Ferdinand Cheval

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Ferdinand Cheval

Ferdinand Cheval (born April 19, 1836 in Charmes-sur-l'Herbasse , Département Drôme ; † August 19, 1924 in Hauterives , Département Drôme) was a French postman and builder of the so-called "Palais idéal".

life and work

As a country mailman with no technical training, he realized his great dream and built his highly idiosyncratic “Palais idéal” (1879–1912), which was supposed to serve as a tomb, in Hauterives (Département Drôme) over decades. Since he did not receive a permit for this, he later erected a smaller tomb in the same style in the cemetery of Hauterives (1914-1922).

The buildings of the "Facteur Cheval" ("Postman Cheval") were initially considered pure bizarre, especially among architects, but they were highly valued by representatives of Surrealism , namely André Breton , to whom Cheval dedicated a poem of homage. Other outsiders of architecture, such as Friedensreich Hundertwasser, later referred to the country mailman in his mold manifestation . Until the mid-1960s, initiatives to place the work of the loner under monument protection were rejected several times. The fact that it came to this in 1969 was probably thanks to a personal initiative by the then French Minister of Culture, André Malraux . Today the buildings of the country postman are visited by over one hundred thousand people every year.

gallery

  • Ferdinand Cheval in front of the Palais idéal (around 1890)

  • East side of the Palais idéal in Hauterives

  • Details of the east side

  • Hindu temple on the west side

  • Details with inscriptions on the north side of the Palais idéal

  • Tomb in the Hauterives cemetery

literature

in alphabetical order by authors / editors

  • Robert Schediwy: City Images - Reflections on Change in Architecture and Urbanism , Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-8258-7755-8 (especially p. 273ff.)
  • Jörg Seifert: “Between glass saws and roaring deer. Comments on the aesthetic value judgment of architects and laypeople ”, in What is beauty? archithese 5.2005, pp. 40-45, ISBN 3-7212-0553-7
  • Peter Weiss : The great dream of the postman Cheval in ders .: Reports , Edition Suhrkamp Frankfurt / Main 1968 p. 36ff
  • Ferdinand Werner : The long way to new building . Volume 2: cement and artificial stone. The triumph of the imagination . Worms 2016. ISBN 978-3-88462-372-5 , pp. 484-487.

reception

Movies

In September 2018, the life story of Ferdinand Cheval in the film L'incroyable histoire du facteur Cheval was released in French cinemas. In French -speaking Switzerland , the film opened on January 16, 2019, and in German-speaking Switzerland on July 18, 2019.

Web links

Commons : Ferdinand Cheval  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ L'incroyable histoire du facteur Cheval Description on cineman.ch accessed on July 30, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Cheval, Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French postman and builder of the so-called "Palais idéal"
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1836
PLACE OF BIRTH Charmes-sur-l'Herbasse , Drôme department
DATE OF DEATH August 19, 1924
Place of death Hauterives , Drôme department