Funeral monument bust of Hector Lefuel - FindAGrave amy7252 (adjusted)

Hector-Martin Lefuel (14 November 1810 – 31 December 1880) was a French architect, best known for his work on the Palais du Louvre, including Napoleon III's Louvre expansion and the reconstruction of the

Pavillon de Flore The Pavillon de Flore, part of the Palais du Louvre in Paris, France, stands at the southwest end of the Louvre, near the Pont Royal. It was originally constructed in 1607–1610, during the reign of Henry IV, as the corner pavilion betw ...

Biography

He was born in

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

, the son of Alexandre Henry Lefuel (1782–1850), a building entrepreneur. He was admitted to the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

in 1829, studied there with Jean-Nicolas Huyot and in 1833 received second place in the Prix de Rome competition. By that time, his father died and he had to spend the next few years managing the family building business, which delayed the completion of his studies but also brought him valuable building experience. He won of the

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

in 1839 and subsequently spent the years 1840 to 1844 as a pensionary of the French Academy in Rome at the

Villa Medici The Villa Medici () is a Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, ...

, together with

Ernest Hébert Antoine Auguste Ernest Hébert (3 November 1817 – 5 December 1908) was a French academic painter. Biography Hébert was born in Grenoble, son of a notary in Grenoble, and moved in 1835 to Paris to study law. He simultaneously took art ...

(laureate in painting) and

Charles Gounod Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...

(music). On his return to France he opened his own practice and was appointed a building inspector for the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

. Having carried out alterations as the Château de Meudon (1848) and for the housing of the Manufacture Royal de Porcelaine de Sèvres (1852), he was appointed chief architect of the

Château de Fontainebleau Palace of Fontainebleau (; ) or Château de Fontainebleau, located southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. The medieval castle and subsequent palace served as a residence ...

, one of the residences of

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...

under the new monarchical

Second French Empire The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France. Historians in the 1930s ...

regime; there he designed a new Imperial theatre (1853–1855). Following the sudden death of the architect

Louis-Tullius-Joachim Visconti Louis Tullius Joachim Visconti ( Rome February 11, 1791 – December 29, 1853) was an Italian-born French architect and designer. Life Son of the Italian archaeologist and art historian Ennio Quirino Visconti, Visconti designed many Par ...

in 1853, Lefuel was placed in charge of the ambitious project of completing the Louvre. He kept Visconti's project but enriched it in profuse ornamental detail and completed the project in record time for opening in AUgust 1857, one of the showpieces of the Second Empire. Napoleon III then tasked him with the reconstruction of the

pavillon de Flore The Pavillon de Flore, part of the Palais du Louvre in Paris, France, stands at the southwest end of the Louvre, near the Pont Royal. It was originally constructed in 1607–1610, during the reign of Henry IV, as the corner pavilion betw ...

and much of the

Grande Galerie The Grande Galerie, in the past also known as the Galerie du Bord de l'Eau (Waterside Gallery), is a wing of the Louvre Palace, perhaps more properly referred to as the Aile de la Grande Galerie (Grand Gallery Wing), since it houses the longest ...

, which he completed by the late 1860s. Lefuel's work at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

became an exemplar of the nascent Second Empire architectural style. Lefuel also created lavish apartments for the imperial household in the Palais des Tuileries, lost when that palace burned in the Paris Commune of 1871. After the

Tuileries Palace The Tuileries Palace (french: Palais des Tuileries, ) was a royal and imperial palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine, directly in front of the Louvre. It was the usual Parisian residence of most French monarchs, f ...

was destroyed by fire in 1871, Lefuel was in charge of the repairs to the

and the symmetrical reconstruction of the pavillon de Marsan to the north, in 1874–1879. He had been elected to the

Académie des beaux-arts An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

in 1855, taking the chair of

Martin-Pierre Gauthier Martin-Pierre Gauthier (1790–1855) was a French architect. 1790 births 1855 deaths People from Troyes 19th-century French architects Recipients of the Legion of Honour Members of the Académie des beaux-arts Prix de Rome for architec ...

. He was made a chevalier of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleo ...

in 1854, and a Commander of the Legion in 1857. Grave of Hector Lefuel - FindAGrave amy7252

Lefuel also designed and erected the ''

hôtel particulier An ''hôtel particulier'' () is a grand townhouse, comparable to the British townhouse or mansion. Whereas an ordinary ''maison'' (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a s ...

'' of Achille Fould, Minister of Finance under Napoléon III, and that of the museum director Émilien de Nieuwerkerke (the Hôtel de Nieuwekerke in Parc Monceau) and the Hôtel Émonville in Abbeville. He designed funeral monuments, such as that to the composers

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (; 29 January 178212 May 1871) was a French composer and director of the Paris Conservatoire. Born into an artistic family, Auber was at first an amateur composer before he took up writing operas professionally when ...

and François Bazin at

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (french: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise ; formerly , "East Cemetery") is the largest cemetery in Paris, France (). With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Notable figure ...

. His palace in Louis XIII style at Neudeck ( Świerklaniec), Polish Silesia, built in 1868–1872, the grandest of three residences there of the Donnersmarcks, was burnt out in 1945 and demolished in 1961. Hector Lefuel died in Paris and is buried at

Passy Cemetery Passy Cemetery (french: Cimetière de Passy) is a small cemetery in Passy, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. History The current cemetery replaced the old cemetery (''l'ancien cimetière communal de Passy'', located on Rue Lekain), ...

Gallery

File:Pavillon Sully du Louvre 002.jpg, Pavillon Sully at the eastern end of the Cour Napoleon File:Louvre aile Richelieu.jpg, Perspective view of the Richelieu Wing (1857) File:Appartements Napoléon III 4.jpg, Grand Salon of the Napoleon III Apartments File:Central chandelier NIII Louvre.jpg, Central chandelier of the Grand Salon File:Decorative arts in the Louvre - Room 83 - 03.JPG, Great Dining Room of the Napoleon III Apartments File:P1080712 Louvre salle romaine rwk.JPG, Salle d'Auguste (originally Salle des Empereurs) File:Paris - palais du Louvre, pavillon Mollien.jpg, Mollien Pavilion of the Denon Wing File:Paris 75001 Cour Lefuel Louvre horseshoe stairs 20110122 161143.jpg, Cour Lefuel (Denon Wing) with horse ramps leading to the former Emperor's Stables File:Palais du Louvre - Cour Lefuel -01.jpg, Tympanum over the door to the former stables from the Cour Lefuel File:Palais du Louvre - Salle du Manège -0a.jpg, Salle du Manège (former stables) File:Guichets du Louvre, Paris 25 June 2011.jpg, South facade of the Guichets du Carrousel (1861) File:Le pavillon de Flore 3.jpg,

, south facade Carpeaux's ''Imperial France Enlightens the World'', flanked by the allegorical male figures ''Science'' and ''Agriculture'', surmounts the pediment, and below, his frieze of Flora leaning over a group of children, is "unquestionably the most famous work of sculpture on the whole exterior of the Louvre." (Bautier 1995, p. 129)

Notes

Bibliography

* Aulanier, Christiane (1971). ''Histoire du Palais et du Musée du Louvre: Le Pavillon de Flore''. Paris: Éditions des Musées nationaux. . * Bautier, Genevieve Bresc (1995). ''The Louvre: An Architectural History''. New York: The Vendome Press. . * Mead, Christopher (1996). "Lefuel, Hector-Martin", vol.19, pp. 69–70 in ''

The Dictionary of Art ''Grove Art Online'' is the online edition of ''The Dictionary of Art'', often referred to as the ''Grove Dictionary of Art'', and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press ...

'' (reprinted with minor corrections in 1998), edited by Jane Turner. London: Macmillan. .

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lefuel, Hector 19th-century French architects 1810 births 1880 deaths People from Versailles Burials at Passy Cemetery Prix de Rome for architecture Members of the Académie des beaux-arts École des Beaux-Arts alumni Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur People associated with the Louvre