The house and the museum
Overlooking the Loire, there couldn’t be a better location for the Jules Verne Museum. As Julien Gracq wrote: “On the right, you see the statue of Saint Anne blessing the port from atop her rock and a stretch of grassed esplanade, on the left, a little museum devoted to Jules Verne, who must often have come up here to contemplate the river, where it becomes the gateway to the sea and the road to adventure”.
Located to the east of the Butte Sainte-Anne stairway, the house was built between 1872 and 1878 at the request of the architect Ernest-Marie Buron. Buron’s first projected elevation differs considerably from what was finally built, in particular in the Moorish-inspired design of the windows. The façades are embellished with bay windows topped with horseshoe arches, and the imposts (upper parts of the windows) are examples of openwork joinery. The tops of the arches are highlighted by a brick cornice. Visually, the framing around the openings plays on the limestone’s pale shades and the red of the bricks. Due to the steep slope, the building, which stands on the rocky escarpment, has a ground floor on the north side and a three-level elevation on the south side.
Over the course of the 20th century, the house was divided up into several apartments. The City of Nantes purchased the upper part in 1965 and the lower part in 1973, in order to house the Jules Verne Museum in 1978, after the building had been restored throughout.
James Gurney
Floating Jules Verne Museum
Watercolour on paper, 2009
MJVC460 (Purchased from the artist, 2009)
This work depicts the Jules Verne Museum taking flight. It was created as a tribute to Jules Verne on the occasion of the 10th edition of the Utopiales International Science-Fiction Festival in 2009, an event held in Nantes every year.
Born in California in 1958, James Gurney is best known for his Dinotopia series, an imaginary world created in order to tell of adventures that begin and continue like a Vernian text: on 10 November 1862, Arthur Denison and his son Will, passengers on the Venturer, are victims of a storm in the middle of the ocean; the only survivors, they are washed up on the beach of an unknown island, Dinotopia, which they explore in a series of coming-of-age stories in which dinosaurs, depicted in line with the latest scientific discoveries, evolve in a universe that advocates ecology, good sense and cooperation (what’s more, between species!), holding up a mirror to human society.
Benjamin Guyet
Les Éditions de l’Étau at the Jules Verne Museum
Linocut on paper – No. 24/29
Les Éditions de l’Étau, Nantes, 2015
MJV C517 (Purchased from the artist, 2015)
Les Éditions de l’Étau was founded by Benjamin Guyet, who has a fascination for the commercial art of the late 19th to early 20th century.
He discovered linocutting in 2013. Since then, he has been creating his own posters announcing imaginary events. he designs his own typographies, giving the letters a warmer appearance that enhances his layouts.
One of his series is devoted to Jules Verne and his novels, providing them with offbeat interpretations. This poster announces the exhibition devoted to him, held at the Jules Verne Museum from October 2015 to January 2016. Each copy of this series was printed on Nantes’ Museum of Printing’s presses.
Jean Bruneau
1900, the Saint-Anne steps and the former railway line
Watercolour on paper
Nantes, 1978
MJV C553 (Purchased from the artist’s family, 2019)
In 1978, Jean Bruneau, a Nantes-born painter, portraitist, cartoonist and
illustrator, was very much involved in the celebration of the 150th
anniversary of Jules Verne’s birth, and the creation of the museum
devoted to him. For the occasion, he created “Images d’Épinal”, models
to cut out and assemble, and a work in 15 watercolours, with all the
meticulousness and charm of true reporting, recounting the novelist’s
life in his native city.
Henri-Théodore Driollet
Plan, section and elevation of the Sainte-Anne stairway
Drawing on paper
Nantes, 1847
Exhibition print (Nantes Archives)
With Bas-Chantenay’s industrial development and the increase in the population working in the west of Nantes, construction of a public stairway providing access to the butte became a necessity.
In May 1847, the project for construction of a stairway between Quai d’Aiguillon and Sainte-Anne Church was approved. The stairway has a 14.50-metre-wide footprint; the 120 steps are divided into five flights and are eight metres wide. They are cut from very hard, top-quality blue granite. On the 2 May 1850, the stairway, lined with 26 trees, was opened to the public. It was named “escalier de Sainte-Anne” (Saint Anne’s stairway) due to the installation of the statue, which was inaugurated on 22 April 1851. Saint Anne, raising her hand towards the sea, offers her protection to sailors and is a reminder of the importance of Nantes commercial port.
In 1857, the railway line was extended to Saint-Nazaire. Its owner, La Compagnie d’Orléans, had it run past the foot of the butte; the stairway was deprived of its bottom flight, which was replaced by an elegant perron. After the Second World War, the railway line was diverted underground. The perron disappeared and was replaced by a concrete structure.
Sainte-Anne stairway and statue
Postcard, circa 1910
MJV E165
This postcard depicts the Sainte-Anne stairway and statue, a spot much
frequented by the inhabitants of the Chantenay neighbourhoods, which
used to be the town of Chantenay-sur-Loire before its municipal
attachment to the City of Nantes in 1908.
The Sainte-Anne stairway
Postcards, early 20th century
Artaud-Nozais and Grand Bazar Nouvelles Galeries
MJV CP193 and CP199
Sainte-Anne stairway
Postcard, circa 1860
Exhibition print (Nantes Archives)
In this view from 1860, another building can be seen on the site of the house (the future Jules Verne Museum), which would be built alongside the Sainte-Anne stairway between 1872 and 1878. The perron at the foot of the stairway was created in 1857 following the extension of the railway line to Saint-Nazaire.
Ernest-Marie Buron
Section plan of the house to be built
13 August 1872
Ink and watercolour on tracing paper, 1/10 scale
Exhibition print (Nantes Archives)
Elevations of façades and section plans of the house to be built for Ernest-Marie Buron, architect in Nantes.
In the end, this project didn’t correspond to the final building.
Photograph of the Jules Verne Museum
MJV E163
This photograph, taken from Quai Marquis de l’Aiguillon, depicts the Jules Verne Museum at the time of its opening in 1978 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the author’s birth in Nantes.
