Victor Louis
Louis-Nicolas Louis called Victor Louis (* around May 10, 1731 in Paris , † July 2, 1800 in Paris) was a French architect.
biography
Victor Louis was the son of a master mason. At the age of 15 he entered the École royale d'Architecture and after at least seven failed attempts he won a gold medal in a competition in 1755, which gave him the financial opportunity to continue his studies in Rome (1756-1759) . There he met u. a. with the painters Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Hubert Robert , but his main interest was the art of antiquity and the Renaissance . However, he fell out with the director Charles Joseph Natoire and was excluded from the academy and thus from royal commissions. After a stay in Poland (1765) he returned to Paris, where he had lived with his wife, a composer and pianist, from 1770.
After his return from Rome, he took the first name 'Victor' (= 'the winner') and received his first small orders, including the renovation of the Paris city palace from Louis François Armand de Vignerot du Plessis , Duke of Richelieu, the great-nephew of Cardinal Richelieu . This was royal governor of the province of Guyenne , whose capital was Bordeaux . In the years 1773–1780 he drafted the plans for the city's famous theater; It is unclear whether he was also the site manager. In addition, he also took on other smaller jobs in the region; many of his buildings are now owned by wineries.
He was married to the Salonnières and musician Marie-Emmanuelle Bayon Louis since June 20, 1770 . The couple had a daughter.
For Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans , Victor Louis undertook renovation work at the Palais Royal in Paris. In the years after the beginning of the French Revolution , he received no more orders.
Major works
- 1760: purgatory chapel in the church of Sainte-Marguerite (11th arr.)
- 1760: Chapel and entrance area of the Benedictine convent (98 rue de Charonne, 11th district) (destroyed)
- 1764/5 ??: Château de Prada in Labastide-d'Armagnac
- 1767-1773: Work on the interior choir of the Cathedral of Chartres
- 1771–1779: Seat of the royal directorship of Franche-Comté in Besançon (now the prefecture)
- 1772–1778: Château de la Rochette near Melun ( Seine-et-Marne )
- 1773–1780: Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux
- 1773: Hôtel Boyer-Fonfrède (1 cours du Chapeau-Rouge, Bordeaux)
- 1774: Château de Virazeil ( Lot-et-Garonne )
- 1774: Hôtel Lamolère (rue Esprit-des-Lois, Bordeaux)
- 1775–1777: Hôtels Saige, Journu et Legrix, Prefecture of Bordeaux (until 1993)
- 1776–1778: Château de Saint-Maur in Argent-sur-Sauldre ( Cher )
- 1778: Château de Tauzia in Gradignan and Château d'Anglade in Izon ( Gironde )
- 1780: Château de Lahitte in Moncrabeau (Lot-et-Garonne department)
- 1782–1787: Enlargement of the parish church of Saint-Éloi in Dunkerque
- 1783: Château Raba in Talence (Gironde)
- 1786–1789: Château du Bouilh in Saint-André-de-Cubzac (Gironde)
- 1786–1790: Salle Richelieu of the Comédie-Française in the Palais Royal (Paris)
- 1787–1789: Château de l'Hospital near Portets (Gironde department)
- 1792–1794: Château l'Enclos in Pineuilh
- 1788–1792: Hôtel de la Motte-Sanguin (2 rue Solférino, Orléans )
- ??: Château Rabaud celebrities in Bommes (Gironde)
meaning
Victor Louis' main work, the Theater of Bordeaux, secures him a place in the architectural history of France for all time; the three-flight staircase in the vestibule of the building was the model for a similar construction in the Opéra Garnier in Paris.
literature
- Charles Marionneau: Victor Louis. Architecte du théâtre de Bordeaux. Sa vie, ses travaux et sa correspondance 1731-1800. Bordeaux, Imprimerie G. Gounouilhou, 1881
- Jean Lacouture (text), Dominique Thillard (photos): Le Grand-Théâtre de Bordeaux ou L'Opéra des Vendanges. Caisse nationale des monuments historiques et des sites, Paris 1994 ISBN 978-2858-22125-7
Web links
- Article on the 200th anniversary of Victor Louis' death (French)
- Bordeaux in the 18th century (French)
- Article about Madame Louis (Engl.)
- Literature by and about Victor Louis in the WorldCat bibliographic database
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Louis, Victor |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Louis, Louis-Nicolas |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French architect |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around May 10, 1731 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 2, 1800 |
| Place of death | Paris |