LA MAISON DAMAIN

The only residence in the town to present the aesthetics of Art Nouveau where architecture and decoration form a coherent and harmonious whole, this house was built by the Barisian architect Jules Renard to highlight the work of the painter-decorator Léon Damain (1872-1947). An enamelled plaque above the side carriage entrance preserves the memory of this Barisian artist from a family of painters. Léon Damain was above all a decorator. Between the 19th and 20th centuries, his style evolved from the Neo-Gothic to the Art Deco, passing through the supple and flowery lines of Art Nouveau. From his training at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, he was concerned with a very covering decoration where architecture and ornaments form a total work of art. In Bar-le-Duc, the prefecture, the churches of Notre-Dame and Saint-Antoine and the Château de Marbeaumont, where he also collaborated with the architect Renard, still preserve some of his ensembles. The house he had built to house a store and an exhibition space must therefore show this symbiosis between the arts. Not without ostentation, it is designed around a corner pavilion that uses the materials of classical architecture: Savonnières stone, flat flake tiles. The superimposition of bays around a central band and the use of ashlar corner chains are also references to classical art. Nevertheless, this building is distinguished by the supple, rounded shapes used in both the stonework and the materials used in the finishing work. The large bay windows on the second floor and the bow window on the courtyard show the desire to reconcile the search for comfort with a new aesthetic. The "whiplash" lines where curves and double curves intertwine and oppose each other are notably visible on the balcony railing, the window transoms, the courtyard wall and the roof dormers. The use of plant iconography (sunflowers) also betrays the strong influence of the École de Nancy. Only a few scattered elements of the original interior decoration remain (stairwell, chimney, stained glass windows), as the house was requisitioned and occupied during the Second World War.