Cars
Absolute opposites
The article highlights the genius of Paul Arzens, a Parisian artist who built innovative prototypes in the 1930s and 1940s. One of his most striking designs was the Buick La Baleine, a spectacular roadster over seven meters long with a whale-like nose.
Those blessed with genius are always ahead of the field, often too much, but they tend to drag the rest in their wake. Take Paul Arzens, for example, who, in 1938, as a young Parisian artist, built a spectacular roadster on a Buick chassis.
Inspired by nature, the "mouth" of the Baleine is very similar to that of a real whale.
The car was over seven meters long. Given its size, the shape of its nose, and its color, its name was absolutely perfect: “La Baleine“ (the Whale). When people asked him why the car was so long, he would reply that he needed a roomy trunk to take all his art equipment whenever he wanted to paint outdoors. Perfectly rational!
