Étienne-Louis Boullée French architect, b. Paris, February 12, 1728 - February 6, 1799. His designs emphasize simple, symmetrical geometric shapes. Boullée's refined designs often were inspired by antiquity, for example, his Château de Chaville, 1764 built for Tessé family, and Hôtel de Brunoy, 1774 (since demolished). As an architectural theoretician, he taught at the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees (school of bridges and causeways) and the Académie Royale d' Architecture. His book Architecture, essai sur l'art" (essay on the art of architecture) written in the last decade of his life was not published until 1953. It contained his work from 1778 to 1788, mostly public buildings on a scale so grand, that some critics have characterized him as a megalomaniac. For instance, the cross-section of his cenotaph (empty tomb) in honor of Isaac Newton 1784 would hold some 300,000 people - note the people shown as tiny specks on the steps in the illustration.
| File:Boulceno.jpg |
| Cenotaph for Isaac Newton, 1784 |
Bibliography
- "Boullée's Treatise on Architecture" by Étienne-Louis Boullée, ed. by Helen Rosenau, pub. Alec Tiranti, Ltd. London: 1953 First Edition
- "Étienne-Louis Boullée (1728-1799: Theoretician of Revolutionary Architecture)" by Jean Marie Perouse De Montclos, pub.George Braziller; ISBN 0807606723; (February 1974)
- "Visionary Architects: Boullée, Ledoux, Lequeu" by Jean-Claude Lemagny, pub. Hennessey & Ingalls; ISBN 0940512351; (July 2002)
External Links
- http://expositions.bnf.fr/boullee/index.htm Boullée exhibit at Bibliothèque nationale de France
- http://www.vitruvio.ch/arc/masters/boullee.htm Internet architecture resource
- http://www.academie-des-beaux-arts.fr Successor to the Académie Royale d' Architecture