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picture (from the 1970s) courtesy of the author of weblog Chtitine (not available anymore) |
Above picture was taken in the 1970s when the photographer traveled in the north of France and passed the small community of le Doulieu (west of Lille) on her way to Belgium.
Life and works
The picture shows the wooden models created by Jean-Baptiste Bouriez.
Bouriez worked in agriculture and began his creative activity around 1952. His models were displayed in the not very large space in front of his house along the Grande Rue (at the same time the D18 departmental road) that crosses the village.
One will recognize an Eiffel tower. The site also had models of the Notre Dame in Paris, the local church in le Doulieu and the lighthouse at le Havre. It would take Bouriez much time to repaint the items, which he did every springtime.
When the first version of this post was published in December 2011, the internet only had limited biographical information about Bouriez. Likewise, above picture is one of the very few I could trace on the web. Another picture, made by Francis David, shown below, was on the weblog of Jean-Michel Chesné.
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this photo (1983) © Francis David and © Lille Art Museum from the website Habitants-paysagistes (first published March 2018) |
The site has been destroyed
It's not clear when this has happened, but probably after Bouriez died (in the 1990s ?) the site has been destroyed. All models have disappeared and currently nothing has been left of this environment.
Documentation
* Short article and some pictures in Francis David, Guide de l'art insolite: Nord/Pas de Calais, Picardie. Paris (Herscher), 1984 (occasionally available antiquarian)
* Website Habitants-paysagistes (Lille Art Museum, from March 2018 on) has a series of pictures of the site (1983) made by Francis David
first published December 2011, last revised July 2024
Jean-Baptiste Bouriez
Maquettes
(formerly) Grande Rue
le Doulieu, dept Nord, region Hauts-de-France, France
site has been demolished
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