Louis-Martin Berthault

Louis-Martin Berthault (born September 30, 1770 in Paris , † April 16, 1823 in Tours ) was a French architect, decorator and landscaper.

Life

Louis-Martin Berthault was born into a wealthy Parisian entrepreneurial family that came from Saint-Maur-des-Fossés . Only contradicting information has come down to us about his training: It is sometimes said that he was a student of the architect Charles Percier . Other sources, however, report that he acquired his artistic skills through self-study. After his father's early death, his wealthy maternal uncles ( Jacques-Antoine Berthault and Pierre-Gabriel Berthault) supported his early career. They also gave him access to the elite of the Directory and Consulate . The new French upper class, in whose service Berthault was to enter, was a product of the French Revolution . They had bought the properties and lands confiscated from the nobility and clergy at low prices. To represent their new social position, they were interested in architectural and design plans. In Amiens , Berthault came into contact with Augustin Debray , a merchant and later mayor of the city. He laid out one of his first gardens for him. In 1798 the banker Jacques-Rose commissioned Récamier Berthault to decorate the interior of his recently acquired Paris townhouse. During this time, Berthault advanced to become one of the most important Parisian architects and landscape gardeners: he created a park in Chaillot for a secretary to Paul de Barras . He set up a boudoir for Dorothea von Kurland , who was friends with the later Foreign Minister Talleyrand . Under Napoleon's rule , many of the aristocrats who had fled during the Revolution returned to France and provided Berthault with further commissions. In September 1805 he was appointed architect of the country estate of Napoleon's wife Josephine in Malmaison . Berthault was the only artist who was able to maintain the esteem of the empress until her death. Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine had already lost Josephine's favor by 1802 and were recalled from Malmaison Castle.

He designed the furnishings for the Compiègne Castle and laid out its gardens. He quickly gained an international reputation that did not even wane with the fall of the First Empire .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jean-Denys Devauges : architect, decorator and landscaper in: 1810. The politics of love Napoleon I and Marie-Louise in Compiegne, exhibition catalog of the National Museum in the castle Compiegne . Réunion des Musées nationaux. Paris 2010. p. 48.