Étienne-Louis Boullée 1

Étienne-Louis Boullée

Boullée, Deuxieme projet pour la Bibliothèque du Roi (1785)

Étienne-Louis Boullée (February 12, 1728 – February4, 1799) was a visionary French neoclassical architectwhose work greatly influenced contemporary architectsand is still influential today.

Life

Born in Paris, he studied under Jacques-FrançoisBlondel, Germain Boffrand and Jean-Laurent Le Geay,from whom he learned the mainstream French Classicalarchitecture in the 17th and 18th century and theNeoclassicism that evolved after the mid century. Hewas elected to the Académie Royale d'Architecture in 1762 and became chief architect to Frederick II of Prussia, alargely honorary title. He designed a number of private houses from 1762 to 1778, though most of these no longerexist; notable survivors include the Hôtel Alexandre and Hôtel de Brunoy, both in Paris. Together with ClaudeNicolas Ledoux he was one of the most influential figures of French neoclassical architecture.

Geometric styleIt was as a teacher and theorist at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées between 1778 and 1788 that Boulléemade his biggest impact, developing a distinctive abstract geometric style inspired by Classical forms. His work wascharacterised by the removal of all unnecessary ornamentation, inflating geometric forms to a huge scale andrepeating elements such as columns in huge ranges.

Boullée, Cénotaphe à Newton (1784)

Boullée promoted the idea of making architectureexpressive of its purpose, a doctrine that his detractorstermed architecture parlante ("talking architecture"),which was an essential element in Beaux-Artsarchitectural training in the later 19th century. His stylewas most notably exemplified in his proposal for acenotaph for the English scientist Isaac Newton, whichwould have taken the form of a sphere 150 m (490 ft)high embedded in a circular base topped with cypresstrees. Though the structure was never built, its designwas engraved and circulated widely in professionalcircles. Boullee's Cenotaph for Isaac Newton is a funerary monument celebrating a figure interred elsewhere.Designed in 1784, for all its apparent originality, it actually derives from contemporary archaeology. The smallsarcophagus for Newton is placed at the lower pole of the sphere. The design of the memorial creates the effect ofday and night. The effect by night, when the sarcophagus is illuminated by the starlight coming through the holes inthe vaulting. The effect by day is an armillary sphere hanging in the center that gives off a mysterious glow. ForBoullée symmetry and variety were the golden rules of architecture.

Étienne-Louis Boullée 2

Salon for the Hôtel de TourollesThe boiseries, still often dated in the mid 1760s, were discussed in the issue of L'Avant-coureur for 21 January 1761,and so must have been carried out about 1758-59 (Eriksen 1974:298 and pl. 35). The Hôtel in the Marais districtremodelled for Claude-Charles-Dominique Tourolle survives (the rue d'Orléans is now the rue Charlot) but thesalon's boiseries and chimneypieces were removed in the mid-nineteenth century to a house in the rue du FaubourgSaint-Honoré now in the possession of the Cercle Interallié. Round-arched mirrors over the chimneypieces andcentering the long wall in a shallow recess are disposed in a system of stop-fluted Ionic pilasters. White marbledraped 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 fully in style in 1790.

Hôtel AlexandreThe Hôtel Alexandre or Hôtel Soult, rue de la Ville l'Évêque, Paris (1763–66), is the sole survivor of Boullée'sresidential work in Paris. It was built for the financier André-Claude-Nicolas Alexandre.[1] In its cour d'honneur fourCorinthian columns embedded against a recess in the wall plane create an entry (now glazed). Flanking doors in thecorners of the courtyard have isolated architraves embedded in the wall above their plain openings, while above ovalbull's-eye windows are draped with the swags of husks that became a common feature of the neoclassical manner.The garden front has a colossal order of pilasters raised on the high basement occupied by the full height of theground floor.

LegacyBoullée's ideas had a major influence on his contemporaries, not least because of his role in teaching other importantarchitects such as Jean Chalgrin, Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, and Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand. Some of hiswork only saw the light of day in the 20th century; his book Architecture, essai sur l'art ("Essay on the Art ofArchitecture), arguing for an emotionally committed Neoclassicism, was only published in 1953. The volumecontained his work from 1778 to 1788, which mostly comprised designs for public buildings on a wholly impracticalgrand scale.Boullée's fondness for grandiose designs has caused him to be characterized as both a megalomaniac and a visionary.His focus on polarity (offsetting opposite design elements) and the use of light and shadow was highly innovative,and continues to influence architects to this day. He was "rediscovered" in the 20th century and has influenced recentarchitects such as Aldo Rossi.Peter Greenaway's film, The Belly of an Architect (1987), concerns a fictitious architect who is staging an exhibitiondevoted to Boullée's work. The film contains many visual references to Boullée.

Étienne-Louis Boullée 3

Notes[1] The house passed to the marquis de Collonge, then to the maréchal Soult, from 1802 to 1818, whose name it now also sometimes bears.

Bibliography• Boullée & visionary architecture ed. Helen Rosenau, Pub. Harmony Books, New York, 1976 ISBN

0-85670-157-2.• Boullée's Treatise on Architecture by Étienne-Louis Boullée, ed. by Helen Rosenau, pub. Alec Tiranti, Ltd.

London: 1953 First Edition•• Étienne-fggds

(1728-1799: Theoretician of Revolutionary Architecture) by Jean Marie Perouse De Montclos, pub.GeorgeBraziller; ISBN 0-8076-0672-3; (February 1974)

• Visionary Architects: Boullée, Ledoux, Lequeu by Jean-Claude Lemagny, pub. Hennessey & Ingalls; ISBN0-940512-35-1; (July 2002)

• Les Architectes de la Liberté by Annie Jacques, pub. Découvertes Gallimard #47; ISBN 2-07-053067-1;(November 1988) [In French]

• A Dictionary of Architecture, James Stevens Curl, Oxford University Press (1999).• "Boullée, Etienne-Louis (1728 - 1799)", The Hutchinson Encyclopedia, Helicon (2001).• "Boullée, Etienne-Louis (1728 - 1799)", Crystal Reference Encyclopedia (2001).• Svend Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France 1974. (London: Faber) translated by Peter thornton.

External links• Boullée exhibit at Bibliothèque nationale de France http:/ / expositions. bnf. fr/ boullee/ index. htm• (French) Ministère de la Culture (http:/ / www. culture. gouv. fr/ culture/ actualites/ celebrations/ boullee. htm)• Internet architecture resource http:/ / www. vitruvio. ch/ arc/ masters/ boullee. htm• Successor to the Académie Royale d' Architecture http:/ / www. academie-des-beaux-arts. fr• Movie: The Belly of an Architect 1987 dir. Peter Greenaway http:/ / www. imdb. com/ title/ tt0092637/• 3D model of Newton Cenotaph http:/ / sketchup. google. com/ 3dwarehouse/

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Article Sources and Contributors 4

Article Sources and ContributorsÉtienne-Louis Boullée  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=520868831  Contributors: 2A02:2F06:21:F002:0:0:BC1A:1C2C, Andybak, Astragal, Bender235, Blahm, Caltrop,Chris93, ChrisO, D6, DVD R W, Dcfleck, Everyking, Ghirlandajo, JFG, Jaxl, KnightRider, Lockley, Look2See1, MCiura, Mario todte, Menchi, Mick gold, Oerjan, Olivier, Omnipaedista,OwenBlacker, Pethan, PhilipC, Plehn, Raven in Orbit, RogDel, Sam Hocevar, Shadowjams, Sicilarch, WOSlinker, Wetman, Yelyos, Zazpi, 17 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsImage:Bibliotheque nationale boul.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bibliotheque_nationale_boul.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: AndreasPraefcke,Coyau, Ecummenic, Erasoft24, Mats Halldin, Olivier2, Paris 16, TomAltImage:Newton memorial boullee.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Newton_memorial_boullee.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Coyau, Mats Halldin,Mattes, Menchi, Olivier2

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