Ferdinand Cheval (19 April 1836 – 19 August 1924), often nicknamed Facteur Cheval ("Mail Carrier Cheval") was a French mail carrier who spent 33 years building Le Palais idéal (the "Ideal Palace") in Hauterives, in southeastern France. It is regarded as an extraordinary example of naïve art architecture. Origins Cheval was born in Charmes-sur-l'Herbasse to a poor farming family. He left school at age 13 to become a baker's apprentice, but eventually became a mail carrier. In 1858, he married his first wife, Rosaline Revol. They had two sons, Victorin Joseph Fernand (1864) and Ferdinand Cyril (1867). Victorin died after only a year, in 1865. Rosaline herself died in 1873. Five years later, Cheval met and married Claire-Philomène Richaud. Her dowry included the land on which the Palais Idéal stands today. In 1878, she gave birth to their daughter, Alice-Marie-Philomène, who died in 1894 at the age of 15. Alice's death hit Cheval the hardest and she was the last child he would have. 18 years later, his son Cyril and second wife Claire died within two years of each other, in 1912 and 1914, respectively. Palais idéal Cheval began building the Palais Idéal in 1879 when he was 43. His work is commemorated in an essay by Anaïs Nin. In 1932, the German artist Max Ernst created a collage titled The Postman Cheval. The collage belongs to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and is on display there. In 1958, Ado Kyrou produced Le Palais idéal, a short film about Cheval's palace. After admiring Cheval's work, Picasso created a series of drawings telling a narrative, in a cartoon fashion, which is now recognized as Facteur Cheval sketchbook in 1937. Picasso drew him as a twisted, hybrid-like creature (or beast), carved with the initials of the French postal service (P.T.T) on his skin, dressed in typical postman's attire, holding masonry tools and a letter. The creature was standing in front of his creation. In the drawing, Picasso took a humorous route, sketching Cheval's body in the shape of a horse and his head that of a bird. Picasso did this in an effort to make a sort of pun about Cheval's name and career, given birds are messengers (as Cheval was a postman) and the meaning of Cheval is horse. In 1969, André Malraux, the minister of Culture, declared the Palais a cultural landmark and had it officially protected. In 1986, Cheval