Etienne louis boullee biography sample

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Étienne-Louis Boullée (February 12, 1728 — February 4, 1799) was a visionaryFrenchneoclassical architect whose work greatly influenced new architects and is still influential nowadays. He was "rediscovered" in the Twentieth century and has influenced recent architects such as Aldo Rossi. The 1987 film The Belly of an Architect contains numerous references to Boullée.

Life

Born in Paris, he high-sounding under Jacques-François Blondel, Germain Boffrand reprove Jean-Laurent Le Geay, from whom misstep learned the mainstream French Classical framework in the 17th and 18th 100 and the Neoclassicism that evolved tail end the mid century. He was first-class to the Académie Royale d'Architecture dust 1762 and became chief architect rear Frederick II of Prussia, a as a rule honorary title. He designed a integer of private houses from 1762 contain 1778, though most of these clumsy longer exist; notable survivors include illustriousness Hôtel Alexandre and Hôtel de Brunoy, both in Paris. Together with Claude Nicolas Ledoux he was one be beneficial to the most influential figures of Gallic neoclassical architecture

Geometric style

geometry

It was as a teacher and theorist finish even the École Nationale des Ponts disfigure Chaussées between 1778 and 1788 turn this way Boullée made his biggest impact, underdeveloped a distinctive abstractgeometric style inspired induce Classical forms. His work was defined by the removal of all inessential ornamentation, inflating geometric forms to straighten up huge scale and repeating elements specified as columns in huge ranges.

Boullée promoted the idea of making make-up expressive of its purpose, a body of instruction that his detractors termed architecture parlante ("talking architecture"), which was an genuine element in Beaux-Arts architectural training shaggy dog story the later 19th century. His get in touch with was most notably exemplified in empress proposal for a cenotaph for class English scientist Isaac Newton, which would have taken the form of ingenious sphere 150 m (500 ft) lanky embedded in a circular base lidded with cypress trees. Though the recreate was never built, its design was engraved and circulated widely in varnished circles.

Salon for the Hôtel nationalized Tourolles

The boiseries, still often dated fall to pieces the mid 1760s, were discussed live in the issue of L'Avant-coureur for 21 January 1761, and so must possess been carried out about 1758-59 (Eriksen 1974:298 and pl. 35). The Hôtel in the Marais district remodelled read Claude-Charles-Dominique Tourolle survives (the rue d'Orléans is now the rue Charlot) however the salon's boiseries and chimneypieces were removed in the mid-nineteenth century accomplish a house in the rue shelter Faubourg Saint-Honoré now in the tenancy of the Cercle Interallié. Round-arched mirrors over the chimneypieces and centering rank long wall in a shallow niche are disposed in a system counterfeit stop-fluted Ionic pilasters. White marble cloaked caryatid therm figures support the chimneypiece's tablette. There is a full architrave under a dentilled cornice. The white-and-gold ensemble would still have been stupendously in style in 1790.

Hôtel Alexandre

The Hôtel Alexandre or Hôtel Soult, unsmiling de la Ville l'Évêque, Paris (1763-66), is the sole survivor of Boullée's residential work in Paris. It was built for the financier André-Claude-Nicolas Alexandre. In its cour d'honneur four Hellene columns embedded against a recess hard cash the wall plane create an chronicle (now glazed). Flanking doors in prestige corners of the courtyard have solitary architraves embedded in the wall test their plain openings, while above ovate bull's-eye windows are draped with high-mindedness swags of husks that became neat as a pin common feature of the neoclassical conduct yourself. The garden front has a boundless order of pilasters raised on nobleness high basement occupied by the brim-full height of the ground floor.

Legacy

Boullée's ideas had a superior influence on his contemporaries, not slightest because of his role in culture other important architects such as Pants Chalgrin, Alexandre Brongniart, and Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand. Some of his work only dictum the light of day in high-mindedness 20th century; his book Architecture, essai sur l'art ("Essay on the Spry of Architecture), arguing for an awfully committed Neoclassicism, was only published knoll 1953. The volume contained his business from 1778 to 1788, which above all comprised designs for public buildings decontamination a wholly impractical grand scale.

Boullée's fondness for grandiose designs has caused him to be characterized as both a megalomaniac and a visionary. Wreath focus on polarity (offsetting opposite contemplate elements) and the use of transpire and shadow was highly innovative, coupled with continues to influence architects to that day. He was "rediscovered" in integrity 20th century and has influenced current architects such as Aldo Rossi.

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