Bernard Poyet (3 May 1742 – 6 December 1824) was a French architect, best known for his work on the

Palais Bourbon The Palais Bourbon () is the meeting place of the National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French Parliament. It is in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on the Rive Gauche of the Seine across from the Place de la Concorde. The offi ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Biography

A native of

Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...

, Poyet was a student of

Charles de Wailly Charles de Wailly () (9 November 1730 – 2 November 1798) was a French architect and urbanist, and furniture designer, one of the principals in the Neoclassical revival of the Antique. His major work was the Théâtre de l'Odéon for the Coméd ...

who, in 1766, charged him with supervising the construction of a barn stable at the Château des Ormes. Although a utilitarian structure, it included the installation of a sculpted

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

, depicting the goddess

Cybele Cybele ( ; Phrygian: ''Matar Kubileya, Kubeleya'' "Kubeleya Mother", perhaps "Mountain Mother"; Lydian: ''Kuvava''; ''Kybélē'', ''Kybēbē'', ''Kybelis'') is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible forerunner in the earliest ...

, by the King's sculptor,

Augustin Pajou Augustin Pajou (; 19 September 1730 – 8 May 1809) was a French sculpture, sculptor, born in Paris. At eighteen he won the Prix de Rome, and at thirty exhibited his ''Pluton tenant Cerbère enchaîné'' (now in the Louvre). Selected works Paj ...

. In 1768, he took second place at 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 ...

with a project for a comic theatre. The following year, he obtained a stipend for a stay as a boarder at the Académie de France à Rome. Upon his departure, his proposals for a new main building at the château were taken up by another student of De Wailly's, who worked on the project until 1783. Upon his return, he was named official architect to

Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (12 May 1725 – 18 November 1785), known as ''le Gros'' (the Fat), was a French royal of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon. The First Prince of the Blood after 1752, he was the most senior male at th ...

and oversaw some small construction projects in the suburbs. In 1786, he was admitted to the

Académie royale d'architecture The Académie Royale d'Architecture (; ) was a French learned society founded in 1671. It had a leading role in influencing architectural theory and education, not only in France, but throughout Europe and the Americas from the late 17th centur ...

and appointed Public Works Inspector for the City of Paris. During this time, he worked on reconstructing the 13th century and enlarging the Sainte-Anne Hospital Centre.Yvan Christ, ''Paris des Utopies'', 2011, éd. Nicolas Chaudun, p. 141 . In 1790, Poyet was named Architect of the City of Paris; he was made responsible for the city's water supply, which involved relocating the

Fontaine des Innocents The Fontaine des Innocents is a monumental public fountain located on the place Joachim-du-Bellay in the Les Halles district in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. Originally called the ''Fountain of the Nym ...

. In 1806, as a close associate of

Lucien Bonaparte Lucien Bonaparte, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano (; born Luciano Buonaparte; 21 May 1775 – 29 June 1840), was a French politician and diplomat of the French Revolution and the Consulate. He served as Minister of the Interior from 1799 to ...

, he was entrusted to redesign and replace the decorations on the façade of the

facing the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

. His private commissions included the (1812). He was elected to the

Académie des Beaux-Arts The (; ) is a French learned society based in Paris. It is one of the five academies of the . The current president of the academy (2021) is Alain-Charles Perrot, a French architect. Background The academy was created in 1816 in Paris as a me ...

in 1818, taking the eighth seat for architecture. Several large projects were never realised; notably a plan to reconstruct the

Hôtel-Dieu In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu () was originally a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church. Nowadays these buildings or institutions have either kept their function as a hospital, the one in Paris being the oldest an ...

on the Île des Cygnes, in circular form, modelled after the

Colosseum The Colosseum ( ; , ultimately from Ancient Greek word "kolossos" meaning a large statue or giant) is an Ellipse, elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphi ...

, with 5,000 beds. It would have been 200 metres (app. 656 feet) wide, with three floors and a central courtyard. In 1786, a nine-member commission from the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

examined the proposal, but found it too large, unsuited for the location, as well as much too expensive. Throughout his career, Poyet wrote memoirs and books on architecture. He died in

, where he was interred at the

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...

.Jules Moiroux, ''Le cimetière du Père Lachaise'', Paris, S. Mercadier, 1908

References

External links

"Histoire du Palais Bourbon et de l'hôtel de Lassay"
@ the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Poyet, Bernard 1742 births 1824 deaths Architects from Dijon 18th-century French architects 19th-century French architects Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Prix de Rome for architecture Members of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture Members of the Académie des beaux-arts

Biography

References

Further reading

External links