L’Aiglon, an Art deco hotel
in Paris

Our establishment also has bow windows adorning its upper floors. This visual relief was created to break up the flat monotony of building facades.
In addition, if you pay close attention, you’ll notice that our bow windows have bas-reliefs decorated with flowers.

Floral patterns and spirals

The entrance to the Art Deco Hotel Aiglon is made up of a mosaic. Buildings bearing such ornamentation were very popular in the 1920s. For example, the facade of the Folies Bergère has a bas-relief depicting Lila Nikolska, a Russian dancer and model, adorned with gold.

And finally, floral patterns and spirals were THE ultimate Art Deco decorations! These motifs were generally present in the ironwork of balcony railings and staircase handrails. They were also used in the bas-reliefs of buildings, monuments and places of worship.

Art Deco bathrooms

You can admire other contemporary handcrafted creations in the bathrooms. Some frescoes are inspired by the trees of the Boulevard Raspail, flowers and geometric shapes. In some bathrooms, you’ll see a cameo of a circle representing the wavelets created by a drop of water.

The mosaics by Mathilde Jonquière in our Art Deco hotel are made up of tesserae of gold, Venetian enamels and pâte de verre.

Other nods to the style ...

You will discover many Art Deco details throughout the Hotel Aiglon, such as the choice of door handles and the railings of our balconies. The decor of the rooms and suites is also embellished with elements reminiscent of Art Deco.

The arrival of Art Deco in France

It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that Art Deco reached France, the other countries of Europe and all the Anglo-Saxon countries. Several places in Asia also took up the mantle of this artistic movement, including Japan, Hong Kong, the city of Shanghai in China and a few cities in Vietnam.

Art Deco was created to counter Art Nouveau. The latter was often called ‘Art Nouille’ (Art Noodle) by its detractors because of its curves, colours and arabesque characteristics (interlacing of foliage, flowers, fruits, ribbons, etc.).

1913; a key date for Art Deco in Paris

Built in 1913, the design of the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris was first entrusted to the architects Fivaz and Bouvard. In 1910, the architect Henry Van de Velde was recommended by Bouvard. However, the design eventually became the responsibility of Auguste Perret, a contractor specialising in reinforced concrete. Initially, the structure of the theatre was intended to be steel but was ultimately made of concrete due to the subsoil conditions.

The Théâtre des Champs Élysées was the capital’s first example of Art Deco architecture. On the facade of the building, a listed historical monument, there are white marble bas-reliefs by Antoine Bourdelle. The decor inside the theatre includes works by Bourdelle, Maurice Denis, Jacqueline Marval and Édouard Vuillard.

Post-war

As a result of the First World War, many cities had been largely destroyed, including Reims and Saint-Quentin. Public buildings such as airports, hospitals and schools had to be razed and rebuilt.

In France, Art Deco was incorporated into the architecture of public buildings. We can cite the Bibliothèque Carnegie in Reims, the Bourse du Travail in Bordeaux, the Gare de Lens and the Lycée Hélène Boucher in Paris,

Store fronts were designed in the Art Deco style, including that of the department store La Samaritaine in Paris. Houses, villas and hotels were also built in the same style.

The spread of Art Deco around the world

The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, a 1925 world’s fair, played a major role in the worldwide dissemination of French Art Deco. The Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris was already very famous at the time.

The French colonial empire was behind the construction of many buildings abroad, and so aided the spread of the Art Deco influence worldwide.

French ocean liners were also a powerful vector. They were like floating embassies and so the pageantry of the French transatlantic companies was entrusted to the greatest designers of the time, thereby taking Art Deco to many countries, including Germany, Italy and the United States.