Ferdinand Cheval was a French postman who spent thirty-three years of his life building Le Palais idéal in Hauterives. The Palace is regarded as an extraordinary example of naïve art architecture.
Origins
Joseph Ferdinand Cheval, also known as Facteur Cheval was born in Charmes-sur-l'Herbasse into a poor farming family. He left school at the age of 13 to become a baker's apprentice, but eventually became a postman. In 1858, Cheval married his first wife, Rosaline Revol. Together they had two sons, Victorin Joseph Fernand, and Ferdinand Cyril. Victorin died in 1865 just a year after he was born. His first wife Rosaline died in 1873. Five years later Cheval met and married Claire-Philomène Richaud. Because of his marriage to Claire, the new couple found themselves with a dowry that accompanied some land on which the Palais Idéal stands today. Later that same year, Claire gave birth to their daughter Alice-Marie-Philomène. Alice died in 1894. Alice's death hit Cheval the hardest and she was the last child he would have in his lifetime. Many years would pass before his son Cyril and his second wife, Claire, would die within two years of each other in 1912 and 1914 respectively.
Palais idéal
Cheval began the building in April 1879 when he was 43 years old. He reported: For the next thirty-three years, Cheval picked up stones during his daily mail round and carried them home to build the Palais idéal. He spent the first twenty years building the outer walls. At first, he carried the stones in his pockets, then switched to a basket. Eventually, he used a wheelbarrow. He often worked at night, by the light of an oil lamp. The palace materials mainly consist of stones, pebbles, porous tufa and fossils of many different shapes and sizes. When a visitor first comes up on the palace, the first face they see is the southern facade spanning nearly 30 yards long and 14 yards high. The decoration resembles aspects of both the Brighton Pavilion and Gaudí's Sagrada Família. Cheval did not travel and he had even given himself the title of peasant, so even though the qualities resemble those pieces of art, he had never seen them prior. Giant stones each with doll-like faces standing close to 35 ft high serve not only as decoration but as a support system for the Barbary Tower, with an elegant spiral staircase lined with swans made of cement leading up to it. The tall stones were named Vercingétorix, Archimedes and Caesar. Cheval hand-carved the names into each individual figure. The north face exhibits a long path dotted with large openings to provide lots of light leading into the heart of the palace itself. This facade is very forest-like with walls coated in moss and massive seaweed. The ceiling, swirling patterns of pebbles and shells that outline the chandeliers. Upper walls are lined with horizontal bands with animals carved into them in an Egyptian-like style. Other animals on the north face facade include two ostriches and an ostrich chick, a 4-foot tall camel, flamingos, octopi, lions, dragons, and a polar bear. The east facade took the longest to build before, a shocking 20 years. This face includes 'The Temple of Nature', an Egyptian style temple-like structure supported by large, thick sandstone columns. It includes two waterfalls called the Source of Life and the Source of Wisdom. The Palais is a mix of different styles with inspirations from Christianity to Hinduism. Cheval bound the stones together with lime, mortar and cement. The palace is sprinkled with short quotes and poems hand-carved by Cheval himself. Some examples being "If you look for gold you will find it in elbow grease.", "The Pantheon of an obscure hero." "The work of one man", "Out of a dream I have brought forth the Queen of the World", "This is of art, and of energy", "The ecstasy of a beautiful dream and the prize of effort", "Dream of a peasant", "Temple of Life", and "Palace of the Imagination". Perhaps the most iconic phrase he inscribed on the wall reads "1879-1912 10,000 days, 93,000 hours, 33 years of struggle. Let those who think they can do better try."
Burial
Cheval wanted to be buried in his palace. Because that is illegal in France, he spent eight more years building a mausoleum for himself in the Hauterives cemetery. He died on 19 August 1924, about a year after he had finished building it, and is buried there.
Recognition
Just before his death, Cheval began to receive some recognition from luminaries like André Breton, Bernard Buffet, Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle, Robert Doisneau, and Pablo Picasso. His work is commemorated in an essay by Anaïs Nin. In 1932, the German artist Max Ernst created a collage titled The Postman Cheval. The collage belongs to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and is on display there. In 1958, Ado Kyrou produced Le Palais idéal, a short film about Cheval's palace. After admiring Cheval's work, Picasso created a series of drawings telling a narrative, in a cartoon fashion, which is now recognized as Facteur Cheval sketchbook in 1937. Picasso drew him as twisted, hybrid-like creature, carved with the initials of the French postal service on his skin, dressed in typical postman's attire, holding masonry tools and a letter. The creature was standing in front of his creation. In the drawing, Picasso took a humorous route sketching Cheval's body in the shape of a horse and his head that of a bird. Picasso did this in an effort to make a sort of pun about Cheval's name and career given birds are messengers and the meaning of Cheval is horse. In 1969, André Malraux, the Minister of Culture, declared the Palais a cultural landmark and had it officially protected. In 1986, Cheval was put on a French postage stamp. In 2018, English singer-songwriter Will Varley included a song about Cheval and Palais idéal on his album Spirit of Minnie called The Postman.
