Paul Veysseyre (1896-1963) worked in Paris just before WW1. After his years as a soldier during the war, he was hired by Brossard-Mehdi institutions to work in China, and was soon appointed architect of the Shanghai Office. Veysseyre combined forces in 1922 with another French architect, Alexandre Léonard, focusing originally on small villa projects. One of their first big commissions was the Cercle Sportif French (today’s Okura Garden Hotel) in 1925. This was a sporting and social club, much loved by European ex-pats living in Shanghai. The third French partner, Arthur Kruze, joined them later.
Okura Garden Hotel, 1925-8
dining room
The new style tentatively emerged in Shanghai before the 1925 Exposition des Arts Decoratifs in Paris but was soon warmly encouraged by the huge response to Deco around the world. From 1921-1937, Leonard, Veysseyre & Kruze received many remarkable commissions eg the chocolate-coloured Bearn Apartments, full of vertical and horizontal lines. And the Willow Court Apartments and Midget Apartments. These architectural treasures were perfectly designed for Old Shanghai.
Alfred Magy Apartments, 1937
Sensing the difficulties that Europeans in China were going to meet, the architects left for Saigon in 1937. The good times for the French Concession ended in 1943, when the pro-German government of Vichy France gave up its concessions in Tianjin, Hankou, Guangzhou and finally Shanghai.
Willow Court Apartments, 1934
The book is based on family archives kept by two sons of Veysseyre in France, plus a complete advertisement in a 1934 local French newspaper, showcasing their best works and giving the profiles of the three name partners. Most of the Art Deco buildings that Paul Veysseyre and his architecture firm designed are still standing and can be visited; clearly architecture and preservation in 1920s-1930s Shanghai are of great interest now. Even if you have to remortgage your house or put your small children in to the Labour Market to buy this book, it may still be worthwhile.
10 comments:
Hello Hels, Shanghai was truly a cosmopolitan city in those days. This post resonated with me because of my own collecting interests. Many high-style Chinese antiques from that period are vested with the spirit of Art Deco, even when following traditional Chinese forms and designs.
--Jim
Hello Hels:
Fascinating, as always. The Alfred Magy Apartment building is most striking and reminds us of similar architecture still to be found [but for how much longer?]in Montevideo.
I think the architecture in Shanghai including the earlier buildings on the Bund would be the overriding reason for visiting Shanghai. We have good friends who live there and who are forever berating us for not making the trip over, but I am much less enamoured of the high density of people, and the pollution, so thus far it is a city in China that remains elusive.
Husband and I went on a terrific tour of Old Shanghai, including The Peace Hotel, Ohel Moshe synagogue, the Bund etc. Next time I would like a better look at the Hongkou district.
Parnassus
nod... I think Deco was such an international art and design movement, it is inevitable that it would have crept into your Chinese antiques.
Do you think Shanghai was more vested with the modernism of Deco than other Chinese cities?
Jane and Lance
Sometimes you look at buildings designed in the Deco era, especially 1925-40, and you cannot tell if you are looking at Shanghai, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Napier NZ or Miami. There is a Look! I have never been to Montevideo, but I assume you love its Deco architecture.
columnist
absolutely agree. But I couldn't canvas the earlier era because it will not be covered by the The book Shanghai Art Deco Master by Spencer Dodington and Charles Lagrange. However the Shanghai International Literary Festival might cover the Bund etc.
Do go and visit your friends there... you will kick yourselves if you don't. Joe and I had a ball.
We Travel
you could not have found a more interesting tour... I should have put a link in the post:
Jewish Shanghai 1850-1950: safe haven
http://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/jewish-shanghai-1850-1950-safe-haven.html
your link to he Gascogne is dead but I searched it and am glad I did. Art Deco is just wonderful. Napier NZ has a festival every February of clothes and cars to match the buildings.
I think Shanghai is where an amazing 'jazz' band of musicians who are from the state orchestra play brilliantly on Thursdays only. I first saw this on Clive James years ago and my friend went there and actually saw them.
Spencer Dodington is such an apt and lyrical name.
Ann
the wrap around verandas and square windows of Gascogne are very familiar and much loved Deco elements. That they were loved in Melbourne (see Stanhill Flats), Napier and Tel Aviv should alert us to how popular they were in Shanghai, in the same decades.
A yearly festival is a brilliant idea!
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