Fr : version française / En: english version

.mheu, Historical Museum of the Urban Environment

Powerful and immaterial

On earth as it is in heaven

Taming fire

Quest for Fire

The raw and the cooked

Roasting, frying, grilling, boiling and braising

Household arts

It's Winter, light the fire!

Heating the artist's workshop

Adding fuel to the fire

From earthenware jug to fridge

Alchemy

Vulcan's forges

Magic of transparency

The Candelabra's luster

The electricity fairy

City lights

The steam horse

Boom!

3, 2, 1...blastoff!

Fear in the city

Caught in the cross fire

Auto-da-fé

Show me a sign

Witches and the stake

Up in smoke

Saint John's bonfires

Like a great sun

One last bouquet

The Candelabra's luster

Artificially lengthening the day is one of mankind's first victories over time. Every fuel has its specific properties and a greasy substance is the best for producing a wonderfully yellow flame. Oil, tallow, glycerin, paraffin, seal blubber and "lamp oil" have all been used to moisten lamp wicks and create light for nocturnal activities.

By My Green Candlestick!

PAPA UBU, MAMA UBU

PAPA UBU: (angry) Shitsky!

MAMA UBU: Oh! such language! Papa Ubu, thou art a big bad boy.

PAPA UBU: What stoppeth me from slaying thee, Mama Ubu?

MAMA UBU: It is not I, Papa Ubu, it is someone else who should be assassinated.

PAPA UBU: By my green candlestick, I understand not.

MAMA UBU: What, Papa Ubu, are you happy with your lot?

PAPA UBU: By my green candlestick, shitsky! my dear, verily, verily, I am happy. A man could be happy with less: captain of the Dragoons, an officer who has the confidence of King Wenceslas, decorated with the Order of the Red Eagle of Poland, and former King of Aragon, what more could you want?

MAMA UBU: What! You, who were once King of Aragon, you now think it's good enough to march in a parade at the head of forty attendants armed with cabbage-cutters? When after the crown of Aragon you could place the crown of Poland on your noggin?

PAPA UBU: Ah, Mama Ubu, I can't understand a word you say.

MAMA UBU: You're so dumb!

PAPA UBU: By my green candlestick, King Wenceslas is still very much alive; and even assuming he dies, does he not have swarms of children?

MAMA UBU: What's stopping you from massacrating the whole family and taking their place?

PAPA UBU: Ah, Mama Ubu, you are insulting me and you will soon get dumped into the lobster-pot.

MAMA UBU: Ah! miserable wretch, if I got dumped into the lobster pot, who then would mend the seat of your pants?

Excerpt from Scene I, Act I of "Ubu the King", a play in five acts by Alfred Jarry, 1888.
Translated from the French by David Ball.

Their flickering flame inspires reverie and symbolizes a divine or magical presence in many religions. It is one more miracle of fire, transforming a candle into a taper, a chandelier into a menorah and keeping a genie imprisoned in a lamp.

Beauty By the Lantern

Although Kusinada is primarily known for his portraits of actors, he also painted a number of portraits of female beauties, a classic theme in Japanese woodblock printing.

Here a young courtesan is caught at home, dressed in a simple indoor kimono. The two teacups, the clothes hanging over the screen and the accessories dropped on the floor suggest that a client may be present but out of sight.

Kusinada

Kusinada was born in the then Edo, now known as Tokyo, in 1786. Gifted at drawing, he was quickly taken on at the workshop of a woodblock printer. Woodblock art emerged in the 17^th century and was at its peak at the time. Skillful at continually adapting to the public's expectations, Kusinada soon became a huge success, like his contemporary Hokusai.

Of the 20,000 woodblock prints he created before his death in 1864, his portraits of theater actors are among the best known. Kusinada also illustrated books and erotic literature. Long considered a secondary painter by collectors, he is admired today as one of the great masters of Japanese woodblock printing.

.Fire

The Candelabra's luster