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Origin and history

The cubist house of painter Alfred Lombard, located in Boulogne-Billancourt, is a mansion built in 1928 by architect Pierre Patout for his friend, painter Alfred Lombard. This project is part of a broader artistic collaboration, including Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann, with whom Lombard and Patout had worked to decorate the iconic liners Ile-de-France, Atlantic and Normandy. The building is distinguished by its location on a triangular plot, with a cut panel oriented towards the Bois de Boulogne, subtly evoking the aesthetics of the ships without adopting an explicit bow. The artist's workshop, located on the third floor, is illuminated by a large bay window of twenty square meters, highlighting the importance of light in his work.

The mansion, now occupied by a physical education centre and a dwelling, was partially protected by an inscription under the Historical Monuments in 1975, covering its facades and roofs. This recognition highlights its innovative architecture for the time, as well as its link to the cubist and decorative art movement of the 1920s. The precise location, at 2 rue Gambetta and 1bis rue Jean-Baptiste-Clément, makes it an important part of the modern heritage of Boulogne-Billancourt, in the Hauts-de-Seine.

The collaboration between Patout and Lombard illustrates the fruitful exchanges between architecture and visual arts during the inter-war period. Their common work on liners, symbols of luxury and modernity, influenced the design of this house, where geometric lines and clean volumes reflect the cubist spirit. The building thus bears witness to a creative period when art was fully integrated into the living space, breaking the boundaries between functionality and aesthetics.

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