Stanislas-Louis Bernier (; 21 February 1845 – 2 February 1919) 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 Paris, Bernier entered 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 ...

in 1864 as a student of

Honoré Daumet Pierre Jérôme Honoré Daumet (; 23 October 1826 – 12 December 1911) was a French architect. Biography A student at the Beaux-Arts de Paris under Guillaume-Abel Blouet, Guillaume Abel Blouet, Charles-Félix Saint-Père and Émile Gilbert, he w ...

. Twice a finalist in the competition for 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 ...

, he won the first grand prize in 1872 for a natural history museum project. He stayed at the

Académie de France 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 direct ...

from 1873 to 1877. The principal design he sent from Rome consisted of an ambitious restoration of the

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus or Tomb of Mausolus (; ) was a tomb built between 353 and 351 BC in Halicarnassus (present Bodrum, Turkey) for Mausolus, an Anatolian from Caria and a satrap in the Achaemenid Persian Empire, and his sister-wi ...

(1877).Mead 1996. Back in Paris in 1878, he joined the government bureaucracy as an architect for the Conseil Général des Bâtiments Civils. He succeeded Georges-Ernest Coquart as the architect of the École des Beaux-Arts in 1890. In addition to maintaining the buildings erected by

Félix Duban Jacques Félix Duban () (14 October 1798, Paris – 8 October 1870, Bordeaux) was a French architect, the contemporary of Jacques Ignace Hittorff and Henri Labrouste. Life and career Duban won the Prix de Rome in 1823, the most prestigious awa ...

between 1832 and 1864, he also built there a monument to Duban which paraphrased Duban's architectural style. P1090582 Paris II salle Favart rwk

Bernier's major work is the Opéra-Comique theatre, the

Salle Favart The Salle Favart (), officially the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique (), is a Paris opera house and theatre, the current home of the Opéra-Comique. It was built from 1893 to 1898 in a neo-Baroque style to the designs of the French architect Louis ...

, which needed to be rebuilt following an 1887 fire. He obtained the commission by winning a competition judged by five winners of the Grand Prix de Rome (including Charles Garnier), which ensured the design would reflect academic and official tastes. Because of disputes within the profession, more avant-garde architects did not participate. Built from 1893 to 1898, the theatre is typical

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

. The facade is an adaptation of Garnier's design for the

Opéra This is a glossary list of opera genres, giving alternative names. "Opera" is an Italian word (short for "opera in musica"); it was not at first ''commonly'' used in Italy (or in other countries) to refer to the genre of particular works. Most co ...

, and the elaborate exterior and interior decoration shows the influence of both Garnier and Daumet. In 1898, Bernier 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 seat number 3 of the architecture section). He led an official workshop of the École des Beaux-Arts from 1905 to 1919 and was president of the

Société Centrale des Architectes Français Groupe Lactalis S.A. (doing business as Lactalis) is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier S.A. Lactalis is the largest dairy pr ...

from 1911 to 1914. Bernier died in Paris and is buried at Père-Lachaise Cemetery (68th division). A bibliophile, he bequeathed his collection of ancient works to the

Musée Condé The – in English, the Condé Museum – is a French museum located inside the Château de Chantilly in Chantilly, Oise, 40 km north of Paris. In 1897, Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale, son of Louis Philippe I, bequeathed the château and ...

located at

Chantilly, Oise Chantilly ( , ; Picard language, Picard: ''Cantily'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Oise Departments of France, department in the Nonette (river), Valley of the Nonette in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region of Northern Franc ...

. His name was given to a square in Paris in the

Batignolles Batignolles () is a neighbourhood of Paris, part of its 17th arrondissement. The neighbourhood is bounded on the south by the Boulevard des Batignolles, on the east by the Avenue de Clichy, on the north by Rue Cardinet and on the west by the Ru ...

district.

Main work

* 1893–1898: theatre of the Opéra-Comique, listed as a French Historical Monument in 1977.

Notes

Bibliography

* Ayers, Andrew (2004). ''The Architecture of Paris''. Stuttgart; London: Edition Axel Menges. . * Mead, Christopher Curtis (1996). "Bernier, Stanislas-Louis", vol. 3, , 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, ...

'', edited by Jane Turner. London: Macmillan. . Also a
Oxford Art Online
(subscription required). * Pénanrun, David de; Roux, François; Delaire, Edmond (1907)
"BERNIER Stanislas-Louis",
i
''Les architectes élèves de l'École des Beaux-Arts (1793–1907)''
2nd edition. Librairie de la construction moderne.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bernier, Louis 1845 births Architects from Paris 1919 deaths 19th-century French architects 20th-century French architects École des Beaux-Arts alumni Prix de Rome for architecture Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery