Villeneuve-la-Garenne c1914
This is the view from the same viewpoint as the above postcard in 2015.
Villeneuve-la-Garenne 2015
Everything in Sisley's painting is now gone. The suspension bridge was replaced in 1903. All the other buildings probably went in the 1960s. Villeneuve-la-Garenne is now all skyscrapers apart from a few older houses along the Seine. The original inhabitants and their descendants have either moved away or they are resting in the graveyard in the photo shown below.
The suspension bridge in Sisley's painting was built in 1844. Before that Villeneuve-la-Garenne was just a tiny fishing hamlet.
Part of [Plan du terroir de] La Ville Neuve la Garenne 1750
I think plot 36 in the above map corresponds to the position of the buildings at the centre of Sisley's painting. The gap between the two main buildings with an older building set back between the gap certainly matches the painting and the postcards.
Villeneuve-la-Garenne 1800
This 1883 map shows that eleven years after Sisley's painting Villeneuve-la-Garenne was still just a scattering of houses next to the Seine. Even St Denis was still in the countryside.
Villeneuve-la-Garenne 1883
In the 1860s Villeneuve-la-Garenne and the area around Genevilliers became the "beneficiary" of an enormous amount of Paris sewage. It was pumped into the fields at a rate of eight hundred litres per second. The sewage increased the farmer's yields so I imagine they were grateful for it - especially as Paris had magnanimously declared there would be no charge for now - but I suspect the rest of the population were not so happy. I think there are veterans from the Korean war who are still traumatised by the stench of human waste spread on rice fields. It would have done nothing for the tourist trade in Villeneuve-la-Garenne.
In the following map the irrigated fields in green and the pipes in blue.
Irrigated fields around Villeneuve-la-Garenne in 1876
Gradually the village began to expand. In the photo below some buildings can be seen further back from the river.
Villeneuve-la-Garenne c1905
In January of 1910 the whole village was flooded. The increase in the height of the water can be seen in these two postcards. The two structures nearest the camera in the flood picture can be seen on the left of the second postcard where they are both well above the level of the river.
The tabac on the right in the photo below is the cream building in Sisley's painting. That tabac and the hotel opposite, which can be seen under and over the bridge in the painting, survived the flood and two world wars. They were probably thriving well into the 1960s.
Alas, this was all too French and too individualistic looking. The town planners - who were mainly communists - wanted to create a completely uniform environment where everything and everyone was easily controllable. People living in their towns would be like insects in a hive. This eyesore was an example of their brand new world.
That enormously long block of flats was called La Caravelle. Although the building's architect, Jean Dubuisson (1914-2011), won many prizes for this and other monstrosities in his long career the unfortunate inhabitants of La Caravelle were rather less appreciative. Tenant satisfaction in these places is usually measured by the number of stones thrown at the police each night. La Caravelle had a particularly high stone count.
Dubuisson's style of architecture was described as "totalitarian functionalism" by Roland Castro, the architect who changed La Caravelle in 2003 into smaller blocks of flats. I suspect Castro's comment was meant to be praise rather than disparagement. Castro was, and still may be for all I know, a Maoist. He is the leader of something called "The Movement of the Concrete Utopia". The ideology of this movement has been summarized in 89 principles. Just a glance at three of these principles gives one an idea of the nonsense and contractions in the other 86 : move towards world government (77), the citizens must rebel against the power of the state (88) and make famine illegal (17).
In 1997 Dubuisson blamed the failure of La Caravelle on the tenants. The managers of La Caravelle were "pas toujours très vigilants sur le choix des locataires." Dubuisson thought the tenants should be middle class, presumably with an appreciation of Corbusien aesthetics, rather than poor Third World immigrants.
There are Sisley paintings of places near me which have remained mainly unchanged for nearly 150 years and there are place like Villeneuve-la-Garenne that are changed completely. Why is one place conserved and another destroyed? The answer is that in the destroyed places power has been concentrated in the hands of a small group of utopian fanatics whereas in the conserved places there is really no one person in charge and change is allowed to happen gradually in accordance with the wishes of the majority. Villeneuve-la-Garenne had the same man in charge from 1953 to 1999. Mayor Roger Prévot (1914-1999) was like Croydon's Sir James Marshall. In the pursuit of progress they both destroyed their towns.
The tabac on the right in the photo below is the cream building in Sisley's painting. That tabac and the hotel opposite, which can be seen under and over the bridge in the painting, survived the flood and two world wars. They were probably thriving well into the 1960s.
Tabac and La Belle Gabrielle 1910s
Tabac 1920s
Tabac 1930s or 1940s
Tabac and La Belle Gabrielle 1950s
Alas, this was all too French and too individualistic looking. The town planners - who were mainly communists - wanted to create a completely uniform environment where everything and everyone was easily controllable. People living in their towns would be like insects in a hive. This eyesore was an example of their brand new world.
Villeneuve-la-Garenne1960s
Villeneuve-la-Garenne 1970s
That enormously long block of flats was called La Caravelle. Although the building's architect, Jean Dubuisson (1914-2011), won many prizes for this and other monstrosities in his long career the unfortunate inhabitants of La Caravelle were rather less appreciative. Tenant satisfaction in these places is usually measured by the number of stones thrown at the police each night. La Caravelle had a particularly high stone count.
Dubuisson's style of architecture was described as "totalitarian functionalism" by Roland Castro, the architect who changed La Caravelle in 2003 into smaller blocks of flats. I suspect Castro's comment was meant to be praise rather than disparagement. Castro was, and still may be for all I know, a Maoist. He is the leader of something called "The Movement of the Concrete Utopia". The ideology of this movement has been summarized in 89 principles. Just a glance at three of these principles gives one an idea of the nonsense and contractions in the other 86 : move towards world government (77), the citizens must rebel against the power of the state (88) and make famine illegal (17).
In 1997 Dubuisson blamed the failure of La Caravelle on the tenants. The managers of La Caravelle were "pas toujours très vigilants sur le choix des locataires." Dubuisson thought the tenants should be middle class, presumably with an appreciation of Corbusien aesthetics, rather than poor Third World immigrants.
There are Sisley paintings of places near me which have remained mainly unchanged for nearly 150 years and there are place like Villeneuve-la-Garenne that are changed completely. Why is one place conserved and another destroyed? The answer is that in the destroyed places power has been concentrated in the hands of a small group of utopian fanatics whereas in the conserved places there is really no one person in charge and change is allowed to happen gradually in accordance with the wishes of the majority. Villeneuve-la-Garenne had the same man in charge from 1953 to 1999. Mayor Roger Prévot (1914-1999) was like Croydon's Sir James Marshall. In the pursuit of progress they both destroyed their towns.
Excellent work, thanks.
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ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this! I love to look at very old photographs or old paintings and then go in search of their exact locations and evidence of how those places look in the present. Today I chose the Sisley painting and I was beyond thrilled to find THIS! What a magnificent piece of work you've done - I have spent the past 45 minutes studying the photos/postcards and comparing them to the painting and to one another. I'm about to embark on a closer study of the maps.
ReplyDeleteI usually find it so satisfying to spy remnants of old buildings or streets that have been repositioned or even removed. I am saddened that it doesn't appear to be possible in this case. It was a hobby to find old photographs or descriptive writings about my city and find where the places depicted had been written. Then I'd branch out in all directions, comparing old maps to current ones to find the ways in which the streets and neighborhoods had changed. It was particularly interesting in areas that had fallen prey to "Urban Renewal" where entire sections of the city were removed and redrawn.
I thank you for the information you provided at the end about the buildings and their architect that very effectively obliterated any trace of character and individuality from this lovely place. Sadly, this ideology has only become more virulent and threatens us more than ever today. I hadn't stopped to consider what that might mean in regard to the future of beautiful places in the future. I think I had naively assumed that because we had moved to a point of preservation and conservation of historical and meaningful buildings and areas that they had become untouchable. I see now that this is far from true. So I thank you for giving me that jolt of deep, resonating truth to remove those blinders from my eyes, as well.
Thank you for your comment. Sorry for not replying earlier, but I haven't visited my site recently. I'm so glad you enjoyed the Sisley research. "The Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne" is a wonderful painting and for me it is so sad to see what has become of that place. Good luck with your research.
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