Paris, France

Glazed Ceramic and Wrought-Iron Thistle Portal of the Art Nouveau Building Les Chardons, Paris

2072

French Art Nouveau, c. 1903–1906

The entrance portal of the Art Nouveau residential building known as Les Chardons (The Thistles) in Paris, constructed c. 1903–1906. The portal is framed by an elaborate assembly of wrought-iron thistle forms — stems, serrated spined leaves, and globe flower heads — rising organically across the portal arch from a base of deep viridian and ochre glazed ceramic tiles. The wrought iron is worked with exceptional delicacy, the thistle leaves given accurate botanical curvature and realistic spine projections, the stems branching asymmetrically to follow the curve of the arch. Colored glass inserts form the thistle flower heads. The glazed ceramic tile ground provides a lustrous polychromatic base against which the dark iron forms read with sharp graphic clarity. The portal integrates the architecture of the threshold — stone surround, arch, base — with the decorative program of the iron and ceramic to produce a unified botanical composition.