On the ground floor of the house, Marcel Bascoulard's room (20 m²) offers natural stone flooring, antique furniture, and neat and relaxing decoration, it is lit by 2 large windows. Very pleasant, for a short or long stay. Bed 160cm.
Marcel Bascoulard was born in 1913 and died in 1978 in the Cher département. He was a French illustrator, photographer, and poet.
Known for a form of cross-dressing that was highly uncommon at the time, he became renowned for his ink and pastel landscapes of Bourges.
When Bascoulard was only nineteen, he witnessed the murder of his father by his mother, who was subsequently institutionalized.
From an early age, Marcel Bascoulard chose a life on the margins. He lived in makeshift shelters—garden shacks, attics, ruins—particularly in the Avaricum district of Bourges. He spent his final years in Asnières-lès-Bourges, living in the cab of a truck offered by the owner of a scrapyard.
In the 1930s, he began drawing in Saint-Florent-sur-Cher and later in the streets of Bourges. He soon caught the eye of the architect of Bourges’ Maison de la Culture, who invited him to attend classes at the École des Beaux-Arts of Bourges.
Witness to the transformation of the city in the 1950s and 1960s, he immortalized many of its streets and monuments, including the Cathedral of Saint-Étienne.
He quickly became a well-known figure in Bourges—living like a tramp, recognized for his curious attire and for his habit of moving around on a peculiar reclining tricycle. Often dressed as a woman in outfits of his own making, he was subjected to a few arrests and citations, to which he enjoyed replying with letters to the police officers, invoking his freedom to dress as he pleased. Over the course of his life, he produced numerous photographic self-portraits wearing his various female ensembles.
On 12 January 1978, he was murdered by a 23-year-old drifter. His death shocked the city of Bourges, which chose to cover the expenses of his funeral.
A square in the Avaricum district he frequented now bears his name; a bronze bust by Marcel Blezard has been erected there and inaugurated by the city.
Other rooms await you
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Proche de la Cathédrale de Bourges - Palais Jaques Cœur.
