23 March 2017

The church at Azay-le-Rideau (5)

Here's one more stained-glass window that I saw and photographed in the Eglise Saint-Symphorien at Azay-le-Rideau last week. It is the work of an artist (vitrailliste) named Jacques Grüber (1870-1936).


I found information about this window on a blog called Tourainissime, as well as on Wikipedia, which includes a list of Grüber's major works in Paris (Galeries Lafayette) and elsewhere in France (especially at Nancy in the Lorraine).

14 comments:

  1. As is usually the case on French websites (or blogs!) the information given is incomplete, wrong, or completely missing. Here is a good example.

    After some (extensive?) research, I found out that the maître-verrier you mention, Jacques Grüber (1870-1936), is the father of another maître-verrier, whith almost the same name, Jean-Jacques Grüber (1903-1988).

    According to several websites, all the façade's stained-glass windows of this church were destroyed during WW2, and since the vitrail which shows saint Symphorien is in the window above the front porch, it cannot be by the older Grüber, who died in 1936, but by his son, Jean-Jacques. (The importance of the hyphen in French!)

    Jacques Grüber, le père, mastered the Art Nouveau style, and his work, which is all over the place, is better known than his name.

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    1. Alors j'ai perdu mon temps. Merci.

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    2. Non, tu n'as pas perdu ton temps. C'est simplement que les sites que tu as consultés ne donnaient pas d'informations circonstsnciées. Si je n'avais pas pensé que le vitrail de saint Symphorien n'était pas du style de Grüber père, je n'aurais pas poursuivi mes recherches. J'ai eu beaucoup de mal à trouver Jean-Jacques Grüber.

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    3. I should have added that you were mislead by the Tourainissime blog (see my first comment) which says the stained-glass window is by Jacques Grüber, instead of Jean-Jacques, introducing the confusion. On the father's Wikipedia site, I just found out, you have to go all the way down, in what I would call the miscellaneous region, to find mention of his sons, Jean-Jacques and Francis.

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    4. J'avais bien vu la mention de Jean-Jacques G. mais à mes yeux le vitrail que j'ai montré aujourd'hui a l'air d'être beaucoup plus vieux quant à son style que celui de M. Max-Ingrand dont j'ai publié une photo l'autre jour. Si tu es sûr que ce vitrail montrant saint Symphorien est l'oeuvre de J-J et non pas de son père, tant mieux. En fait, pour moi tout cela n'a pas une importance primordiale.

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  2. One place that I would like to visit ( if they allow it) is one that you've mentioned : Crédit Lyonnais HQ near the Opéra. Saw the inside in one of the "les Racines et les Ailes" about Rive droite . The architecture , even the staircases looks incredible.

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    1. Bomjour Cousine,
      Je crois qu'il s'agit de la verrière du Crédit Lyonnais de Nancy et non du siège à Paris.

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    2. Rectifié. I shouldn't get involved in all this detail because frankly it's not very interesting to me. I won't remember any of it in three days.

      So the question is, did Jacques Grüber (not his son) do any windows at all in the church at Azay? Wikipedia says he does, but I know, CHM, that your answer to that will be that you can't believe anything you read on the web. (Sometimes you might wonder whether it's a good idea to keep reading things on the web or not. It's too frustrating.)

      Have you seen this page where Jacques Grüber is given credit for the window we've been talking about? Is this another page full of fake information?

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  3. Replies
    1. I don't find the window in this post inspiring or particularly beautiful. My point in posting these photos is that they document things that exist, and that I enjoy tinkering with my photos to make them show what I remember seeing.

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    2. Photos really help me by reminding me of places I've been. Now that I'm in my 70s those photos are wonderful memories.

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  4. What did you use to make this shot? Looks really detailed and classy. Also, i think this glass was already restored. Colors are very bright for an old window

    artgsg

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    1. My camera is a Panasonic Lumix ZS8, a compact, long-zoom camera. I processed it in Photoshop Elements for posting on the blog. If you know anything about the history of this window in the Saint-Symphorien church in Azay-le-Rideau, I'd love to read it. I'm not sure if it was installed before or after WWII.

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  5. Voici un texte du service français des monuments historiques concernant ce vitrail: "Enfin, la verrière de la baie 102 (façade ouest du vaisseau principal), comporte une verrière attribuable par son style à Jacques Grüber (1870-1936). Sachant que les verrières de la façade ont subi le même sort que celles du côté sud durant la Seconde guerre mondiale, deux hypothèses peuvent être proposées : soit il s'agit d'une verrière primitivement disposée dans une autre partie de l'édifice et replacée en façade après 1945, soit il s'agit d'une verrière de réemploi, créée par Jacques Grüber et installée à Azay-le-Rideau après-guerre par son fils Jean-Jacques (1903-1988). En effet, cette composition de style Art déco caractéristique des années 1930 ne peut en aucun cas être attribuée à ce dernier, dont le style est bien différent de celui de son père. La présence de Jean-Jacques Grüber dans le sud de la Touraine durant cette période est cependant bien attestée. Il est en effet sollicité pour le démontage des verrières de la Sainte-Chapelle de Champigny-sur-Veude en 1940, qu'il restaure et réinstalle après-guerre."
    Cordialement.

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