Charles-Louis Girault (; 27 December 1851 – 26 December 1932) was a French

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Biography

Born in

Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire () is a Communes of France, commune and a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Nièvre Departments of France, department in central France. It was created in 1973 by the merger of two former communes: Cosne-sur-L ...

, he studied with Honoré Daumet at the

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in nor ...

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 ...

. He received the first

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 ...

, awarded him in 1880 on the basis of a design for a

hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

for sick children along the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

. Consequently, he became a member of the

French Academy in Rome The French Academy in Rome (, ) is an academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio (Pincian Hill) in Rome, Italy. History The Academy was founded at the Palazzo Capranica in 1666 by Louis XIV under the dire ...

, staying there from 1881 until 1884. He supervised the work of three other architects at the

Grand Palais The (; ), commonly known as the , is a historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris between the Champs-Élysées and the Seine, France. Construction of the began in 1897 following the demolitio ...

(1897–1900), and worked at the

Petit Palais The (; ) is an art museum in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Built for the Exposition Universelle (1900), 1900 Exposition Universelle ("universal exhibition"), it now houses the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts (''Musée des beaux-arts ...

from 1896 until 1900. He was elected to membership in 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 1902. Girault designed the Royal Galleries of Ostend, built from 1902 to 1906. In 1905 he was chosen by

Leopold II of Belgium Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Born in Brussels as the second but eldest-surviving son of King Leo ...

to design the Arcades du Cinquantenaire in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

; also for Brussels, he designed the

Royal Museum for Central Africa The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) (; ; ), communicating under the name AfricaMuseum since 2018, is an ethnography and natural history museum situated in Tervuren in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, just outside Brussels. It was originally b ...

, begun in 1904 and finished in 1910. Girault died in Paris on 26 December 1932, one day before what would have been his 81st birthday.

Selected works

File:France Paris Petit Palais renove Entree 02.jpg, The façade of the

, Paris. File:AfricaMuseum - 2023-02-09 - 03.jpg,

, Tervuren. File:Palacio de don Félix Ortiz de Taranco..JPG, Palacio Taranco, Montevideo

External links

Archive Charles Girault
Royal museum for central Africa * {{DEFAULTSORT:Girault, Charles 19th-century French architects 20th-century French architects 1851 births 1932 deaths People from Nièvre Prix de Rome for architecture Academic staff of the École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts alumni Historicist architects Members of the Académie des beaux-arts Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal