Neoclassicism is a movement in architecture, design and the arts which was dominant in France between about 1760 to 1830. It emerged as a reaction to the frivolity and excessive ornament of the baroque and

rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

styles. In architecture it featured sobriety, straight lines, and forms, such as the

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...

and

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

, based on

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

and Roman models. In painting it featured heroism and sacrifice in the time of the ancient Romans and Greeks. It began late in the reign of

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

, became dominant under

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was e ...

, and continued through the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

, the

French Directory The Directory (also called Directorate, ) was the governing five-member committee in the French First Republic from 2 November 1795 until 9 November 1799, when it was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte in the Coup of 18 Brumaire and replaced ...

, and the reign of

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

, and the

Bourbon Restoration Bourbon Restoration may refer to: France under the House of Bourbon: * Bourbon Restoration in France (1814, after the French revolution and Napoleonic era, until 1830; interrupted by the Hundred Days in 1815) Spain under the Spanish Bourbons: * Ab ...

until 1830, when it was gradually replaced as the dominant style by

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

and

eclecticism Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories i ...

. Prominent architects of the style included

Ange-Jacques Gabriel Ange-Jacques Gabriel (23 October 1698 – 4 January 1782) was the principal architect of King Louis XV of France. His major works included the Place de la Concorde, the École Militaire, and the Petit Trianon and opera theater at the Palace of V ...

(1698-1782), Jacques-Germain Soufflot (1713–1780), Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) and

Jean-François Chalgrin Jean-François-Thérèse Chalgrin (1739 – 21 January 1811) was a French architect, best known for his design for the Arc de Triomphe, Paris. Biography His neoclassic orientation was established from his early studies with the prophet of neocla ...

(1739-1811); painters included

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away fr ...

(1748-1825) and his pupil,

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the a ...

(1780-1867).

History

Neoclassicism in France emerged in the early to mid-18th century, inspired in part by the reports of the archeological excavations at

Herculaneum Herculaneum (; Neapolitan and it, Ercolano) was an ancient town, located in the modern-day ''comune'' of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Like the ...

(1738) and especially Pompeii (1748), which brought to light classical designs and paintings. The news of these discoveries, accompanied by engraved illustrations, circulated widely. The French antiquarian, art collector and amateur archeologist

Anne Claude de Caylus Anne Claude de Tubières-Grimoard de Pestels de Lévis, ''comte de Caylus'', marquis d'Esternay, baron de Bransac (Anne Claude Philippe; 31 October, 16925 September 1765), was a French antiquarian, proto- archaeologist and man of letters. Born i ...

travelled in Europe and the Mideast, and described what he had seen in ''Recueil d'antiquités'', published with illustrations in 1755. In the 1740s, the style began to slowly change; decoration became less extravagant and more discreet. In 1754 the brother of Madame de Pompadour, the Marquis de Marigny, accompanied the designer

Nicolas Cochin Nicolas Cochin (1610–1686), called the Elder, was a French draughtsman and engraver. He was born at Troyes in 1610, the son of a painter named Noel Cochin. About 1635, he went to Paris, where he died in 1686. He often imitated and copied Jacques ...

and a delegation of artists and scholars to Italy to see the recent discoveries at Pompeii and

, and made a grand tour of other classical monuments. They returned full of enthusiasm for a new classical style, based on the Roman and Greek monuments. In 1754 they published a manifesto against the Rocaille style, calling for a return to classicism. Marigny, after the death of Louis XV, later became director of buildings for Louis XVI. The style was given a philosophical appeal by the ''Philosophes'', including

Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promine ...

and

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revol ...

, who called for a restoration of moral values in society, and by the Abbé Laugier, who wrote ''L'essai sur l'architecture'', a call for a return to pure and uncluttered forms of architecture. The archeological sites in Greece and Italy became mandatory stops for aristocratic and scholarly visitors on the

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tu ...

of Europe. The best young painters in France competed for scholarships to the French Academy in Rome.

Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the a ...

studied there, and later became its director. In 1757 the French architect Jean-François Neufforge published ''Recueil élémentaire d'architecture'', an illustrated textbook of the style. The new taste was originally called ''le goût grec'' (the Greek taste). It called for geometric forms and decoration in "the sober and majestic style of the architects of ancient Greece." In the last years of the reign of Louis XV and throughout the reign of Louis XVI, the new style appeared in the royal residences, particularly in the salons and furnishings of the Dauphine and then Queen

Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child ...

, and of the Paris aristocracy. It combined Greek, Roman, and what was loosely called ''Etruscan'' styles with

arabesques The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foli ...

and

grotesques Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

borrowed from

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual ...

and the Renaissance, and with

chinoiserie (, ; loanword from French ''chinoiserie'', from ''chinois'', "Chinese"; ) is the European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and other East Asian artistic traditions, especially in the decorative arts, garden design, architecture, literatu ...

and Turkish themes, Between 1780 and 1792, the style also appeared in architecture, in classically buildings including the ''

Petit Trianon The Petit Trianon (; French for "small Trianon") is a Neoclassical style château located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France. It was built between 1762 and 1768 during the reign of King Louis XV of France. ...

'' 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, ...

and the ''

Château de Bagatelle The Château de Bagatelle is a small Neoclassical style château with several small formal French gardens, a rose garden, and an ''orangerie''. It is set on 59 acres of gardens in French landscape style in the Bois de Boulogne, which is loca ...

'' (1777). It also appeared in other art forms, including in particular the paintings of

, especially the '' Oath of the Horatii'' (1784).

Architecture

Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aestheti ...

appeared in

French architecture French architecture consists of numerous architectural styles that either originated in France or elsewhere and were developed within the territories of France. History Gallo-Roman The architecture of Ancient Rome at first adopted the exter ...

during the reign of

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ve ...

. In 1667 the king rejected a baroque scheme for the new

east facade of the Louvre The Louvre Colonnade is the easternmost façade of the Palais du Louvre in Paris. It has been celebrated as the foremost masterpiece of French Architectural Classicism since its construction, mostly between 1667 and 1674. The design, dominated by ...

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his ...

, the most famous architect and sculptor of the Baroque era, in favor of a more sober composition with pediments and an elevated colonnade of coupled colossal Corinthian columns, devised by a committee, consisting of

Louis Le Vau Louis Le Vau (1612 – 11 October 1670) was a French Baroque architect, who worked for Louis XIV of France. He was an architect that helped develop the French Classical style in the 17th Century.''Encyclopedia of World Biography''"Louis Le Vau", ...

Charles Le Brun Charles Le Brun (baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French painter, physiognomist, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. As court painter to Louis XIV, who declared him "the greatest French artist ...

, and Claude Perrault. The result, incorporating elements of ancient Roman, French, and

Italian architecture Italy has a very broad and diverse architectural style, which cannot be simply classified by period or region, due to Italy's division into various small states until 1861. This has created a highly diverse and eclectic range in architectural de ...

, "resolves itself into the greatest palace façade in Europe." Under Louis XIV, the Roman dome and facade of monumental columns became the dominant features of important new churches, beginning with the chapel of

Val-de-Grâce The (' or ') was a military hospital located at in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was closed as a hospital in 2016. History The church of the was built by order of Queen Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII. After the birth of h ...

(1645-1710), by Mansart,

Jacques Lemercier Jacques Lemercier (c. 1585 in Pontoise – 13 January 1654 in Paris) was a French architect and engineer, one of the influential trio that included Louis Le Vau and François Mansart who formed the classicizing French Baroque manner, drawing ...

and Pierre Le Muet, followed by the church of

Les Invalides The Hôtel des Invalides ( en, "house of invalids"), commonly called Les Invalides (), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as ...

(1680-1706). While the basic features of the architecture of these churches were classical, the interiors were lavishly decorated in the baroque style. Louvre Kolonnaden.JPG, The

, and Claude Perrault (1667-1670) File:Hôtel de la Marine.jpg, Hotel de la Marine on the Place de la Concorde (1761–70) File:Petit Trianon.JPG,

(1764) File:Eglise St Philippe du Roule - Intérieur.jpg, Interior of Church of Saint-Philippe-du-Roule, Paris (1765–70) In the latter part of the reign of

, the neoclassical became the dominant style in both civil and religious architecture. The chief architect of the king was

Jacques Gabriel Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...

from 1734 until 1742, and then his more famous son,

until the end of the reign. His major works included the École Militaire, the ensemble of buildings overlooking the Place Louis XV (now

Place de la Concorde The Place de la Concorde () is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. ...

(1761-1770)) and the

at Versailles (1764). Over the course of the reign of Louis XV, while interiors were lavishly decorated, the facades gradually became simpler, less ornamented and more classical. The facades Gabriel designed were carefully rhymed and balanced by rows of windows and columns, and, on large buildings like those the Place de la Concorde, often featured grand arcades on the street level, and classical pediments or balustrades on the roofline. Ornamental features sometimes included curving wrought-iron balconies with undulating rocaille designs, similar to the rocaille decoration of the interiors. The religious architecture of the period was also sober and monumental and tended, at the end of the reign, toward neo-classical; major examples include the Church of Saint-Genevieve (now the

Panthéon The Panthéon (, from the Classical Greek word , , ' empleto all the gods') is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was ...

), built from 1758 to 1790 to a design by Jacques-Germain Soufflot, and Church of Saint-Philippe-du-Roule (1765-1777) by Jean Chalgrin, which featured an enormous barrel-vaulted nave. File:Chateau benouville.jpg, Château de Bénouville by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1770-1780) File:GrandTheatreBordeaux2.jpg, Grand Theater of Bordeaux by

Victor Louis Victor Louis (10 May 1731, Paris – 2 July 1800, Paris) was a French architect, disqualified on a technicality from winning the Prix de Rome in architecture in 1755. Life He was born Louis-Nicolas Louis in Paris. He did not adopt the name Vic ...

(1780) File:Grand escalier de l'opéra de Bordeaux.jpg, Stairway of the Grand Theater of Bordeaux,

(1780) File:Château de Bagatelle, Paris 17 July 2016 004.jpg, Chateau de Bagatelle by François-Joseph Bélanger (1777) File:Hôtel de Salm, Paris May 2014.jpg, The Hôtel de Salm, Paris, by

Pierre Rousseau Pierre Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (11 February 1905 – 1983) was a French essayist, epistemologist, astronomer and journalist who authored numerous popular science essays and articles. He helped promote hard science to the general public and advoc ...

(1751-1810) File:Petit Trianon - Belvédère 2012.jpg, The Belvedere of the

at Versailles by

Richard Mique Richard Mique () (18 September 1728 – 8 July 1794) was a neoclassical French architect born in Lorraine. He is most remembered for his picturesque hamlet, the '' Hameau de la Reine'' — not particularly characteristic of his working style — ...

(1789) 2014-09-03 13-33-46 monument-historique-PA00085438.jpg,

Transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building with ...

Notre-Dame de Guebwiller Notre-Dame (Church of Our Lady) is a Neoclassical Catholic parish church in the town of Guebwiller, in the Haut-Rhin department of France. The church is classified as a '' monument historique'' by the French Ministry of Culture since 1841. The b ...

(1762–1785) File:Pantéon (Francia).jpg, The Pantheon (1764-1790), by Jacques-Germain Soufflot File:Intérieur du Panthéon.jpg, Interior of the Paris Pantheon During the reign of Louis XVI, neoclassical was the dominant architectural style in Paris and in the provinces. Notable examples include the

Hotel de la Monnaie The Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint) is a government-owned institution responsible for producing France's coins. Founded in AD 864 with the Edict of Pistres, it is the world's oldest continuously running minting institution. In 1973, the mint reloc ...

in Paris (1771–76) by

Jacques Denis Antoine Jacques Denis Antoine (6 August 1733, Paris - 24 August 1801) was a French architect, whose most notable masterwork is the Hôtel des Monnaies in Paris, which gained him entrance to the Académie royale d'architecture in 1776. He is also known ...

, as well as the Palais de Justice in Paris by the same architect; and the theater of Besançon (1775) and the Chateau de Benouville in the Calvados, both by Ledoux. The École de Chirurgie, or School of Surgery in Paris by Jacques Gondoin (1769) adapted the forms of the neoclassical town house, with a court of honor placed between a pavilion with a colonnade on the street and the main building. He also added a

peristyle In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (; from Greek ) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön ( grc, τετράστῳον or τετράστοον, lit=fou ...

and another floor above the columns, and transformed the entrance to the courtyard into a miniature triumphal arch. The new theaters in Paris and Bordeaux were prominent examples of the new style. The architect

(1731-1811) completed the

theater of Bordeaux Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

(1780); its majestic stairway was a forerunner of the stairway of the Paris Opera Garnier. In 1791, in the midst of the

, he completed the Comedie Francaise. The

Odeon Theater in Paris Odeon may refer to: Ancient Greek and Roman buildings * Odeon (building), ancient Greek and Roman buildings built for singing exercises, musical shows and poetry competitions * Odeon of Agrippa, Athens * Odeon of Athens * Odeon of Domitian, Rome ...

(1779-1782) was built by Marie-Joseph Peyre (1730-1785) and Charles de Wailly (1729-1798). It featured a portico in the form of a covered gallery and columns in advance of the facade. One of the best-known neoclassical buildings of the period is the Chateau de Bagatelle (1777), designed and built by François-Joseph Bélanger for the Comte d'Artois, Louis XVI's brother. The small chateau was designed and completed in just sixty-three days, to win a bet with

that he could build a chateau in less than three months. Marie-Antoinette had a similar small neoclassical belvedere created by architect

, who had also designed her picturesque rustic village in the gardens. It was completed in 1789, the year of the French Revolution. Another notable example of the neoclassical style in Paris is the Hôtel de Salm (now the

Palais de la Légion d'Honneur The Palais de la Légion d'honneur (French for "Palace of the Legion of Honour") is a historic building on the Left Bank of the River Seine in Paris, France. It houses the Musée de la Légion d'honneur ("Museum of the Legion of Honour") and is ...

), built by

in 1751-83. The facade is distinguished by its simplicity and purity, and its harmony and balance. A colonnade of Corinthian columns supports the entablement of the rotunda, which is surmounted by statues. The facade is also animated by busts of Roman emperors in niches, and sculptures in relief above the windows of the semicircular central

avant-corps An ''avant-corps'' ( it, avancorpo or , plural , german: Risalit, pl, ryzalit), a French term literally meaning "fore-body", is a part of a building, such as a porch or pavilion, that juts out from the ''corps de logis In architecture, a '' ...

. File:France arc et senas saline royal main building 1.jpg, Director's house at the Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1775–79) File:Paris Rotonde de la Villette 2004.jpg, ''Rotonde de la Villette'' by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1785–89) File:Newton memorial boullee.jpg, Project for a monument to

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the g ...

by Étienne-Louis Boullée (1784) File:Bibliotheque nationale boul.jpg, Project for the Royal Library by Étienne-Louis Boullée (1785) A few architects adapted the neoclassical style to more functional purposes. Claude-Nicolas Ledoux designed the Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans with exaggerated neoclassical buildings arranged in circles around a central "temple", where the director's home and office was placed. He also designed several rotundas for the new customs barriers installed around Paris between 1785-89. These barriers became highly unpopular (due to the taxes, not the architecture) and most were destroyed during the Revolution, though those at La Villette and Monceau still stand. The most visionary French neoclassical architect was certainly Étienne-Louis Boullée. His designs for an immense spherical monument to Isaac Newton (1784) and a vast new royal library in Paris in the form of a giant barrel vault (1785) were never seriously considered, but foreshadowed the architecture of the 20th century.

Revolution, Directorate and Empire

During the French Revolution construction virtually stopped in Paris. The aristocrats fled, churches were closed and sacked. The one large project carried out between 1795 and 1797 was the building of a large new chamber within the

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

, which eventually became the home of the French

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 rep ...

. 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 ...

was re-organized and reconstituted, with the architecture department under

Quatremère de Quincy Antoine-Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy (21 October 1755 – 28 December 1849) was a French armchair archaeologist and architectural theorist, a Freemason, and an effective arts administrator and influential writer on art. Life Born in Paris, ...

(1755-1849). De Quincy was an amateur archeologist and a classical scholar, as well as an architect. He was sentenced to death by a revolutionary court in 1793, but was spared by the downfall of Robespierre. He was charged with the conversion of the Church of Saint-Genevieve into the modern

, and assured that architectural studies taught the classical traditions. File:Paris - Jardin des Tuileries - Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel - PA00085992 - 003.jpg,

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel () ( en, Triumphal Arch of the Carousel) is a triumphal arch in Paris, located in the Place du Carrousel. It is an example of Neoclassical architecture in the Corinthian order. It was built between 1806 and 1808 ...

by Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (1806–08) File:Madeleine Paris.jpg, Church of the Madeleine facade by Pierre-Alexandre Vignon (1807–43) File:Paris, Triumphbogen -- 2014 -- 1624.jpg,

Arc de Triomphe The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile (, , ; ) is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Place de l'Étoile—the ''étoile'' ...

by Jean Chalgrin (1808-1838) File:Palais Bourbon, Paris 7e, NW View 140402 1.jpg, Facade of the

, added by Napoleon in 1808 After

came to power, the most influential architects were Charles Percier (1764-1838) and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (1762-1853). Their grand projects for Napoleon included the

Rue de Rivoli Rue de Rivoli (; English: "Rivoli Street") is a street in central Paris, France. It is a commercial street whose shops include leading fashionable brands. It bears the name of Napoleon's early victory against the Austrian army, at the Battle o ...

, with its uniform neoclassical facades, modeled on the squares built by Louis XIV and Louis XV. They also designed the interior of the

Château de Malmaison The Château de Malmaison () is a French château situated near the left bank of the Seine, about west of the centre of Paris, in the commune of Rueil-Malmaison. Formerly the residence of Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais, along with the Tuil ...

, the residence of Napoleon, into the model of the neoclassical style. (1803) Fontaine designed another Napoleonic landmark, the

(1806-1808) in the courtyard of the Louvre. Other Napoleonic neoclassical projects included the grand stairway of the

Luxembourg Palace The Luxembourg Palace (french: Palais du Luxembourg, ) is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of t ...

(1801) by Jean Chalgrin (1801), and the

(begun by Chalgrin in 1808, but not finished until 1836). Pierre-Alexandre Vignon (1763–1828), a student of Ledoux, was charged with remaking the Church of the Madeleine, begun in 1761 but abandoned during the Revolution, into a "Temple of Glory" dedicated to Napoleon's army. This project was abandoned in 1813 after a series of defeats of Napoleon's army; it became a church again, but was not completed until 1843. Napoleon also added a neoclassical facade with twelve Corinthian columns to the facade of the

. It was in an entirely different style than the palace behind it, and was not aligned with it; it was aligned instead with the new Temple of Glory (now the Madeleine) which he was building, facing it, on the far side of the

The Restoration and arrival of romanticism

After the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the neoclassic style continued to be used during the French Restoration, particularly in Paris churches. Examples include

Notre-Dame-de-Lorette Notre Dame de Lorette (), also known as Ablain St.-Nazaire French Military Cemetery, is the world's largest French military cemetery.Louis-Hippolyte Lebas Louis-Hippolyte Lebas (31 March 1782 in Paris – 12 June 1867 in Paris) was a French architect working in a rational and severe Neoclassical style. Life and career He was trained in the atelier of Percier and Fontaine, the favoured architects ...

and Saint-Vincent-de-Paul by Jacques-Ignace Hittorff (1824–44). By the 1830s, the architectural style was succeeded by Baroque Revival and

Beaux-Arts architecture Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporat ...

. A change of style began to appear early in the 19th century, particularly after the publication in 1802 of ''le Génie du christianisme'' by one of the leading figures of French

François-René de Chateaubriand François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (4 September 1768 – 4 July 1848) was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian who had a notable influence on French literature of the nineteenth century. Descended from an old aristocrat ...

(1768-1848). He appealed for a return to the

Gothic style Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages * Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes ** Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths ** Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoke ...

, which, as the style of the great cathedrals, he considered was the only truly great French style. The movement toward romanticism and gothic was accelerated by the publication of the hugely successful novel ''

Notre-Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to th ...

'' by

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

in 1821, and then the program of restoration of French Gothic monuments led by

Prosper Mérimée Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, and one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, and a ...

and conducted by

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (; 27 January 181417 September 1879) was a French architect and author who restored many prominent medieval landmarks in France, including those which had been damaged or abandoned during the French Revolution. H ...

(1814-1879). This, along with the French Revolution of 1830, brought to a close the era of French neoclassicism. File:Notre-Dame-de-Lorette-Paris-DSC 6121.jpg,

File:Eglise Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, Paris 11 July 2014 013.jpg, Interior of

Notre-Dame-de-Lorette Notre Dame de Lorette (), also known as Ablain St.-Nazaire French Military Cemetery, is the world's largest French military cemetery.Saint-Vincent-de-Paul by Jacques-Ignace Hittorff (1824–44)

Painting

The dominant figure in French neoclassical painting, even before the Revolution, was

Jacques Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...

(1748-1825). He began as a classical and religious painter, an admirer of

Jean-Baptiste Greuze Jean-Baptiste Greuze (, 21 August 1725 – 4 March 1805) was a French painter of portraits, genre scenes, and history painting. Biography Early life Greuze was born at Tournus, a market town in Burgundy. He is generally said to have formed ...

, the history and genre painter. He was recommended to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts by a family friend,

François Boucher François Boucher ( , ; ; 29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories ...

, master of the

style. He won the prestigious Prix de Rome and went to study there in 1775. He discovered the treasures excavated from Pompeii and other ancient sites, and entirely changed his style. Beginning in 1784 he painted works based on stories from classical literature, including '' Oath of the Horatii'' (1781), a celebration of duty and sacrifice in Roman times. When the

began in 1789, David became an active participant in the most extreme wing, the

Jacobins , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = P ...

, He supported the dissolution of the Academy of Fine Arts, and designed sets for revolutionary pageants and ceremonies. His most famous picture of the period, ''Marat Assassiné'' (1793), adapted the facial expression and the limp arm of Christ in Michaelangelo's '' Pieta'' to depict the assassinated Jacobin leader,

Jean Paul Marat Jean-Paul Marat (; born Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the ''sans-culottes'', a radical ...

. When the Jacobins fell in 1794, he was imprisoned twice for several months, but then resumed an active career as a portraitist and then as court painter for

. When Napoleon fell and the monarchy was restored, he went into exile in Belgium. File:Jacques-Louis David - Oath of the Horatii - Google Art Project.jpg, '' Oath of the Horatii'' by

(1781) File:Jacques-Louis David - La Mort de Marat.jpg, ''Death of Marat'' by Jacques-Louis David (1793) File:Madame Récamier painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1800.jpg, ''Madame Récamier'' by Jacques-Louis David (1800) French painting was dominated for years by David and his pupils, including

Antoine-Jean Gros Antoine-Jean Gros (; 16 March 177125 June 1835) was a French painter of historical subjects. He was given title of Baron Gros in 1824. Gros studied under Jacques-Louis David in Paris and began an independent artistic career during the French R ...

(1771-1835), and later

Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the a ...

(1780-1867). The later neoclassical painters put aside the political messages and concentrated on idealized figures and ideas of beauty; they included

François Gérard François Pascal Simon Gérard (, 4 May 1770 – 11 January 1837), titled as Baron Gérard in 1809, was a prominent French painter. He was born in Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador, and his mother was It ...

, who like David, made a famous portrait of Madame Récamier, much to the annoyance of David; Jean-Baptiste Regnault (1754-1829);

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (, 4 April 1758 – 16 February 16, 1823) was a French Romantic painter and draughtsman best known for his allegorical paintings and portraits such as '' Madame Georges Anthony and Her Two Sons'' (1796). He painted a portra ...

(1758-1823);

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (; 16 April 1755 – 30 March 1842), also known as Madame Le Brun, was a French portrait painter, especially of women, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Her artistic style is generally considered part ...

(1755-1842) and

Anne Louis Girodet-Trioson Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (or ''de Roucy''), also known as Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson or simply Girodet (29 January 17679 December 1824),Long, George. (1851) ''The Supplement to the Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of ...

(1767-1824). File:LadyHamilton.jpg, Emma, ''Portrait of Emma, Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante'' by

(1790) File:Jean-Baptiste Regnault - La Liberté ou la Mort.JPG, ''Liberty or Death'' by Jean-Baptiste Regnault (1795) File:Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson - Portrait of Mlle. Lange as Danae - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Mademoiselle Lange as Danae'' by

(1799) File:Antoine-Jean Gros 009.jpg, ''Portrait of Christine Boyer'' by

(1800) File:Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres - Oedipus and the Sphynx - WGA11843.jpg, ''Oedipus and the Sphinx'' by

(1800) File:François Pascal Simon Gérard 003.jpg, ''Portrait of Madame Récamier'' by

(1805) File:Pierre-Paul Prud'hon - Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime.JPG, ''Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime'' by

(1808)

Sculpture

The most prominent French sculptor in the early neoclassical period was

Étienne Maurice Falconet Étienne Maurice Falconet (1 December 1716 – 24 January 1791) was a French baroque, rococo and neoclassical sculptor, best-known for his equestrian statue of Peter the Great, the ''Bronze Horseman'' (1782), in St. Petersburg, Russia, and fo ...

(1716-1791). whose work included the heroic statue of

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

on horseback in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia (model made in 1770, but not cast until 1782). He was named professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris in 1766, and from 1757 onward he directed the modeling of small sculptures in porcelain at the

Sèvres Porcelain manufactory Sèvres (, ) is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a population of 23,251 as of 2018, is known fo ...

. His work remained closer to the statues in full movement of the French baroque than the new, more serene style. In his later years he designed small ornamental sculptures of cast bronze such as the ''Seated Girl'' (1788), now in the Metropolitan Museum. The first more clearly neoclassical major figure was Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828). He studied at the French Academy in Rome, where he made detailed studies of the anatomy of the ancient Roman and Greek statues on display there. He became famous for his busts and portrait sculptures, most notably his seated statue of

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...

(1779–81), now on display at the

Comedie Française Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term origin ...

, and his busts of Benjamin Franklin and other political figures of the day. He also created several allegorical works illustrating winter and summer in a style entirely more expressive than traditional classicism, such as his ''La Frileuse'' (woman in winter), in the Musée Fabre in Montpellier. The sculptor Claude Michel (1738-1814), also known as Clodion, also studied at the Academy in Rome between 1762 and 1771. His works varied widely from neoclassical to rococo; he conceived a terra-cotta model for an extraordinary monumental sculpture, covered with statuary of angels and cupids, to celebrate the first balloon flight in Paris (1784).

Augustin Pajou Augustin Pajou (19 September 1730 – 8 May 1809) was a French 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 Pajou's portrait ...

(1730-1809) also studied at the French Academy in Rome from 1752 and 1756. He returned to Paris to teach at the Academy of Fine Arts, and became rector in 1792. He made a series of highly expressive statues on mythological subjects, including '' Psyche'' and ''Amour''. File:Buste de Voltaire.jpg, Bust of Voltaire by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1778), National Gallery File:Jean-Antoine Houdon-La frileuse.JPG, ''La frileuse'' (woman in winter), Jean-Antoine Houdon (1783) File:Seated girl MET 148037.jpg, ''Seated Girl'' by

, in bronze (1788), Metropolitan Museum File:'Faun Family', terracotta relief by Claude Michel, c. 1785, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.jpg, ''Faun Family'' Terracotta by Claude Michel (1785), National Gallery, Washington DC File:Mercury Pajou Louvre RF1624.jpg, ''Mercury'' by

(1780), Louvre File:Madame Vigée Le Brun par Pajou.JPG, Bust of Madame Vigée Le Brun by

(1785), Louvre

Music

The effects on Neoclassicism in art are very spotted through artworks and sculptures, but when it comes to music, it is at times overlooked. With the emergence of new ideals, and the shift towards independence from the crown, French society began to see a change in architecture and design, as well as in the arts. Their shift in music commenced the beginning of the romantic era in musical history. The revolts in France at the time, created an environment of hostility and uneasiness, forcing many opera writers to look to France's past in order to portray a sense of unification for the French commoners. In many senses, these operas, and musical settings played political roles in being able to pass on political beliefs on topics, in order to evoke a greater sense of unity in the viewers, believing that many others saw the causes as they personally did. Chénier, Méhul

In the era of the French Revolution, particularly under the rule of Napoleon, the famous composer

Étienne Méhul Étienne Nicolas Méhul (; 16 November 1765 ~ 24 December 1817) was a French composer of the classical period. He was known as "the most important opera composer in France during the Revolution". He was also the first composer to be called a " ...

was known for composing many patriotic pieces for the people and nation of France. Most famous of which is ''Le Chant du depart'', later becoming the official anthem of the French Empire in 1794. Often compared to the current national anthem of France, ''

La Marseillaise "La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du ...

'', ''Le Chant du depart'' holds ties to the unity of the French people, as well as the diversity of French society. The points of view of those who sing range from a deputy to their soldiers, mother, wives, husbands, and fathers, depicting the roles they must take and live through during this era of revolution. The grammatical composition itself from the piece generalizes the characters, for them to see each other as equals under the premise of victory and success. Banned by both Napoleon and

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in e ...

for its revolutionary ties, ''La Marseillaise,'' achieves the similar goal of uniting the people of France by evoking from them a sense of patriotism, as it was nicknamed “Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin” (War song for the Army of the Rhine). Written by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, it displayed the primary aspects of neoclassical music of this era, ''La Marseillaise'' tells the story of the strength of the people and army, in this scenario of their strength against the Austrian and Prussian troops. Uniting them through a renewal of both baroque and classical music, it is not of the glorious history of France, but of the resilience of its people who fought, and still fight to create the nation in which they dreamed to build. Eventually being brought back as the song of the people, it was restored to its position as national anthem, as it remains to this day. File:La Marseillaise.png, Manuscript of ''

'' File:Rouget de Lisle1.JPG, Portrait of Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle File:Étienne Méhul 1799 portrait by Antoine Gros - Insecula.jpg,

(1763-1817) composed '' Le Chant du depart''

Interior decoration

The ''goût Grec'' or "Greek taste" in design was introduced in France in 1757 by Jean-François de Neufforge in his book ''Recueil élémentaire d'architecture'', which praised "the majestic and sober style of the architects of ancient Greece." He offered engravings of classical vaults, garlands of laurel leaves, palmettos and ''guilloches'' (braided interlaced ribbons) and other motifs which soon appeared in Paris salons.Riley, Noël, ''Grammaire des arts decoratifs''(2004), pg. 126 Beginning in the 1770s, the ''style pompéien'' or Pompeii style came into fashion in Paris, based on reproductions of designs found in Pompeii, augmented with

, griffons, sphinxes, horns-of-plenty and vases on tripods, interlaced with vines and medallions and painted on tall rectangular panels on the walls painted white and bordered with gilded stucco. The new style also took inspiration from the decorative grotesques of

painted at the Vatican in 1510. The boudoir of Marie-Antoinette at the

Palace of Fontainebleau Palace of Fontainebleau (; ) or Château de Fontainebleau, located southeast of the center of Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of mo ...

, designed by Rousseau de la Routière in 1790, just after the Revolution began, is a notable example. During the

, the aristocracy fled Paris, and most of the palaces and town houses were stripped of furnishings and decoration. A new version of neoclassicism appeared briefly during the

French Directorate The Directory (also called Directorate, ) was the governing five-member committee in the French First Republic from 2 November 1795 until 9 November 1799, when it was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte in the Coup of 18 Brumaire and replaced by ...

(1795–99), which mingled elements the Pompeiian style with the

Adam style The Adam style (or Adamesque and "Style of the Brothers Adam") is an 18th-century neoclassical style of interior design and architecture, as practised by Scottish architect William Adam and his sons, of whom Robert (1728–1792) and James ( ...

from England. When

seized power from the Directory, the neoclassical style began to take on a new form, called

Empire Style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 dur ...

(1799-1815). File:Boudoir de la reine, Château de Fontainebleau.jpg, Boudoir of

Marie-Antoinette Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...

(1790) File:Château de Malmaison - Appartement de Joséphine 002.jpg, Apartment of the Empress Josephine at the

(1800) File:Château de Malmaison - Bibliothèque 001.jpg, Library of the

, made for Empress Josephine by Percier and Fontaine (1800) File:Versailles Grand Trianon Napoleon's Chamber.jpg, Napoleon's bedroom at the

Grand Trianon The Grand Trianon () is a French Baroque style château situated in the northwestern part of the Domain of Versailles in Versailles, France. It was built at the request of King Louis XIV of France as a retreat for himself and his '' maîtresse-e ...

Palace of 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, u ...

The Empire Style had extraordinary coherence and audacious simplicity, thanks to Napoleon's two energetic chief designers, Charles Percier (1764-1838) and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (1762-1853). The motifs were usually symbols of empire, including crowns and laurel wreaths, medals, lyres, horns of plenty, and classical heads seen in profile. Rooms sometimes had the walls draped in fabric, representing the tents of an army on campaign. Interiors and furniture often featured classical columns carved of wood. Egyptian motifs and mythical beasts from antiquity, such as the

sphinx A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon. In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches o ...

, griffon and the chimera, were popular. Imperial emblems, including the eagle, the bee, and the letter N with a crown, were also common.

Furniture

The first "Greek taste" furniture in France, made in 1756 and 1757 to designs by Jean-François de Neufforge (1714-1791) and

Jean-Charles Delafosse Jean-Charles and Jean-Carles is a French masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: * Jean Charles, Chevalier Folard (1669–1752), French soldier and military author * Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand (1817–1891), French engineer ...

(1734-1791), was massive, rectangular and heavily decorated, with gilded columns, friezes and hanging garlands. However, soon afterwards the royal cabinet maker Jean-Francois Oeben produced much lighter and more graceful works for

and Madame Pompadour. These were a hybrid of the curves of rococo with the right angles of neoclassicism. The chairs had curving ''à cabriolet'' legs and cartouche-shaped backs, combined with neoclassic garlands and friezes. Oeben refurnished Versailles and other royal palaces with innovative new kinds of furniture; the cylinder, or roll-top desk; the table with a mechanical writing surface that could be raised; and the drop-front desk. After the death of Oeben, his place was taken by two of his disciples, Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806) (who married Oeben's widow); and Jean-François Leleu. Riesener and Leleu produced furniture with superb wood-inlay, or marquetry, often in floral designs; and cabinets of mahogany decorated with glided bronze floral decor and column legs. File:Bureau du Roi vue de face avec pièce.jpg, Desk for Louis XV by Jean-Henri Riesener (1760–69), Palace of Versailles File:Mechanical table MET DP108860.jpg, Mechanical writing table by Jean-Francois Oeben (1761–63), Metropolitan Museum File:Chest of Drawers (Commode), 1770-1780, Jean-Henri Riesener, France, oak, mahogany, kingwood, purple heart and unidentified exotic woods, gilt bronze, marble - Art Institute of Chicago - DSC09797.JPG, Commode by Jean-Henri Riesener (1770–80), Art Institute of Chicago File:Fauteuil Jacob cabinet méridienne Versailles.jpg, Armchair by Georges Jacob (1781), Palace of Versailles File:Drop-front secretary (Secrétaire en armoire) MET DP106952.jpg, Drop-front desk by Jean-Henri Riesener (1783), Metropolitan Museum File:Daybed (Lit de repos or sultane) (part of a set) MET DP158381.jpg, Day bed by

Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené Jean-Baptiste-Claude Séne (1747-1803) was a French furniture maker in the 18th century, primarily during the reign of Louis XVI of France, Louis XVI. He came from a noted family of ''menuisiers'', or furniture craftsmen. cabinet makers. His grand ...

(1788), Metropolitan Museum In

Louis XVI furniture Louis XVI furniture is characterized by elegance and neoclassicism, a return to ancient Greek and Roman models. Much of it was designed and made for Queen Marie Antoinette for the new apartments she created in the Palace of Versailles, Palace of ...

, particularly in the 1780s, the furniture styles became lighter, more geometric, and more simply ornamented, following the tastes of

. The leading French designers during this period were

(1748-1803) and Georges Jacob (1739-1814). At the very end of the reign of Louis XVI, Sené and Jacob were producing highly original and imaginative forms, including chairs with lyre-shaped carved wooden backs and the "Etruscan chair", a type conceived by the painter

Hubert Robert Hubert Robert (22 May 1733 – 15 April 1808) was a French painter in the school of Romanticism, noted especially for his landscape paintings and capricci, or semi-fictitious picturesque depictions of ruins in Italy and of France.Jean de Cayeux. ...

for the fantasy "rural hamlet" of Marie-Antoinette at Versailles. The ornament on the chair, which remained popular long after the period ended, was borrowed from ancient Grecian vases. File:Une chaise dans le petit Trianon.JPG, "Etruscan" chair for Petit Trianon by

and Georges Jacob (1787), Palace of Versailles File:Secretary, about 1800, attributed to Bernard Molitor, France, mahogany on oak with ormolu mounts and marble top - Cleveland Museum of Art - DSC08824.JPG, Secretaire by Bernard Molitor (c. 1800), Cleveland Museum of Art File:Armchair Josephine, by Jacob, Musée de Malmaison.png, Swan armchair for Empress Josephine, by Georges Jacob (1804) Chateau de Malmaison The furniture craft was upended by the French Revolution; the aristocratic clients fled, and the furniture of the royal palaces was sold in enormous auctions; a large part went abroad. One positive development for furniture-makers was the abolition of the old guild rules; after 1791 the makers of furniture frames could collaborate with those who did the marquetry inlay. The Etruscan taste disappeared, but the neoclassic style flourished under the

(1793–99), the

French Consulate The Consulate (french: Le Consulat) was the top-level Government of France from the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire on 10 November 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire on 18 May 1804. By extension, the term ''The ...

(1799-1804), and the Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte. The last leading furniture designer for Louis XVI, Georges Jacob, formed a new firm with his two brothers, and, between 1796 and 1803, became the most prominent designer of the later neoclassical period. He made an effort to find classical forms that were more authentic. The type of Greek chair called the ''klismos'' became especially popular; Jacob produced a variety of neoclassical divans and stools, as well as the ''Lit de Repos'', or day bed, which appeared in

's portrait of

Madame Recamier Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ...

. Another popular form was the folding stool, modeled after those that were used in Roman army encampments. After Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798, Egyptian designs, in stylized geometric form, appeared on furniture. Gilded bronze ornaments of extremely fine craftsmanship were made in Paris workshops and exported to the royal houses of Europe. The continual European wars and blockades made it difficult to import exotic woods, and sometimes local woods such as lemon trees were used; mahogany remained the choice for prestige furniture. The master furniture craftsmen of the late Empire style included Bernard Molitor, who made the furniture for the Chateau of Saint Cloud, and the architects Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, who made furniture as authentic as possible to Greek and Roman models for the residences of Napoleon and for clients of the new Napoleonic aristocracy.

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Revivals , state=autocollapse French art Decorative arts History of furniture Interior design Architectural styles Ancien Régime French architecture French architectural styles Louis XVI