Louis-Hippolyte Lebas (31 March 1782 in

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 ...

– 12 June 1867 in Paris) was a French architect working in a rational and severe

Neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

Life and career

He was trained in the atelier of

Percier and Fontaine Percier and Fontaine was a noted partnership between French architects Charles Percier and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine. History Together, Percier and Fontaine were inventors and major proponents of the rich and grand, consciously archa ...

, the favoured architects of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

. After Napoleon's exile he remained the assistant of

Pierre François Léonard Fontaine Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

, whose design for the sober

Chapelle Expiatoire The ''Chapelle expiatoire'' (, "Expiatory Chapel") is a Roman Catholic chapel located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. The chapel was constructed by Louis XVIII on the grounds where King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette had been bu ...

over the burial site of

Louis XVI Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...

and

Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...

he oversaw in construction (1816-1824). He also assisted

Éloi Labarre Eligius (; 11 June 588 – 1 December 660), venerated as Saint Eligius, was a Frankish goldsmith, courtier, and bishop who was chief counsellor to Dagobert I and later Bishop of Noyon–Tournai. His deeds were recorded in ''Vita Sancti Eligii'' ...

(1764—1833) in completing the

Palais Brongniart The Palais Brongniart (; ) is a building in Paris that was built at the direction of Napoleon in the early 19th century to house the Paris stock exchange (). It is located at the Place de la Bourse, in the 2nd arrondissement in central Paris. I ...

(1813-1826), the seat of the

Paris Bourse Euronext Paris, formerly known as the Paris Bourse (), is a regulated securities trading venue in France. It is Europe's second largest stock exchange by market capitalization, behind the London Stock Exchange, as of December 2023. As of 2022, th ...

, named after its architect,

Alexandre Brongniart Alexandre Brongniart (5 February 17707 October 1847) was a French chemist, mineralogist, geologist, paleontologist, and zoologist, who collaborated with Georges Cuvier on a study of the geology of the region around Paris. Observing fossil conten ...

. One of his best known works is the Parisian church Notre-Dame-de-Lorette for which he was commissioned in 1823 and that completed in 1836.He is commemorated nearby with the rue Louis-Hippolyte Lebas, Paris IXe. He built the former prison of Petite Roquette, (1826-1836, demolished 1974), which was the first example in France of a progressive panoptic prison. Lebas taught the History of Architecture at the

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

, from 1840 to 1863. In this teaching role, applying the art-historical method of

Johann Joachim Winckelmann Johann Joachim Winckelmann ( ; ; 9 December 17178 June 1768) was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenism (neoclassicism), Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Ancient Greek art, Greek, Helleni ...

to the study of historical architecture, he set a mark on several generations of young French architects. His daughter married the historian and civil servant

Léon Halévy Léon Halévy (4 January 1802 – 2 September 1883) was a French civil servant, historian, and dramatist. Early life Born to a Jewish family in Paris, Léon was the son of the writer and chazzan Élie Halévy and the younger brother of the ...

Notes

References

* Barbara Boifava, ''Théorie, Pratique et Histoire de l'Architecture: L'enseignement de Louis-Hippolyte Lebas à l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris. 1842-1856'', History of art thesis, Paris, Université Paris VIII, 2003. * Françoise Largier, ''Louis-Hippolyte Lebas (1782-1867), architecte, historien de l’art'', Mémoire de diplôme d'études supérieures de l'

École du Louvre The École du Louvre () is a selective institution of higher education and prestigious ''grande école'' located in the Aile de Flore of the Louvre Palace in Paris, France. It is dedicated to the study of archaeology, art history, anthropology ...

, 2004. * Françoise Largier, "Louis-Hippolyte Lebas (1782-1867) et l'histoire de l'art", ''Livraisons d'histoire de l'architecture'', 9.1, L'architecte historien, 2005. *Vassiliki Petridou, "La doctrine de l'Imitation dans l’architecture française dans la première moitie du XIXe siècle. Du Neo-classicisme au Romantisme `a travers l’œuvre de Louis Hippolyte Lebas (1782-1867)", Doctoral thesis Université de Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV, 1992, vol II. *Vassiliki Petridou, "P.-F.-L. Fontaine et L.H.Lebas : une double paternité pour la Chapelle Expiatoire à la mémoire de Louis XVI et de Marie-Antoinette", in ''Le Livre et l’art", études offertes en hommages à Pierre Lelièvre'' par Thérèse Kleindienst, ed., Somogy éditions d’art, Paris, 2000 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lebas, Louis-Hippolyte 19th-century French architects 1782 births 1867 deaths Architects from Paris Members of the Académie des beaux-arts