Page 248 - Livre Beau Rivage Palace

Fig. 6

abundantly – and really comes into its own. These works were THE ROTONDE (FORMERLY THE HALL)
installed by the Lausanne company owned by Henri François The stuccos in this room are attributed to Negri & Uberti,
Louis Abrezol (1852-1921), specialising in reinforced plasterwork. artists who worked with the architect Eugène Jost on a number
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An advertisement dating from 1912 gives an insight into the of occasions. The hall underwent radical alterations during the
company’s production and mentions its work at the hotel: ‘Ceilings twentieth century and now consists solely of a rotunda topped by
and arches of reinforced plaster using the Rabitz system. Churches of Le a dome and surrounded by the veranda dating from 1976. The
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Sentier, Villars-le-Terroir and Leysin, Palais de Rumine, Beau-Rivage lavish sculptural ornamentation on the exterior – garlands, female
Palace, Lausanne-Ouchy casino, the Geneva Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, heads, ephebi holding the oculi, flaming urns – has now disappeared.
Evian Casino.’ The Rabitz system consisted of a metal mesh covered The side entrances to the west and the east still display their original
with terracotta which could be shaped to form a base for all types carpentry and carved consoles in the form of Louis xiv cartouches.
of coating. Surviving stucco work on the interior represents allegories
The stucco work was carried out by the sculptor Morhardt of architecture alternating with putti lighting flaming urns (figs 7
of Berne. Based initially in Clarens, then at Lausanne and Geneva, and 8). On the ceiling, the paintings by Otto Haberer have suffered
he built a reputation as a specialist in artificial marble. At Beau- the ravages of time (and water damage in particular) and are now
Rivage, the artist achieved a technical tour de force with his figures difficult to decipher. To the west, a red marble fireplace by Luigi
perched on high, overlooking the dining room. The figures are Uberti once added a touch of warmth to the ensemble, but has
Cupids with dragonfly wings – midway between putto and elf! since made way for an anteroom (fig. 9). Yet this room is soon to
– and young women as allegories of nature. These figures are be restored – and will doubtless recover some part of its former
balanced on the cornice of the entablature, which rests on a series glory in the process.
of columns, pillars and pilasters of imitation and artificial marble.
Despite their apparently unstable position, they radiate an ethereal 1. No. 144, p. 8.
grace, supported by architectural elements like the cornice with 2. Edition of Monday 22 June 1908.
3. Archives du Beau-Rivage (ABR) report, 19.6.1908, p. 76. Dave Lüthi, Eugène Jost
(1865-1946), architecte, degree dissertation, Faculté des Lettres, Lausanne, 1999, p. 76.
the occasional overhanging foot, or robe, or painted medallion 4. ‘L’histoire de Zwahlen & Mayr. Du fer forgé aux grands ouvrages’, text conserved in the
held in the hands. In this acrobatic, overhanging pose they none family archives; L’esprit d’entreprise, Ingénieurs et architectes vaudois, Lausanne: SIA
Section Vaudoise, 1987, p. 106-107; INSA. Inventaire Suisse d’Architecture 1850-1920,
the less manage to look across at each other from one side of volume 11, index des noms de personnes des volumes 1-10, p. 319; ‘Article nécrologique’,
in Patrie Suisse, 1919, p. 165-166; Gazette de Lausanne no. 152, 4 June 1919, no. 154,
the room to the other, some holding out laurel wreaths, others 6 June 1919. Encyclopédie illustrée du pays de Vaud, volume 3: Les artisans, Editions
24 Heures, Lausanne, 197, pp. 173, 176-177; Sylvain Malfroy, La rénovation urbaine et les
offering bouquets. Their long robes, in the classical style, appear problèmes de sauvegarde du patrimoine architectural [art history degree dissertation],
to be fluttering in a breeze. Floral bouquets and fruit are arranged UNIL-Faculté des lettres, Lausanne, 1979, annexes II, p. 28. Group publication, Escaliers.
Décors et architecture des cages d’escalier des immeubles d’habitation de Suisse romande
1890-1915, PPUR, Lausanne, 2006, pp. 43, 48, 57, 84, 189, 193, 199.
at their feet. Within this densely packed, monumental setting, the 5. Catalogue officiel de l’Exposition cantonale vaudoise à Yverdon, 1894, A. Rochat, Lausanne,
artist has truly succeeded in giving his high-wire female figures an 1894, p. 93.
6. ABR, 144. Anne Wyssbrod, Beau-Rivage Palace, analyse historique et documentaire,
airy and realistic grace (fig. 6). EPFL-ACM, Lausanne, 1992.
7. Joëlle Neuenschwander Feihl (director), Une Menuiserie Modèle, Les Held de Montreux,
In 1959, hotel director Walter Schnyder put forward a plan to Cabédita, Yens-sur-Morges, 1992.
8. In 1908, he took up residence in a small, picturesque villa called Clos d’Ouchy located
convert the Sandoz Room into a monumental entrance, permitting just behind the hotel built following the plans by Louis Bezencenet (Chaussée de
the construction of 28 rooms on a floor above it and replacing the Beau-Rivage 16). Stained glass by Chiara can be seen here. This villa provides a very
good illustration of the way entrepreneurs and craftworkers collaborated, following each
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two old entrances which he saw as inconvenient. Fortunately his other from one project to the next.
9. ABR 147, letter from Walter Schnyder to the board of directors.
plan was not carried out. 10. Planning enquiry 1976, Lausanne municipal archives 159: enlargement of the rotunda.
Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Ouchy – Beau Rivage Palace, Dining Room. Fig. 7 > The rotunda looking southwards. This large, luminous space features
Eugène Jost, architect, Ceilings of the foyer and dining room, Eugène Jost, architect, Beau-Rivage Palace (dining room), Undated postcard. a three-dimensional decor unique among the hotel architecture of the region.
watercolour sketch [c.1906]. watercolour sketch [c.1906]. On the ceiling, paintings by Otto Haberer.
Fig. 8 >> The rotunda looking northwards towards the dining room.
Fig. 9 >>> In the dining room.
Undated photographs, c.1920.
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