Etienne-Louis Swell

Etienne-Louis Boullée is a Architecte French born in Paris the February 12th 1728 and died in Paris the February 4th 1799.

With Claude Nicolas Ledoux it was one of the principal figures of the neo-classic Architecture in France. He imagined buildings of dream combining the philosophy of the Lights, the love of the geometry (simple geometrical forms) and a gigantic scale (accumulation of masses).

Biography

Wire of an expert geometrician, Louis-Claude Boullée, Etienne-Louis Boullée wanted to become painter but, towards the authorities of his father, it was directed towards the Architecture. It followed, between 1744 and 1747, the teaching of Jacques François Blondel, Germain Boffrand and Jean-Laurent Legeay, near which it learned the principles from traditional French architecture. In 1747, it lost his father and opened his own school of architecture.

He was elected with the royal Académie of architecture in 1762 and became architect of Frederic II of Prussia, title largely honorary.

Under the French revolution, it was one of the fifteen academicians who sent to the National Assembly a project of national Academy of Arts (1791). In 1793, it was named substitute with the national Jury for Arts and bequeathed its drawings and its manuscripts to the Nation (they are today with the National library of France). It took part in the jury of the contests of Year II (1794) and was elected member of the Académie of the Art schools of the Institute of France during its creation in 1795.

The architect

The first orders that Boullée accepted starting from 1752 related primarily to the refitting of existing constructions and work of decoration. In 1762, it renovated the house of Claude-Charles-Dominique Tourolle, Rue Charlot in the Marsh, and the hotel of Montville, street of Good Cod.

In 1754, the young architect built in the north of the church Saint-Roch a small low vault dedicated to the Martyrdom, which formed part of the ambitious monumental program conceived by the priest Jean-Baptiste Marduel, and also redrew the furnace bridge S of the ends of the transept and their Retable S. His work was destroyed by the enlarging of the vault in 1850.

Between 1762 and 1778, Boullée built a good number of private residences, which all were destroyed except for the hotel Alexandre (known as also Soult), Rue of the City the Bishop in Paris (1763).

It rebuilt the castle of Chaville (1764), built the two hotels of Montvile Rue of Anjou (1764), the hotel of Pernon (1768), the hotel of Brunoy (1774), arranged the hotel of Villeroy, Rue of Game preserve (1768), the Tubeuf hotel for the system check of finances (1769), worked with the castle of Villiers and the hotel of Sénac (1770). It arranged the house of the financier Nicolas Beaujon with Issy (1773) and worked for him with the decoration and the installation of the hotel of Évreux.

In 1778, Boullée was named architect of the Hôtel of the Invalids and, in 1780, controller of the buildings of the Military academy. For this reason, it had to complete work, in particular building most of the buildings which border the forecourt, the two guardrooms, etc

As from 1776, it had started to work for the count d' Artois, for which it gave a project of palate in 1780.

In 1787, it took part in the building work of the new bridge Louis XV (current Pont of the Harmony), supervising the destruction of the neighbouring houses.

The theorist

It is as theorist and professor with the National school of the Highways Departments between 1778 and 1788 that Boullée was mainly made know and exerted the greatest influence. He developed a clean geometrical style, inspired by the traditional forms and characterized by the removal of any superfluous ornamentation, the enlarging of the geometrical forms on a gigantic scale and the repetition in very great number of elements such as the columns. The required objective was to produce an impression of majesty and solemnity suitable to inspire the respect with the citizens, while suggesting the majesty of the universe and the subjacent rational intention.

Swell promoted the concept of an architecture expressing its function, doctrines which it called speaking Architecture , and which was an essential component of teaching to the École of the Art schools towards the end of the 19th century.

An good example of its own style can be required in its project of Cénotaphe for Isaac Newton, which would have taken the shape of a sphere 150 meters in diameter, posed on a crowned circular basis of Cyprès. The project was never carried out, but it was engraved and circulated largely in professional environments.

The ideas of Swell had a major influence on its contemporaries. It trained important architects such as Jean-François-Therese Chalgrin, Mathurin Crucy, Alexandre Theodore Brongniart or Jean Nicolas Louis Durand.

Part of its work was revealed only at the 20th century. Its book Architecture, test on art , in which he pleads for a Néoclassicisme which would not refuse the emotion, made up between 1796 and 1797, was published only in 1953. It presents in particular its projects of disproportionate public buildings imagined between 1778 and 1788.

The taste of Swell for the imposing projects often made it tax with megalomania. Its use of the polarity or the play of the shade and the light was very in advance over its time. Redécouvert at the 20th century, Swell continuous to influence contemporary architects like Aldo Rossi.

Works

Principal achievements

Hotel Alexandre, n° 16 Street of the City the Bishop, 1763: Early work built for the financier Andre-Claude-Nicolas Alexandre in a style which announces the Petit Trianon. The frontage on court includes/understands an order of columns on the ground and the frontage on garden an order of pilasters colossal high on a ground floor in base. The hotel is also known under the name of the marshal Soult, owner of 1802 with 1818.
Castle of Chaville, 1764 (destroyed).
Hotels of Montville, Street of Anjou, 1764 (destroyed).
Hotel of Pernon, 1768 (destroyed).
House of Nicolas Beaujon with Issy, 1773 (destroyed).
Hotel of Brunoy, 1774 - 1779.

Principal projects

Projects for the news church of the Madeleine, 1777 - 1781: project of church in form of Latin cross surmounted by a dome, inspired of the church Holy-Genevieve of Jacques-Germain Soufflot. * Project of palate for the count d' Artois, 1780
Project for the rebuilding the Opera of Paris, 1781: evoking the the Pantheon Rome.
Project of basilica to the Supreme Being baptized Metropolis , 1781: * Project for the Law courts, 1782
Project of hotel Street of Game preserve, 1782
Two projects of circus, 1782
Project for the Natural history museum, 1783
Project for the restoration of the Castle of Versailles, 1783
Project for the hotel of Ségur, 1783
Project of Cenotaph to Isaac Newton, 1784
Project of Public library of the Nasturtiums, 1784 - 1785
Project of palate for a Sovereign, 1785
Project for the National library, Street Richelieu, 1785
Projet of monument of Bridge-with-Changes, 1786
Projet of monument to the glory of Louis XVI, 1786
Projet of national Palate, 1792
Projet of municipal Palate, 1792

Publications

Considerations on the importance and the utility of architecture, followed sights tending to progress of the fine arts , manuscript, National library of France.
Architecture. Test on art , manuscript, National library of France - Helen Rosenau (ED.), Boullée' S Treatise one Structures by Etienne-Louis Boullée, London, Alec Tiranti Ltd., 1953.
Memory on the means of getting for the Library of the king the advantages that this monument requires , manuscript, National library of France.

References

Catalog of films

In film of the British realizer Peter Greenaway The Belly off year Architect ( the belly of the architect ) ( 1987), the hero of film is an architect follower of the innovative ideas of Etienne-Louis Boullée and asserts his influence on his own works. Many drawings and plans are shown in this feature-length film.

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