Victor Baltard

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Victor Baltard
Design for the parish church of Saint-Augustin

Victor Baltard (born June 10, 1805 in Paris ; † January 13, 1874 there ) was a city architect in Paris in the second half of the 19th century . His most famous buildings include the parish church of Saint-Augustin and the market halls in Paris.

family

Victor Baltard was born as the son of the architect Louis-Pierre Baltard (1764–1846), who initially taught at the École polytechnique and later at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris as a professor of architecture. In 1833, Victor Baltard married Adeline, the sister of the architect Paul-Eugène Lequeux .

career

In 1824 Victor Baltard entered the École des Beaux-Arts. There he took courses with his father, with the architects François Debret and Charles Percier , and he also attended courses in painting.

At the end of his training, Victor Baltard received the most important award from the art school in 1833, the Prix ​​de Rome , which enabled him to spend five years in Rome . The price was associated with accommodation in the Villa Medici , the seat of the Académie de France in Rome since 1803 , of which Dominique Ingres became director in 1835 . During this time Victor Baltard made the acquaintance of numerous French artists, the composer Ambroise Thomas , the painter Hippolyte Flandrin , and the sculptor Pierre-Charles Simart, who also resided in the Villa Medici. In Rome, Victor Baltard was mainly concerned with archaeological studies.

Upon his return, Baltard was appointed Inspecteur des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1839 . In 1841 he took part in the competition for the design of the tomb of Napoleon in the Invalides , from which he and the architect Louis Visconti ex-aequo emerged as the first. Louis Visconti, who was older and was considered more experienced, received the contract.

Market halls by Victor Baltard, in the foreground the parish church of Saint-Eustache

In 1845 Victor Baltard was entrusted with the construction of the outdated Paris market halls. In that year he presented his first draft, which he later changed in favor of a pure iron and glass construction. Construction work began in 1851. The first six pavilions were completed in 1858, four more in 1874. The last two pavilions were not completed until 1935. In the 1970s, the market halls were demolished and the Forum des Halles shopping center was created in their place , which has been fundamentally redesigned since 2012. Only one old hall, called the Baltard Pavilion , has survived and has been rebuilt in Nogent-sur-Marne .

From 1848 Victor Baltard was responsible for the restoration of the town hall ( Hôtel de Ville ) and the Paris churches, the renovations of which he led. From 1853, Baltard was also responsible for organizing the festivals in Paris. He created the backdrops for solemn receptions, inauguration ceremonies and other festivities.

La Villette slaughterhouse in 1867

At the end of the 1850s, Victor Baltard drafted the plans for the new slaughterhouse building in La Villette , on the north-eastern outskirts of Paris, based on the market halls , the execution of which he left to the architect Louis-Adolphe Janvier. Georges-Eugène Haussmann , who had become prefect of the Seine department in 1853 , appointed Victor Baltard, who, like Haussman, was a Protestant, as chief architect of the city of Paris in 1860.

From 1860 to 1871 Victor Baltard built the parish church of St-Augustin on Place Saint-Augustin in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. At the beginning of the 1870s, Victor Baltard drew up the plans for the Paris funeral home ( Pompes funèbres ) at 104 Rue d'Aubervilliers in the 19th arrondissement , which now houses the centquatre cultural center .

Awards

Marché Secrétan

Buildings (selection)

  • Baltard Pavilion in Nogent-sur-Marne

  • Parish Church of Saint-Augustin

  • Former funeral parlor Pompes funèbres , today centquatre cultural center

  • Former funeral parlor Pompes funèbres , today centquatre cultural center

Funerary monuments

Victor Baltard designed the grave monument for Hippolyte Flandrin in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés church and the grave of the composer Louis Lefébure-Wély (1817–1869) in the Père Lachaise cemetery .

Unrealized projects

  • 1856: Design for a central train station near the Pont Neuf bridge in the 1st arrondissement
  • 1860: Draft for the reconstruction of the market hall of the Carreau du Temple in the 3rd arrondissement
  • around 1860: Design for the new Paris Opera building ; the design was realized by Charles Garnier

Publications (selection)

  • Monograph des halles centrales de Paris , Paris 1863.

literature

  • Guy Chemla: Les Ventres de Paris. Les Halles, la Villette, Rungis . Éditions Glénat, Grenoble 1994, ISBN 2-7234-1543-1 , p. 37.
  • Jean Colson, Marie-Christine Lauroa (ed.): Dictionnaire des Monuments de Paris . Éditions Hervas, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-84334-001-2 .
  • Aline Dumoulin, Alexandra Ardisson, Jérôme Maingard, Murielle Antonello: Paris. D'Église en Église . Éditions Massin, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-7072-0583-4 .

Web links

Commons : Victor Baltard  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Baltard, Victor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baltard, Victor-Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French architect
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1805
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1874
Place of death Paris