His passion for ceramics, born from his work as an ornamentalist and then as an architect, constantly pushes him to move his technical or aesthetic research from the object to the building or from the building to the object. Drawing from all fields and all references, the decorations and enamels he composes create a permanent dialogue between architecture and the decorative arts.
Mavi Boncuk |
Léon Parvillée, born March 22, 1830 in Paris and died in the same city on August 13, 1885, was a French architect, ceramist, sculptor and decorator.
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He is best known for having been commissioned by the Ottoman government to restore Bursa in 1863, after the earthquake which partially leveled it in 1855, then for having taken care of the Turkish installations for the 1867 World's Fair. following a prolific career in France, until his death.
Louis Léon Parvillée was born on March 22, 1830 in Paris. His father is a carpenter. At 13, he obtained a scholarship from the city of Paris, and joined the Royal Free School of Drawing (the future National School of Decorative Arts), from which he graduated at 18, after having won multiple prizes there. In particular, he took classes in the general history of ornament and ornamental composition with Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, with whom he remained in contact throughout his life, the latter becoming a major reference for his work.
Installation in Türkiye
He did his military service in 1850, then moved to the 11th arrondissement of Paris, as a sculptor. the following year, he was contacted by Pierre-Victor Galland, who offered to accompany him to assist him in the realization of the interior decoration of the Djézairly palace, in Istanbul2.
In 1853, and after the bankruptcy of the owner of the palace, Léon Parvillée moved to Istanbul, where he worked for a time as an engineer in a cannon foundry. The following year, he opened his own sculpture studio in Istanbul, in the Pera district. He offers creations using classic European techniques. One of his first commissions was the decor for the Catholic Church of the Infant Jesus, restored by the Russian Imperial Court.
In 1856, he founded a company with the Armenian architect Artin Serverian, which gave him access to greater fame. The works of Léon Parvillée in Turkey are known in France, thanks to their publication in L'Illustration.
He then worked on numerous decorative projects in Turkey: the Saint-Grégoire church, the Ortaköy mosque, the “Café du Luxembourg” in Péra, the Venice palace, and even the apartments of Prince Abdülaziz at the Dolmabahce Palace.
In 1863, Léon Parvillée was responsible for creating the decor for the palace of the Sergi-i Umum-i Osmaniye trade exhibition, in Sultanahmet, produced by the French architect Antoine Bourgeois, in a neoclassical style.
The same year, he was appointed, alongside the Italian architect Pietro Montani and two French engineers, to appraise the remains of the monuments of the city of Bursa, and restore part of them. He would have participated in the consolidation of four mosques, the tomb of Sultan Mehmed I, and a minaret. In 1874, he published Architecture and Turkish Decoration in the 15th Century in France, largely inspired by this moment in his career.
During this restoration of the city of Bursa, he made several round trips to France.
Universal Exhibition of 1867, in Paris (See Mavi Boncuk Posting)
He settled permanently in France, rue Malher, in 1866. Viollet-le-Duc seems to have entrusted him with the realization of the decorations of the interiors of the fireplace of the castle of Pierrefonds this same year.
In 1867, he was appointed architect of the Ottoman Imperial Commission, designed the decorations for the Turkish installations, and reworked the plans designed by Barborini for the Universal Exhibition of 1867.
He took advantage of the Universal Exhibition to also present his work as a ceramist, exhibiting Islamic-style earthenware, which met with some success. He wrote in 1884:
“I remember twenty years ago, [...] returning from Brousse to Paris, Mr. Viollet-le-Duc strongly encouraged me to study on the spot the earthenware of the buildings of the East and to seek the processes of their execution. Taken with a good spirit, I bought for this purpose all the books that I could find that dealt with the subject […]. None showed me the way forward. […] I was, I admit, exhausted from reading […] and I couldn’t see any clearer. It was a small work, the most modest of all, which seriously came to my aid and opened wide the road that I follow today. »
« Je me rappelle il y a vingt ans, […] revenant de Brousse à
Paris, M. Viollet-le-Duc m’encouragea vivement à étudier sur place les faïences
des édifices d’Orient et à chercher les procédés de leur exécution. Pris d’un
bel entrain, j’achetais dans ce but tous les livres que je pus trouver qui
traitaient de la matière […]. Aucun ne m’indiquait la voie à suivre. […]
J’étais, je l’avoue, épuisé de lecture […] et je n’y voyais pas plus clair. Ce
fut un petit ouvrage, le plus modeste de tous, qui vint sérieusement à mon aide
et m’ouvrit toute grande la route que je parcours aujourd’hui. »