Thanks for the add! Gros bisous :-)

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Love in the North

As a follow up to Raymond Peynet's ethereal vision of love, and not to forget the wind of love that blows over the world for a couple days.... I felt it was only fair to also pay tribute to another famous French illustrator, Francisque Poulbot, and his eponymous creations. A "Poulbot" is a picture of a typical "titi parisien", in other words a street kid from Paris, and since the Loire pretty much divides France between North and South, Paris, for all intents and purposes, is considered to be in the northern part of France. ( I am soo tempted to say "le NOOOORRRR" like Michel Galabru says in Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis, but that would be a diversion from the topic at hand.)
In his paintings, his "titis" are always centre stage, but Paris is also strongly present. You often see reminders of the setting, the Eiffel Tower (above) ...
Notre-Dame...
The Arc de Triomphe.
The Pont Neuf
Interesting how bridges and benches seem to be part of lovers-lore. Why is this? Is it their hormonal "in-love"state of mind which allows them to be the only people on Earth who have time to sit down, and watch the world go by?
Interesting also how these kids, with distinctively young faces - these are not adolescents - seem to be involved with one another, in a very tender relationship. Where Peynet's pen is light and elegant, Poulbot's brush is loud and somewhat garish. Poulbots are not considered high art in France. There is something very kitch, and bad taste in a way, but also very tramp-like, Chaplin-esque about these,. This might explain why I am so fond of them.

Real life Poulbots? Hell yes, larger than life even!... Edith Piaf, a kid from the street, singing a very sad love song in English here...

And Renaud, who single-handedly put Parisian slang back on the cultural map, merci Renaud.

Spécial Paulinette :-), my favourite blog-writer, in the whole world.



Yours truly


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think these two lovers are not children, nor adults. They are just lovers. Full stop (as we say in France! ahah) It's like time doesn't have any impact on them. Life seems to stop as soon as you fall in love.

So that you have PLENTY of time to spend on benches...

Oh My Godness... I need to find my titi very quickly if I don't want to grow old ;-)
Plus, I love Paris sooooo much...

Danièle said...

Well Paulinette, I must admit that Renaud was an last minute addition, courtesy of your blog (and anyone who reads French owes it to themselves to visit her blog http://genuinediary.wordpress.com/) :-) How could I have not thought of him before is just beyond me. What a star!

Danièle said...

ARGGGGH Errare humanum est, mea culpa, et tout le Tra Déri Déra et Tra la la. Mais ça y est tout est rectifié!

Su said...

Qué voz la de la Piaf. Feliz día Dani y ya sabes, cuidado Cupido jajaja besos guapa

Justine of SewCountryChick said...

These pictures are so incredibly kitsch but also so French. I feel like I have seen them before, maybe in France. You unearth the coolest things! Are they well known in France ?

Danièle said...

Yes they are very well known, and really not looked upon well in Freance, I mean in some of his drawings he has kids with knickers around their ankles (cheeky way, not vulgar or weird, just Cupid joie de vivre type) but Francisque Poulbot draws in many style. He had no money to pay for models so he took kids from the street as his inspiration, but as you can see and as Paulinette said earlier, they are not really kids as such.If you are interested check out his WWI drawings about kids (serious drawings) here http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Poulbot/Poulbot_00.htm.

Annushka said...

I love this post, lovely))) Super video!!! Your blog is very, very, very, beautiful dear!!!