The Civic Architecture of Paul Cret

Cret’s plan shows that he had learned to manipulate the École’s graphic conventions and to put a program “in order” (see Fig. 13). The contrast between the mosaique, the tapestry of broken lines that represent decorative floor and ceiling patterns, and the poché, the more heavily inked lines that indicate structure, make clear that the arrangement is a linear succession of volumes, with two relatively narrow rooms bracketing the more ample one at the center. The heavy unbroken outline of the main space underscores the lack of windows and reliance on top lighting, and thus its use for paintings and works on paper. The mosaique is more than decoration; it visually interweaves the volumes and defines a broad axial promenade, or path of movement, from the entrance to what is presumably the sidelit sculpture gallery that opens to a cascade of stairs leading down to the garden of fragments. All the pieces of a good Beaux-Arts plan are here: the clear proportions of the independent volumes, the axial disposition of openings, the warp and weft of the details, and the telling use of the graphic conventions of poché and mosaique so the design appears at once simpler than the sum of its parts and more ample than one might expect of a small museum