Jean Francois Chalgrin

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Chalgrin, Jean-François-Thérèse (1739–1811). Paris-born architect who studied with Servandoni and Boullée, and worked for a while as Inspecteur des Travaux de la Ville de Paris (from 1763) under Moreau-Desproux: he erected the Hôtel St-Florentin, Paris (1767–70), to plans by Gabriel, but he was responsible for the Neo-Classical courtyard-screen, portal, and interior décor. An important Neo-Classicist, he designed the basilican St-Philippe-du-Roule, Paris (1768–74), in a severe Antique style, much influenced by Cordemoy, Laugier, and Contant d'Ivry. The interior has free-standing Ionic columns defining the barrel-vaulted nave, and continuing in a curve around the apse, while the Tuscan Order was used for the entrance-portico. The church was contemporary with similar buildings by Potain and Trouard. Quatremère de Quincy praised St-Philippe in 1816 as a model for French architects to follow because it adopted the Early Christian basilica and avoided Baroque excesses. While working on St-Philippe, Chalgrin completed Servandoni's great Church of St-Sulpice, building the north tower (1776–8), changing Servandoni's unfluted proposals for the west front to a fluted arrangement, and carrying out other works, including the baptistry and organ-case. He also designed several gardens, as well as the exquisite Pavillon de Musique, Versailles (1784), with its rotunda containing a trompe-l'œil painting that suggests the room is set in a garden. He remodelled the Palais du Luxembourg, Paris (1787–1807), creating the impressive Neo-Classical Salle du Sénat and grand staircase (1803–7), and designed the enormous Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, Paris (1806), completed by Blouet (1836), which has two main axes instead of just one, and is astylar.

Bibliography

Builder (1980);
Gaehtgens (1974);
Gallet (1972);
Middleton & and Watkin (1987)

Jean François Chalgrin , 1739–1811, French architect. He studied under Servandoni and in Italy as a winner of the Grand Prix de Rome (1758). He rebuilt (1777) part of the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris. His most influential work was the Church of St. Philippe-du-Roule, in which he reintroduced a basilica plan to French ecclesiastical architecture. He also enlarged the buildings of the Collège de France and, after the Revolution, altered the palace of the Luxembourg to serve as headquarters for the Directory. In 1806 he was commissioned by Napoleon to design a commemorative arch to the victorious armies of France, and the executed scheme for the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile was chiefly Chalgrin's, although he died shortly after commencement of the actual construction.