Girls, Mosaïc and Sante Vallar.

Vallar's house and workshop ( courtesy E.Caillé)

In the mid-19 th century , the ancient art of mosaic returns to the front of the stage , and create a real craze a few decades later with the Art Nouveau. The opening of the Opéra Garnier in Paris in January 1875 , is the true starting point of the revival of mosaic in France . The next day, orders began to increase and throughout the country the facades are decorated with friezes, medallions, mosaic ... without forgetting building entrances , storefronts ,commercial , public and religious buildings,…… but not only, as you will see it . As there were in France not enough skilled mosaïsts , the architects therefore used to hire Italian artisans ... The largest number of craftmen in this period are thus originating from Sequals, a village in the province of Friuli, northern Italy, a veritable cradle of modern mosaic. So was Sante Vallar, born in Friuli.

At he same period of time, in Tours ( Loire Valley) there were up to 22 brothels. Under the usual term of "Maison de tolerance" and together with the Church and the Pub , they were “the tripod of an ancient civilization” ,if we follow the wording of French writer Pierre Mac Orlan about the essence of provincial life. Despite their prominent function, their number declined : there remained only 9 in 1914.


Courtesy of Eric Caillé.

  In 1923 when Sante Vallar finished this contract for a hat shop ,there were only 5 left. In his Tours area , he was in a way stranded between the powerful Odorico family, the heavyweight of mosaïst industry in the west of the country (Rennes, Nantes) on one side,

and the Favret - Fabris association in central France ( in Nevers and Orleans).

He had neither their artistic skills, nor their social network . There was in Tours no Marian basilica to decorate, like in Lyon or Marseille, no new fashionable Café requiring expensive ornaments . Only (so to say) the third pilar of the tripod was left for him : by chance, fewer brothels meant for the remaining ones going up-market .

 They needed an upgrade, mostly to glamorize their grounds. He will do his business there. The three most famous institutions were: Le Petit Soleil (The little sun) , 10th street of the same name. L’Etoile Bleue (The Blue Star) , 15th rue du Champ de Mars and Le Singe Vert (The Green Monkey), 6th street of the same name. This street skirted the now-demolished castle moat.

In 1923, he was hired to prepare the floors of the nearby   Etoile Bleue,  He was not married yet and for his future and very religious  mother-in-law, he wrote in his letters  he was"working for the good sisters".  
 After that part of historical background ,we are going to relax a bit with the visit of l'"Etoile Bleue ", located 15 rue du Champ de Mars. Located in the near vicinity of religious schools and convents  (The street had been named rue des Prêtres (Priest Street) until 1912, when local clergymen, upset by this strange promiscuity, obtained from the City administrators the change of the street name,( if not the banishment of the sin itself !) There were up to three brothels in the 1870s , in that street ideally located between a weekly pig (!) market, barracks and at walking distance from universities. Be aware ,you priviledged visitors, that you are about to see the last remaining brothel in France! Even the worldwide famous One Two Two 122, Rue de Provence in Paris is now just an amnesic residential building.

  The facade and interior of the Etoile Bleue have been completely redecorated in the early twentieth century and taking into account the purpose of the place .

The door is lined with mosaics of red tiles  , it is pierced with a peephole in order to filter clients. It was painted red and shows such as barred windows , the theme of the Moorish star.

 

   Regulations required brothels to have one single access in order to ease monitoring and prevent anybody escaping through the back door in the event of a police raid . Decoration on the ground floor is now visible , with a mosaic of lotus flowers , from our friend Sante Vallar .

 

   We can now have a look at the lounge, common room that welcomed guests with a bar . We can see two frescoes  painted later in the 1930’s by Jacquemin, a daily cartoonist from the late newspaper " La Depeche du Centre " . One of the frescoes is said to have the look of the "madame" of the time. Both are directly inspired by lithographs of Louis Icart ( 1888-1950 ) Coursing and Speed .

 

   This French artist , a veteran of WW1, worked in the fashion industry and often represented female models to contemporary plastics , high heels, slender , short hair, often lascivious or tinged with eroticism . Almost overlooked in France , he seems to be still popular in the United States where he is considered as the representative of the feminine essence of the 20s in a Art- Deco style. Jacquemin has only to strip the Icart subjects , dogs and women keeping the same gesture .
 The frescoes are currently undergoing restoration after a succesful fund-raising took place in 2013...(the taste of french public for this peculiar art remains untouched)

   

  Some sources say that the lady pictured here is Madame Andrée , le last “madame” to own the business who unfortunately had her husband stabbed to death in a nearby Café. She took a lover:Mr. Albert, a Staff Sergeant in the Legion Etrangère . She passed away in 1961.
Let’s now proceed to another room nicknamed " the priest room ". It provided a way mirror , and customers could make their choice among the girls before getting quietly in the rooms upstairs .
As we are nearing the core of the business, the walls are decorated with more pornographic frescoes from Ricky ans Jacquemin, with priapic fauns chasing nude nymphets (picture), freely inspired by the Canterbury Tales of the English writer Geoffrey Chaucer .
 

 

And one last mural depicts a woman in a cellar ,perched on a big cask , trousers down and " worked" boldly by a man (I’m terribly sorry: no photos! It is much better to train your imagination.) Alright… here it is. .

    After 1946, the Etoile Bleue was neglected. It was inhabited by a few bums: Dede and P'tit Louis, two former clients, and Mr. Albert, the ex-lover of Madame Andrée. He died in 1978 of syphilis in the middle of  twenty cats and a thousand boxes of Ron-Ron ( a french brand of cat food) ... empty. Slated for demolition , the Etoile Bleue was saved in the early 1980s , bought and restored by the Junior Economic Chamber of Tours. From the Petit Soleil work of Sante Vallar there remains a mosaic decoration rescuedfrom the demolition , and placed outside on the ground rue de la Monnaie (!)

        But we know from older black and white pictures taken just before the destruction of the building in 1983   that there were also stuck and Art deco –style mosaics from santé Vallar and frescoes .

   From his work at the Singe Vert, nothing was left after the whole street gas been demolished to build residential areas . All brothels had to shut down in France in 1946 following  what is known as the   “Marthe Richard law”. Nicknamed “La veuve qui clôt” (“The widow who closes” ,a play on words with a famous Champagne brand). Marthe richard was herself a former prostitute, and a political activist against the "Maisons de tolerances ". But, one of the main reasons. for the closure was the huge business made during WW2 by the brothels with the German army , which was held by the public as a fkind of Collaboration with the enemy..
 After the loss of Church’ preeminence in the society, a second pillar of the tripod had been broken . A few decades later , social binging in the “ bistrot” would slowly disappear. This was the end of an era .  The Sante Vallar workshop had survived with public orders for smaller monuments, but there is no trace of its activity after the 1930’s.

S.Vallar's advertising in the 1933 phone book.

  It is likely that he and his traveling employees could find occupation until the war at bigger such as the Odorico’s , Some of them emigrated to America to take advantage of the bigger size of the market, mosaïc works itself being superseded by tiles , better adapted to economic and timing constraints of the reconstruction of France after WW2.

Documentation from:
Amboise et Touraine: http://amboiseettouraine-balades.blogspot.fr/
La Jeune Chambre Economique de Tours
Fonds photographique Mérimée.