerly Lwow in Poland, and also Lemberg in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The main square dates mostly from the 16th-17th century and the houses were aristocratic residences.
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Post by lola on May 11, 2010 13:59:00 GMT
Thanks, bjd. Lwow. Mysterious.
The kind of plaster used outside has cement mixed in to make it more weather resistant. They used to mine gypsum in Montmartre, crush it, mix it with a few other things, and plaster it on.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2010 18:49:28 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2010 18:51:34 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2010 19:52:32 GMT
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