Louis-Hippolyte Lebas (31 March 1782 in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
– 12 June 1867 in Paris) was a French architect working in a rational and severe
Neoclassical style
Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...
.
Life and career
He was trained in the atelier of
Percier and Fontaine
Percier and Fontaine was a noted partnership between French architects Charles Percier and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine.
History
Together, Percier and Fontaine were inventors and major proponents of the rich and grand, consciously archaeol ...
, the favoured architects of
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
. After Napoleon's exile he remained the assistant of
Pierre François Léonard Fontaine
Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...
, whose design for the sober
Chapelle Expiatoire
The Chapelle expiatoire ("Expiatory Chapel")''expiatoire'' does not appear in contemporaneous sources; it was added later. is a chapel located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. The chapel was constructed on the grounds where King Louis ...
over the burial site of
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...
and
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...
he oversaw in construction (1816-1824). He also assisted
Éloi Labarre
Saint Eligius (also Eloy, Eloi or Loye; french: Éloi; 11 June 588 – 1 December 660 AD) is the patron saint of goldsmiths, other metalworkers, and Coin collecting, coin collectors. He is also the patron saint of veterinarians, the Royal Elect ...
(1764—1833) in completing the
Palais Brongniart
The Palais Brongniart ( en, Brongniart Palace) housed the historical Paris stock exchange (french: Bourse de Paris). It is located at the Place de la Bourse, in the II arrondissement, Paris.
Early history
Historically, stock trading took place ...
(1813-1826), the seat of the
Paris Bourse
Euronext Paris is France's securities market, formerly known as the Paris Bourse, which merged with the Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Brussels exchanges in September 2000 to form Euronext NV. As of 2022, the 795 companies listed had a combined market ...
, named after its architect,
Alexandre Brongniart
Alexandre Brongniart (5 February 17707 October 1847) was a French chemist, mineralogist, geologist, paleontologist, and zoologist, who collaborated with Georges Cuvier on a study of the geology of the region around Paris. Observing fossil content ...
.
One of his best known works is the Parisian
church Notre-Dame-de-Lorette for which he was commissioned in 1823 and that completed in 1836.
[He is commemorated nearby with the rue Louis-Hippolyte Lebas, Paris IXe.] He built the former
prison of Petite Roquette, (1826-1836, demolished 1974), which was the first example in France of a progressive
panoptic prison.
Lebas taught the History of Architecture at the
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...
, from 1840 to 1863. In this teaching role, applying the
art-historical method of
Johann Joachim Winckelmann
Johann Joachim Winckelmann (; ; 9 December 17178 June 1768) was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. "The prophet and founding he ...
to the study of historical architecture, he set a mark on several generations of young French architects.
His daughter married the historian and civil servant
Léon Halévy
Léon Halévy (4 January 1802 – 2 September 1883) was a French civil servant, historian, and dramatist.
Early life
Born to a Jewish family in Paris, Léon was the son of the writer and chazzan Élie Halévy and the younger brother of the ...
.
Notes
References
* Barbara Boifava, ''Théorie, Pratique et Histoire de l'Architecture: L'enseignement de Louis-Hippolyte Lebas à l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris. 1842-1856'', History of art thesis, Paris, Université Paris VIII, 2003.
* Françoise Largier, ''Louis-Hippolyte Lebas (1782-1867), architecte, historien de l’art'', Mémoire de diplôme d'études supérieures de l'
École du Louvre
The École du Louvre is an institution of higher education and grande école located in the Aile de Flore of the Louvre Palace in Paris, France. It is dedicated to the study of archaeology, art history, anthropology and epigraphy.
Admission is ...
, 2004.
* Françoise Largier, "Louis-Hippolyte Lebas (1782-1867) et l'histoire de l'art", ''Livraisons d'histoire de l'architecture'', 9.1, L'architecte historien, 2005.
*Vassiliki Petridou, "La doctrine de l'Imitation dans l’architecture française dans la première moitie du XIXe siècle. Du Neo-classicisme au Romantisme `a travers l’œuvre de Louis Hippolyte Lebas (1782-1867)", Doctoral thesis Université de Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV, 1992, vol II.
*Vassiliki Petridou, "P.-F.-L. Fontaine et L.H.Lebas : une double paternité pour la Chapelle Expiatoire à la mémoire de Louis XVI et de Marie-Antoinette", in ''Le Livre et l’art", études offertes en hommages à Pierre Lelièvre'' par Thérèse Kleindienst, ed., Somogy éditions d’art, Paris, 2000
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lebas, Louis-Hippolyte
19th-century French architects
1782 births
1867 deaths
Architects from Paris
Members of the Académie des beaux-arts