To decorate the Grand Dining Room (now the Georges Bertrand room), a huge rectangular area with oak-panelled walls, the municipality choose the theme of glorification of the Earth, the nurturing mother of Humanity.

The painted decor

The central ceiling represents a ploughman greeting the sun as it rises on the horizon, while the two side panels symbolise the two essential Foods, bread and wine, represented by Grape Picking and Harvesting. The overdoors feature allegories of other Foods: strawberries, fish, meat, and garden vegetables.

The sculptures

The sculpted decor also explored this subject, with six statues in white marble placed in large mural recesses. These represent allegories of Hunting, Singing, Grape Picking, Toasting, Fishing and Harvesting. Full-size plaster models of the last three sculptures are now held by the Petit Palais. These six statues illustrate the stylistic eclecticism prevalent in the sculpted decor of the Hôtel de Ville.

Begun in 1883 by Jean Antoine Marie Idrac and completed by Jules Alexis Coutan, Le Toast (Toasting) is symbolised by a woman rising from her chair while lifting her glass to offer a toast. The figure’s hair and attire are theatrical in form, and the curves of her silhouette and the folds of her clothing already suggest the graceful lines of Art Nouveau.

La Pêche (Fishing) by Alexandre Falguière, representing a woman in a dress belted with a fishing net from which a few fish are escaping, is modelled, on the contrary, with rusticity and schematism.

In the work by Henri Chapu, a former artist in residence at the French Academy in Rome, La Moisson (Harvesting) is embodied by a strong-armed peasant, dressed in a heavy skirt and holding in her arms a sheaf of wheat and a sickle. In the facial features, the classical lines of the drapery, and the slight contrapposto pose, the work reflects the influence of academic training based on the study of Antiquity.

La Chasse (Hunting), Le Chant (Singing) and La Vendange (Grape Picking) were entrusted, respectively, to three other artists, Louis-Ernest Barrias, Jules Dalou and Gustave Crauck.

H. D.