December 29, 2011

Jean-Baptiste Bouriez, Maquettes / Models


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

this photo (1983) © Francis David and © Lille Art Museum
from the website Habitants-paysagistes (first published March 2018)

This photo became available to those interested in art environments when the Lille Art Museum in March 2018 on their new website Habitants-paysagistes published pictures from the collection donated by Francis David to the museum.

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

No comments:

Post a Comment