163 - Schuiten

Schuiten FRANÇOIS SCHUITEN THE DARK CITIES The Fever of Urbicande (Vol. 2), Casterman 1985 Original artwork no. 55, previously published in (À Suivre) no. 72, January 1984. Signed. India ink on paper 36.5 × 50.3 cm (14.37 × 19.8 in.) A remarkable panel from the seminal *Cités obscures* album, in which the network—originating from an expanding cube brought to the urbatect Eugen Robick—began to invade the entire city, disrupting the city’s ecosystem. This multi-layered story, co-written with Benoît Peeters, allows François Schuiten to construct his pages according to his aesthetic whims, drawing inspiration from the engravings of Jules Verne’s illustrators (de Neuville, Riou, Benett…) as from Victor Horta’s structures of metal, concrete, and glass. We see the full scope of this here: the narrative serves as a pretext to explore this Art Deco swimming pool, whose roof is supported by impressive volutes of reinforced concrete. The author also points out that the swimming pool is the one at the Butte aux Cailles, one of the oldest in Paris (1922), and that this remarkable building is the work of architect Louis Bonnier. In addition to the setting—which is well-researched and rendered with great care—one will notice that the meticulously drawn gray tones remain uncertain, a final trace of the influence of Claude Renard, who led the studio where Schuiten had made his debut. From the narrative to the artwork, right down to the cursive italic lettering, a graphic coherence emerges that lends this extraordinary work its air of mystery. It is worth noting that Schuiten donated some of his original art to the Angoulême Museum and the King Baudouin I Foundation; as a result, original art from this period is extremely rare on the market.