Pierre Lepautre or Le Pautre (1652 – 16 November 1716) was a French drawing artist, engraver and

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, especially known as an ''ornemaniste'', a prolific designer of ornament that presages the coming

Rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

style.Kimball 1943, pp. 62–64, etc. He was the son of the designer and engraver

Jean Lepautre Jean Le Pautre or Lepautre (baptised 28 June 1618; died 2 February 1682) was a French designer and engraver, the elder brother of the architect Antoine Le Pautre, the father of the engravers Pierre Le Pautre and Jacques Le Pautre, and the unc ...

and nephew of the architect

Antoine Lepautre Antoine Lepautre () or Le Pautre (1621–1679) was a French architect and engraver. Born in Paris, he was the brother of the prolific and inventive designer-engraver Jean Lepautre. Antoine Lepautre has been called "one of the most inventive archi ...

.Souchal 1981, pp. 437–441. His appointment in 1699 as ''Dessinateur'' in the

Bâtiments du Roi The Bâtiments du Roi (, 'King's Buildings') was a division of the Maison du Roi ('King's Household') in France under the Ancien Régime. It was responsible for building works at the King's residences in and around Paris. History The Bâtiments ...

, the official design department of the French monarchy, headed by

Jules Hardouin-Mansart Jules Hardouin-Mansart (; 16 April 1646 – 11 May 1708) was a French Baroque architect and builder whose major work included the Place des Victoires (1684–1690); Place Vendôme (1690); the domed chapel of Les Invalides (1690), and the Gra ...

and later

Robert de Cotte Robert de Cotte (; 1656 – 15 July 1735) was a French architect-administrator, under whose design control of the royal buildings of France from 1699, the earliest notes presaging the Rococo, Rococo style were introduced. First a pupil of ...

in the declining years of Louis XIV, was signalled by the historian of the Rococo,

Fiske Kimball Sidney Fiske Kimball (1888 – 1955) was an American architect, architectural historian and museum director. A pioneer in the field of architectural preservation in the United States, he played a leading part in the restoration of Montice ...

, as a starting point in the genesis of the new style.

Notes

Bibliography

* Dee, Elaine Evans (1982). "Lepautre, Pierre", vol. 2, pp. 687–688, in ''Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects'', edited by Adolf K. Placzek. London: Collier Macmillan. . * Dee, Elaine Evans; Berger, Robert W.; Moureyre, Françoise de la (1996). "Le Pautre

e Paultre; Lepautre E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plu ...

, vol. 19, pp. 210–213, in ''The Dictionary of Art'', edited by Jane Turner. London: Macmillan. . Also a
Oxford Art Online
(subscription required). * Kalnein, Wend von (1995). ''Architecture in France in the Eighteenth Century'', translated by David Britt. New Haven: Yale University Press. . * Kimball, Fiske (1943). ''The Creation of the Rococo''. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art. . (1980 Dover reprint as ''The Creation of the Rococo Decorative Style''). * Préaud, Maxime (2008). ''Inventaire du fonds français. Graveurs du XVIIe siècle. Tome 13. Pierre Lepautre''. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France. . * Souchal, François (1981). ''French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries. Volume 2: The reign of Louis XIV. Illustrated Catalogue G–L''. Oxford: Cassirer. . 17th-century French engravers French designers French draughtsmen 1652 births 1716 deaths Artists from Paris 18th-century French engravers {{printmaker-stub