NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Claude Nicolas Ledoux

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (Dormans, March 21, 1736 — Paris November 18, 1806) was a French neoclassical architect, urbanist, and architectural theorist. He was one of the principal creators of French neo-classical architecture. Known as a Utopian, he hoped that urban design and architecture could lead to an ideal society. Despite this, his great works were funded by the French monarchy and came to be seen as symbols of the Ancien Régime. As one of the most active architects at the end of the Ancien Régime, his career was thus curtailed by the French Revolution, and a large part of the buildings he made were destroyed in the nineteenth century. In 1804 he published a book of his works titled "L'Architecture considérée sous le rapport de l'art, des mœurs et de la législation"; in it he had the opportunity of revising his earlier designs to make them more rigorously neoclassical and up-to-date, which has skewed the assessment of his pioneering role ever since^[1] His most ambitious work was the uncompleted Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans, a utopian town showing many examples of architecture parlante. He also designed about sixty elaborate toll gates on the Wall of the Farmers-General around Paris. Image File history File links Ledoux_portrait. ... Image File history File links Ledoux_portrait. ... Image File history File links Chaux_-_Maison_de_surveillants_de_la_source_de_la_Loue. ... Image File history File links Chaux_-_Maison_de_surveillants_de_la_source_de_la_Loue. ... March 21 is the 80th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (81st in leap years). ... Events January 26 - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France RÃ©gion ÃŽle-de-France DÃ©partement Paris (75) Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Mayor Bertrand DelanoÃ« (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land area... November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1806 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. ... Architect at his drawing board, 1893 An architect is a person involved in the planning, designing and oversight of a buildings construction. ... Urban, city, or town planning, deals with design of the built environment from the municipal and metropolitan perspective. ... Architectural theory is the act of thinking, discussing, or most importantly writing about architecture. ... Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. ... It has been suggested that utopianism be merged into this article or section. ... For detailed information on the administrative, social and political system of Early Modern France, see Ancien RÃ©gime in France. ... The French Revolution (1789â€“1799) was a pivotal period in the history of French, European and Western civilization. ... The Saline Royale (Royal Saltworks) at Arc-et-Senans, in the forest of Chaux near BesanÃ§on, France is notable as an early Enlightenment architectural project to rationalize industrial buildings and processes according to a philosophical order. ... The phrase architecture parlante (â€œspeaking architectureâ€) refers to the concept of buildings that explain their own function or identity. ... Claude Nicolas Ledouxs Rotonde de la Villette at Place de Stalingrad The Wall of the Farmers-General was built between 1784 and 1791 by the Ferme gÃ©nÃ©rale company of tax farmers. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France RÃ©gion ÃŽle-de-France DÃ©partement Paris (75) Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Mayor Bertrand DelanoÃ« (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land area...

Biography

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux was born in 1736 in Dormans, Marne, son of a modest merchant from Champagne. His mother, Francoise Domino, and his godmother, Francoise Piloy, "gave him [his] first pencils", as he said himself. The protection of the abbey of Sassenage enabled him to obtain a scholarship to study in Paris in the collège de Beauvais (1749-1753), where he discovered ancient literature. He was then employed as an engraver and studied architecture in 1757 under the direction of Jacques-François Blondel, whom he held in high regard. Marne is a dÃ©partement in northeastern France named after the Marne River which flows through the dÃ©partement. ... Jacques-FranÃ§ois Blondel (January 17, 1705-January 9, 1774), the grandson (le petit Blondel) of a famous architect, FranÃ§ois Blondel (le grand Blondel), whose course of architecture had appeared in four volumes in 1683 [1]. Born in Rouen, he began life as an architectural engraver, but developed into...

He trained in the atelier of Pierre Contant d'Ivry, and also had a rapport with Jean-Michel Chevotet, two masters who could give him useful connections among their rich clientele. Thanks to Contant d'Ivry, Ledoux also had a rapport with the Baron Crozat de Thiers, an immensely rich connoisseur who entrusted to him the remodelling of an apartment in his hôtel in place Vendôme while, among the clients of Chevotet, he met the président Hocquart^[2] and entered the good graces of the president and his sister, Mme de Montesquiou. Contant dIvrys Neoclassical screen across the cour dhonneur of the Palais-Royal, Paris Pierre Contant dIvry (Ivry-sur-Seine, 11 May 1698â€“Paris 1 October 1777 was a French architect and designer working in a chaste and sober Rococo style and in the GoÃ»t Grec... Communards pose with the statue from the toppled VendÃ´me column, 1871 Place VendÃ´me is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Ã‰glise de la Madeleine. ...

Contant and Chevotet designed in the restrained French Rococo manner, the "Louis XV style", and passing the style on to them was undoubtedly via Louis-François Trouard, who had returned from Rome in 1757. Ledoux discovered antique architecture, in particular the temples of Paestum, which were to exert a great influence on his aesthetic, as well as the work of Palladio. North side of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo - carriage courtyard: all the stucco details sparkled with gold until 1773, when Catherine II had gilding replaced with olive drab paint. ... Nickname: The Eternal City Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 8th century BC Mayor Walter Veltroni Area - City 1,285 kmÂ² (496. ... 1757 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Paestum overview. ... Illustration from a 1736 English edition of I Quattro Libri dellArchitettura. ...

Early work (1762-1770)

In 1762, the young Ledoux created for the café Godeau, rue Saint-Honoré, frequented by officers, the astonishing decorations conserved since 1969 in the musée Carnavalet. On the walls he drew the appearances of pilasters, between which he alternated mirrors with broad panels decorated with trophies of pikes, helmets, and various weapons, all from an original and bold drawing. Image File history File links Claude-Nicolas_Ledoux_-_ChÃ¢teau_de_Mauperthuis_-_1763. ... Image File history File links Claude-Nicolas_Ledoux_-_ChÃ¢teau_de_Mauperthuis_-_1763. ... 1762 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... The MusÃ©e Carnavalet or MusÃ©e de lHistoire de Paris focuses on the history of the city of Paris, France. ... In architecture, pilasters comprise slightly-projecting pseudo-columns built into or onto a wall, with capitals and bases. ...

The following year, Anne-Pierre, marquis de Montesquiou-Fézensac called Ledoux at his vast Mauperthuis property, in Brie. The architect rebuilt the château at the top of a hill, created fountains supplied by an aqueduct, and also an orangery, a pheasantry and vast dépendances whose vestiges only remain today. Anne-Pierre, marquis de Montesquiou-FÃ©zensac (October 17, 1739 - December 30, 1798) was a French general and writer. ... For other uses, see Brie (disambiguation). ...

For the président Hocquart, he built in 1764 on the roadway of Antin a house of Palladian style and decoration, employing, like the château of Mauperthuis, a colossal order, forms that Ledoux was to frequently decline, and that in the strict French tradition were condemned, faithful to the principle of superposition of the orders.^[3] 1764 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... In Classical architecture, a giant order is an order whose columns or pilasters span two (or more) stories. ...

On July 26, 1764 in Saint-Eustache, Ledoux married Marie Bureau, daughter of a musician of the king. A friend from Champagne, Joseph Marin Masson de Courcelles, found him a position as architect of the Administration des Eaux et Forêts to replace Claude-Louis Daviler. For the accounts of this administration, he worked, between 1764 and 1770, to repair or build dependences of the forests such as churches, bridges, wells, fountains, schools, in Tonnerrois, Sénonais and Bassigny. Among preserved examples of this activity are the bridge of Marac, the Prégibert bridge in Rolampont, the churches of Fouvent-le-Haut, Rock-and-Raucourt, Rolampont, the nave and portal of Cruzy-le-Châtel, and the choir of Saint-Etienne d'Auxerre]. 1764 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... View from south west View from south east View of the choir Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ã‰glise Saint-Eustache LÃ©glise Saint-Eustache is a church in the Ier arrondissement of Paris, built between 1532 and 1632. ... 1764 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1770 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Auxerre is a commune in the Bourgogne rÃ©gion of France, between Paris and Dijon. ...

In Paris, Ledoux became known in 1766 with the hôtel d'Hallwyll, in Le Marais. His backers and business partners, Franz-joseph d'Hallwyll the Swiss colonel and his wife, Marie-Thérèse Demidorge, twere careful of expenditures: Ledoux had to re-use a part of the existing buildings and imagined two colonnades in the Doric order leading to a nymphaeum decorated with urns at the foot of the garden, which the strictures of the plot did not make possible. He painted a trompe l'œil colonnade on the blind wall of convent of Carmelite nuns, on the other side of the rue de Montmorency, in order to extend the perspective, an astute idea which was striking to contemporaries. Image File history File links Claude-Nicolas_Ledoux_-_Hotel_d'Hallwyll_-_Paris. ... Image File history File links Claude-Nicolas_Ledoux_-_Hotel_d'Hallwyll_-_Paris. ... 1766 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Place des Vosges is Paris oldest square still with its original buildings, and also, according to some, Paris most beautiful square. ... Enormous colonnade of the Kazan Cathedral in St Petersburg. ... The uncompleted Doric temple at Segesta, Sicily, has been waiting for finishing of its surfaces since 430â€“420 BC The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of Ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. ... A Nymphaeum, in Greek and Roman antiquities, is a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially those of springs. ... Origin and early history Carmelites (in Latin Ordo fratrum Beatæ Virginis Mariæ de monte Carmelo) is the name of a Roman Catholic order founded in the 12th century by a certain Berthold (d. ...

This relatively modest building permitted him to obtain in 1767 the much more important commission of the sumptuous hôtel d'Uzès, built for François Emmanuel de Crussol on rue Montmartre. There too, Ledoux preserved the structures of an older building. The woodwork of the salon, sculpted by Joseph Métivier and Jean-Baptist Boiston, are preserved at the Carnavalet Museum: it constitutes an early example of the neoclassical style. 1767 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The Musée Carnavalet or Musée de lHistoire de Paris focuses on the history of the city of Paris, France. ... The neoclassical movement that produced Neoclassical architecture began in the mid-18th century, as a reaction against both the surviving Baroque and Rococo styles, and as a desire to return to the perceived purity of the arts of Rome, the more vague perception (ideal) of Ancient Greek arts (where almost...

The château de Bénouville, in the north of Caen in the department of Calvados, was built in 1768-1769 for the marquis de Livry. With its massive volumes, its vast peristyle, it is the most important of the works of Ledoux's youth. One particularly notices the superb main staircase, under the cupola, which leads to the second floor. The ChÃ¢teau de BÃ©nouville was built in 1769 by architect Claude Nicolas Ledoux by the request of the Marquis Sanguin de Livry. ... Location within France HÃ´tel dEscoville, 16th century, Caen Anonymous pen-and-ink birds-eye view of the fortifications of Caen (Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris) South Wall of the Castle, a huge fortress in the center of the city Town Hall of Caen Caen train station. ... 1768 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1769 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Ledoux traveled to England in the years 1769-1771 when he became familiarized with Palladianism, and its features, such as the Serlian window, which he would later use. He built many houses in a neo-Palladian style, with a generally cubic volume and decorated with a peristyle which gave allure even to constructions of small size. In this genre, he built near the roadway of Antin the house of Marie Madeleine Guimard, a celebrated dancer (1770), the house of Mlle Saint-Germain, rue Saint-Lazare, the house of Attilly in the suburb Poissonnière, the house of the poet Jean François de Saint-Lambert in Eaubonne, and also the famous Pavillon de Louveciennes, inaugurated on September 2, 1771. Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification - by Athelstan AD 927 Area - Total 130,395 kmÂ² (1st in UK) 50,346 sq... 1769 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1771 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from the designs of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508â€“1580). ... Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from the designs of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508â€“1580). ... Marie Madeleine Guimard (October 10, 1743 - 1816), French dancer, was born in Paris. ... Jean FranÃ§ois de Saint-Lambert (December 26, 1716 - February 9, 1803), was a French poet. ... Eaubonne is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. ... Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune, FÃªte donnÃ©e Ã Louveciennes le 2 septembre 1771. ... 1771 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

Maturity

His reputation affirmed, Ledoux started to build buildings that were much more ambitious, like the hôtel de Montmorency on the roadway of Antin, which was comprised of a façade in the Ionic order on a rustic base and a roof à l'italienne, decorated with statues of eight constables of the Montmorency line. But, noting the relative impoverishment of the nobility, he sought to execute the project with more modest means. Image File history File links Pavillon_de_Mme_du_Barry_-_Louveciennes. ... Image File history File links Pavillon_de_Mme_du_Barry_-_Louveciennes. ... hello peoples youve been fooled!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...

At same time, he closely followed the operations of the royal administrations and thought of being put at their service, not scorning work at the borderline between the competences of the architect and those of the engineer. Thanks to the protection of Mme du Barry, Ledoux was commissioned with the Salines de l'Est or Eastern Saltworks, whose modernization was initiated after the construction of the Canal of Burgundy. He was then promoted, in 1771, to inspector of the saltworks of the State in Franche-Comté.^[4] The Canal of Burgundy is located in central eastern France. ... 1771 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Capital BesanÃ§on Land areaÂ¹ 16,202 kmÂ² Regional President Raymond Forni (PS) (since 2004) Population - Jan. ...

The Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans (1774-1779)

Salt was more essential in the past, as it was necessary to preserve meat or fish. Its consumption supported the extremely unpopular gabelle tax in France, collected by the ferme générale. In Franche-Comté, because of subterranean seams of halite, one would find salted wells from which one extracted salt by vaporizing in boilers heated by wood. Image File history File links Arc-et-Senans_-_Plan_de_la_saline_royale. ... Image File history File links Arc-et-Senans_-_Plan_de_la_saline_royale. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The gabelle was a very unpopular tax on salt in France before 1790. ... The Ferme GÃ©nÃ©rale was, in ancien rÃ©gime France, essentially a franchised customs and excise operation which collected duties on behalf of the king, through 6-years adjudications. ... Capital BesanÃ§on Land areaÂ¹ 16,202 kmÂ² Regional President Raymond Forni (PS) (since 2004) Population - Jan. ... Halite is the mineral form of sodium chloride, NaCl, commonly known as rock salt. ...

In Salins-les-Bains or in Montmorot, the saltworks boilers were built close to the wells and one brought the wood of the nearby forests. Close to the first of these sites, the fermiers généraux decided to try out another method: to build a factory for the extraction of salt near the forest of Chaux, in a place called the Val d'Amour, between the villages of Arc and Senans, and to bring there the saline water by means of a canal. Salins-les-Bains, a town of eastern France, in the Jura dÃ©partement, part of the Franche-ComtÃ© on a branch line of the Paris-Lyon railway. ...

Built between 1774 and 1779, the Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans, whose plans were approved by Louis XV of France and Charles Daniel Trudaine, is the masterwork of Ledoux. One can reach it today by a straight road piercing the forest of Chaux. The entry, preceded by a Doric peristyle of massive proportions that is derived from the temples at Paestum, leads through a cave - giving the impression of entering a salt mine. The alliance of the columns, an archetypal motif of neoclassicism, and the cave decorated with concretions, mark the opposition and also articulation, of the elementary forces of nature and the organizing genius of Man, a reflection of the Enlightenment view of the relationship between civilization and nature— particularly that of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Chesma Column in Tsarskoe Selo, commemorating the end of the Russo-Turkish War. ... 1779 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The Saline Royale (Royal Saltworks) at Arc-et-Senans, in the forest of Chaux near BesanÃ§on, France is notable as an early Enlightenment architectural project to rationalize industrial buildings and processes according to a philosophical order. ... Louis XV (February 15, 1710 â€“ May 10, 1774), the Beloved (French: le Bien-AimÃ©), was King of France from 1715 until his death. ... The uncompleted Doric temple at Segesta, Sicily, has been waiting for finishing of its surfaces since 430â€“420 BC The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of Ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. ... In Roman architecture a peristyle is a columned porch or open colonnade in a building that surrounds a court that may contain an internal garden. ... Paestum overview. ... A concretion is a solid mineral inclusion within a rock strata that is oval or spherical in shape. ... Look up Enlightenment in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Jean-Jacques Rousseau (June 28, 1712 â€“ July 2, 1778) was a Genevan philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. ...

The entry leads to a vast semicircular space surrounded by ten buildings which are arranged on the arc of a half-circle. On the arc one finds the cooperage, the forging mill and two apartment buildings for the workers; on the straight diameter are the workshops for the extraction of salt (or bernes) alternating with administrative buildings: in the center is the house of the director (illustration), which originally contained a chapel as well. Image File history File linksMetadata Koenigliche_Saline_in_Arc-et-Senans_Bild1_800px. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Koenigliche_Saline_in_Arc-et-Senans_Bild1_800px. ...

The significance of this plan is two-fold: the circle, a perfect figure, evokes the harmony of the Ideal City and encloses a place of harmony for common work, but it recalls also contemporary theories of organization and of official surveillance, particularly the Panopticon of Jeremy Bentham. Panopticon blueprint by Jeremy Bentham, 1791 The Panopticon is a type of prison building designed by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. ... Jeremy Bentham (IPA: or ) (February 15, 1748 O.S. (February 26, 1749 N.S.) â€“ June 6, 1832) was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. ...

The saltworks entered a painful phase of industrial and profitable production, because of competition with the salt-water marshes. After some not very profitable trials, it had to close indefinately due to the French Revolution in 1790. The dream of success for a factory, conceived at the same time as a royal residence and a new city, ended. The French Revolution (1789â€“1799) was a pivotal period in the history of French, European and Western civilization. ... 1790 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

The theatre of Besançon

Making frequent visits into Franche-Comté because of its functions, Ledoux was chosen to build the theatre of Besançon. Public venues for spectacles were still not numerous in the provincial cities of France. Hitherto, the convention was that only the nobles had seating, and the common people had to stand. But this convention caused criticisms to which Ledoux, who conceived the theatre as a communion of all the spectators with a quasi-religious character, wished to answer. He found in the intendant of Franche-Comté, Charles André de la Coré, an enlightened spirit who consented to follow this reform. Thus the theatre of Besançon was the first whose parquet was furnished with armchairs intended for the subscribers. The officers were seated in the first balcony, the nobility occupied the first boxes and the middle-class the second, while the people had seats in the amphitheatre: thus the theatre could at the same time be a place of social communion and still maintain a strict hierarchy of the classes. Image File history File links BesanÃ§on_-_ThÃ©Ã¢tre_-_Elevation. ... Image File history File links BesanÃ§on_-_ThÃ©Ã¢tre_-_Elevation. ... In general spectacle refers to an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates. ... New France was governed by three rulers: the governor, the bishop and the intendant, all appointed by the King, and sent from France. ...

With the aid of the machinist Dart de Bosco, a student of Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni, Ledoux expanded the Cage de scène, giving it gave a great volume with all the most modern improvements. This was the first theatre to screen the musicians in an orchestra pit. Jean-Nicolas Servan, also known as Giovanni NiccolÃ² Servando or Servandoni (May 2, 1695 - January 19, 1766) was a French decorator, architect and scene-painter. ...

The building was inaugurated in 1784 and was recieved with praise. Ledoux presented then a project for the theatre of Marseilles but it was not accepted. In 1784, he was chosen over Pierre-Adrien Pâris for the construction of the new town hall in Neufchâtel. Though the spectacular project that he conceived for the Palais de Justice and the prison of Aix-en-Provence was accepted, afterwards came many difficulties with the beginning of the executions in 1786. It was interrupted by the French Revolution with the walls completed to the height of the ground floor.^[5] Image File history File links Projet_de_palais_de_justice_-_Aix-en-Provence_-_Ã©lÃ©vation. ... Image File history File links Projet_de_palais_de_justice_-_Aix-en-Provence_-_Ã©lÃ©vation. ... 1784 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Marseilles redirects here. ... 1784 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... NeufchÃ¢tel is a semi-soft French cheese from the Normandy region of France. ... Aix (prounounced eks), or, to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, Aix-en-Provence is a city in southern France, some 30 km north of Marseille. ... 1786 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The French Revolution (1789â€“1799) was a pivotal period in the history of French, European and Western civilization. ...

Initiated into the mysticism of freemasonry^[6] Ledoux took part, with his friend William Beckford, in mysterious ceremonies. The Loge Féminine de la Candeur met in the hôtel which he had built for Mme d'Espinchal, on Rue des Petites-Écuries. By now he was well introduced into the world of finance. For the treasurer of the maréchaussées, Praudeau de Chemilly, he designed the park of Bourneville near Ferté-Milon. For the widow of the Genevan banker Thélusson, former associate of Jacques Necker, he built near the Chaussée d'Antin an hôtel which all Paris visited: nestled in the heart of a landscape garden, it opened on the Rue de Provence with an immense porch in the shape of triumphal arch with pilasters; the cars penetrated through the interior of the hotel in a circular passage and the central salon, also circular, had in its center a rock wrapped in a colonnade. The Masonic Square and Compasses. ... William Beckford could be either: William Beckford (politician) (1709 - 1770) - a political figure in London. ... Jacques Necker Jacques Necker (September 30, 1732 â€“ April 9, 1804) was a French statesman and finance minister of Louis XVI. // Early life Necker was Geneva, Switzerland. ...

On Rue Saint-Georges, for the creole Hosten, Ledoux also built an ensemble of rental buildings according to a constructive principle which could be developed ad infinitum. Rue Saint-Lazare, around a warehouse of trade, he designed the gardens of Zephyr and Flora, of which Hubert Robert made illustrations. Hubert Robert by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun. ...

The architecture of the ferme générale

In the process of his work in Franche-Comté, Ledoux had become an architect for the ferme générale. For this company, he built a salt storehouse in Compiègne and undertook the planning of their vast seat on the Rue du Bouloi in Paris. Image File history File links Paris_Rotonde_de_la_Villette_2004. ... Image File history File links Paris_Rotonde_de_la_Villette_2004. ... Claude Nicolas Ledouxs Rotonde de la Villette at Place de Stalingrad The Wall of the Farmers-General was built between 1784 and 1791 by the Ferme gÃ©nÃ©rale company of tax farmers. ... Image File history File links Rotonde_de_Chartres_-_Paris. ... Image File history File links Rotonde_de_Chartres_-_Paris. ... The Ferme GÃ©nÃ©rale was, in ancien rÃ©gime France, essentially a franchised customs and excise operation which collected duties on behalf of the king, through 6-years adjudications. ... CompiÃ¨gne is a commune in the Oise dÃ©partement of France, of which it is a sous-prÃ©fecture. ...

Charles Alexandre de Calonne being the Controller-General of Finances, obtained on an idea from the chemist and fermier général Antoine Lavoisier, of drawing a barrier around Paris to limit contraband and evasion of the octrois, or interior customs: this was the notorious Wall of the Farmers-General which was to have six towers (one every 24 kilometers) and to comprise sixty tax-collecting offices. Ledoux was charged to design these buildings, which he baptized pompously "les Propylées de Paris" and to which he wanted to give a character of solemnity and magnificence while putting into practice his ideas on the necessary links between form and function. Charles Alexandre de Calonne, portrait by Marie Louise Ã‰lisabeth VigÃ©e-Lebrun. ... The Controller-General of Finances (ContrÃ´leur gÃ©nÃ©ral des finances) was the name of the minister in charge of finances in France from 1661 to 1791. ... Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (August 26, 1743 â€“ May 8, 1794) was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry, finance, biology, and economics. ... Contraband consists of items of which possession may be illegal, depending on the variety and the country or the age or sex of the possessor. ... Octroi (0. ... Claude Nicolas Ledouxs Rotonde de la Villette at Place de Stalingrad The Wall of the Farmers-General was built between 1784 and 1791 by the Ferme gÃ©nÃ©rale company of tax farmers. ...

To cut short the protests of the Parisian population, the operation was carried out to the beat of drums: fifty barriers to access were built between 1785 and 1788. Most were destroyed in the nineteenth century and very few remain today,^[7] of which those of La Villette and Place Denfert-Rochereau are the only ones that haven't been altered out of recognition. In certain cases, the entry was framed with two identical buildings; in others, it was comprised of one building. The forms were archetypal: the rotunda (Heap, Reuilly); the rotunda surmounting a Greek cross (La Villette, Rapée); the cube with peristyle (Picpus); the Greek temple (Gentilly, Courcelles); the column (le Trône). At Place de l'Étoile, the buildings, flanked with columns alternating with cubic and cylindrical elements, evoked the House of the director at Arc-and-Senans; at the Bureau des Bonshommes, an apse opened by a peristyle recalled the pavillion of Mme du Barry and the Hôtel de la Guimard. The order employed was generally Doric Greek. Ledoux also used multiple rustic embossings. 1785 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1788 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... The Lion of Belfort - Place Denfert-Rochereau Place Denfert-Rochereau, previously known as Place dEnfer, is located in the XIVe arrondissement of Paris, in the Montparnasse area and is situated at the intersection of boulevards Raspail, Arago and Saint-Jacques, and avenues RenÃ© Coty, GÃ©nÃ©ral Leclerc, Denfert...

Criticisms of a political nature were addressed to this audacious construction^[8] doubled aesthetic criticisms of the architect, shown to have taken excessive freedoms with the ancient canons by commentators such as Dulaure and Quatremère de Quincy. Bachaumont denounced a "monument d'esclavage et de despotisme".^[9] In his Tableau de Paris (1788), Louis-Sébastien Mercier stigmatised "les antres du fisc métamorphosés en palais à colonnes"^[10], and exclamed, "Ah ! Monsieur Ledoux, vous êtes un terrible architecte !". Ledoux, rendered the object of scandal by these opinions, was relieved of his official functions in 1787 while Necker, succeeding Calonne, disavowed the entire enterprise. Antoine-Chrysostome QuatremÃ¨re de Quincy (1755 â€“ 1849) was a French archaeologist and writer on art, born in Paris; was involved in the troubles of the Revolution; narrowly, as a constitutionalist, he escaped the guillotine, and was deported to Cayenne in 1797. ... Louis Petit de Bachaumont (1690-1771), French litterateur, was of noble family and was brought up at the court of Versailles. ... 1788 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Louis-SÃ©bastien Mercier (6 June 1740 - 25 April 1814) was a French dramatist and miscellaneous writer. ... 1787 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

Difficult times

At the same time, work on the law courts of Aix-en-Provence was suspended, and Ledoux was accused of embroiling the Treasury in ill-considered expenditure. When the Revolution broke out, his rich clientele emigrated or perished under the guillotine. He saw his career and his projects stopped while at the same time the first blows of the pickaxe began to ring on the already obsolete wall of the fermiers généraux. As of June 1790, the Ferme générale had been able to install its employees in the buildings by Ledoux, but the octroi was abolished in May 1791, which rendered the facilities useless. A symbol of fiscal oppression, Ledoux, who had amassed a handsome fortune, was arrested and thrown in La Force Prison. 1790 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1791 (MDCCXCI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 11-day-slower Julian calendar). ... La Force prison is a French prison, located in Paris. ...

He still made a project for a school of agriculture for the duc de Duras, his companion in captivity. Perhaps the intervention of the painter Jacques-Louis David, son-in-law of the entrepreneur Pécoul, and considerably enriched in the collection of the octrois, helped him avoid the guillotine. But he lost his favorite daughter while the other brought a lawsuit against him. Self portrait of Jacques-Louis David (1794). ...

Ledoux, who was eventually released, ceased building and attempted to prepare the publication of his complete œuvre. Since 1773, he had started to engrave his constructions and his projects but, because of the evolution of his style, he did not cease retouching his drawings, and the engravers constantly had to redo their boards. Ledoux evolved towards an architecture always more detailed and colossal, with vast walls that were increasingly smooth, and with increasingly rare openings. The differences between a drawing of the Pavillon de Louveciennes as it first was, made by the British architect Sir William Chambers and the engraving that was published in 1804 illustrate this process. 1773 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... William Chambers may refer to: William Chambers (architect), an 18th century Scottish architect William Chambers (publisher), a 19th century Scottish publisher This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ...

During his imprisonment, Ledoux had started to write a text to accompany the engravings. Only the first volume appeared in his life, in 1804, under the title L'Architecture considérée sous le rapport de l'art, des mœurs et de la législation. It presents the theatre of Besancon, the saltworks of Arc-and-Senans and the town of Chaux. 1804 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

He died in Paris in 1806. 1806 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

Utopianism

Around the time of the royal saltworks, Ledoux formalized his innovative design ideas for an urbansim and an architecture intended to make society better, of a Cité idéale charged with symbols and significances. He is considered, with Étienne-Louis Boullée and his project for the Cenotaph of Newton, as one of the precursors to the utopians that would follow.^[11]. Image File history File links Projet_pour_la_ville_de_Chaux_-_Ledoux. ... Image File history File links Projet_pour_la_ville_de_Chaux_-_Ledoux. ... Ã‰tienne-Louis BoullÃ©e (February 12, 1728 - February 6, 1799) was a French neoclassical architect whose work greatly influenced contemporary architects and is still influential today. ...

In 1775, he had presented at Turgot the first drafts of the town of Chaux, where the royal saltworks were to form the center. The project, constantly perfected, was engraved in 1780.

As a radical utopian of architecture, teaching at the École des Beaux-Arts, he created a singular architectonic order, a new column formed of alternating cylindrical and cubic stones superimposed for their plastic effect. The time was then returning to the antique, to the distinction and the examination, of the taste for the "rustic" style. Ã‰cole des Beaux-Arts (IPA ) refers to several art schools in France. ... In philosophy, Architectonic (or archetectonic) is used to mean the scientific systematisation of all knowledge. ... Columns redirects here. ...

Works

Constructions

Image File history File links HÃ´tel_de_Mlle_Guimard_-_Paris_-_Elevation. ... Image File history File links HÃ´tel_de_Mlle_Guimard_-_Paris_-_Elevation. ... Image File history File links HÃ´tel_ThÃ©lusson_-_Paris_-_EntrÃ©e. ... Image File history File links HÃ´tel_ThÃ©lusson_-_Paris_-_EntrÃ©e. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France RÃ©gion ÃŽle-de-France DÃ©partement Paris (75) Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Mayor Bertrand DelanoÃ« (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land area... 1762 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The MusÃ©e Carnavalet or MusÃ©e de lHistoire de Paris focuses on the history of the city of Paris, France. ... Seine-et-Marne is a French dÃ©partement, named after the Seine and the Marne rivers, and located in the ÃŽle-de-France rÃ©gion. ... 1763 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1764 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1765 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1766 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1767 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... The ChÃ¢teau de BÃ©nouville was built in 1769 by architect Claude Nicolas Ledoux by the request of the Marquis Sanguin de Livry. ... BÃ©nouville is a commune of the Calvados dÃ©partement in the Basse-Normandie rÃ©gion in France. ... For the apple brandy produced in the region, see Calvados (spirit). ... Location within France HÃ´tel dEscoville, 16th century, Caen Anonymous pen-and-ink birds-eye view of the fortifications of Caen (Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris) South Wall of the Castle, a huge fortress in the center of the city Town Hall of Caen Caen train station. ... 1768 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1769 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Fragonards portrait of Madeleine Guimard. ... The rue de la ChaussÃ©e-dAntin, in the IXe arrondissement of Paris was the street that gave this new quarter of Paris its generic name. ... 1769 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1770 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Jean FranÃ§ois de Saint-Lambert (December 26, 1716 - February 9, 1803), was a French poet. ... Eaubonne is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. ... 1771 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune, FÃªte donnÃ©e Ã Louveciennes le 2 septembre 1771. ... Louveciennes is a village and commune in the Yvelines dÃ©partement, in France, in the western suburbs of Paris, between Versailles and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and adjacent to Marly-le-Roi. ... 1770 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1771 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Catherine IIs soldiers in the Russo-Turkish War, by Alexandre Benois. ... Paul Gauguin, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (Doù venons-nous? Que faisons-nous? Où allons-nous?) (1897). ... The Saline Royale (Royal Saltworks) at Arc-et-Senans, in the forest of Chaux near BesanÃ§on, France is notable as an early Enlightenment architectural project to rationalize industrial buildings and processes according to a philosophical order. ... Chesma Column in Tsarskoe Selo, commemorating the end of the Russo-Turkish War. ... 1779 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The protection in France known as Monument historique is a State procedure by which heritage is instituted for a building or a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings or an entire neighborhood, plus gardens, bridges, and other structures because of their architectural and historical importance. ... A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State... UNESCO logo UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... BesanÃ§on is a French city in the dÃ©partement of Doubs, of which it is the prÃ©fecture. ... 1778 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1784 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1778 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The oldest surviving photograph, NicÃ©phore NiÃ©pce, circa 1826 1826 (MDCCCXXVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... La FertÃ©-Milon is a town in the department of Aisne, in France, known for being the birthplace of the French dramatist Jean Racine. ... Aisne is a dÃ©partement in the northern part of France named after the Aisne River. ... CompiÃ¨gne is a commune in the Oise dÃ©partement of France, of which it is a sous-prÃ©fecture. ... Oise is a dÃ©partement in the north of France named after the Oise River. ... Octroi (0. ... Claude Nicolas Ledouxs Rotonde de la Villette at Place de Stalingrad The Wall of the Farmers-General was built between 1784 and 1791 by the Ferme gÃ©nÃ©rale company of tax farmers. ... 1785 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

Projects

The Saline Royale (Royal Saltworks) at Arc-et-Senans, in the forest of Chaux near BesanÃ§on, France is notable as an early Enlightenment architectural project to rationalize industrial buildings and processes according to a philosophical order. ... 1804 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Aix (prounounced eks), or, to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, Aix-en-Provence is a city in southern France, some 30 km north of Marseille. ... 1785 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1786 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1792 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Publications

In 1804 was published a volume including the works from 1768 to 1789 : L'Architecture considérée sous le rapport de l'art, des mœurs et de la législation. 1804 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1768 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Criticism

When they were published in 1804, the engraved plates of Ledoux were admired for their quality of execution but the text which accompanied them was considered to be delirious.

The work of Ledoux has been re-evaluated since 1925. Recognized as a visionary by cubists, surrealists and the postmodernists, Ledoux is now regarded as one of the premier architects of his time. 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Woman with a guitar by Georges Braque, 1913 Cubist house in Prague Cubism was an early 20th century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature. ... Surrealism[1] is a movement stating that the liberation of our mind, and subsequently the liberation of the individual self and society, can be achieved by exercising the imaginative faculties of the unconscious mind to the attainment of a dream-like state different from, or ultimately â€˜truerâ€™ than, everyday reality. ... Andy Warhols iconic Marilyn Monroe // Postmodernism is an idea that has been extremely controversial and difficult to define among scholars, intellectuals, and historians, as it connotes to many the hotly debated idea that the modern historical period has passed. ...

One could speak of a veritable "Ledoux myth" as testified to by the films of Pierre Kast (La Morte saison des amours, 1952 ; L'Architecte maudit, 1953) and his novel Le Bonheur ou le pouvoir.

In 2006, the bicentenary of the death of Claude Nicolas Ledoux is celebrated. The general Council of Doubs organizes during this year numerous events directed toward the public: expositions, concerts, colloquia, visits, etc.

Notes

Parlements in ancien régime France — contrary to what their name would suggest to the modern reader — were not democratic or political institutions, but law courts . ... 1790 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The Temple of the Rosy Cross, Teophilus Schweighardt Constantiens, 1618 The Rosicrucians are a legendary and secretive order dating from the 15th or 17th century, generally associated with the symbol of the Rose Cross, which is also used in certain rituals of the Freemasons. ... The Lion of Belfort - Place Denfert-Rochereau Place Denfert-Rochereau, previously known as Place dEnfer, is located in the XIVe arrondissement of Paris, in the Montparnasse area and is situated at the intersection of boulevards Raspail, Arago and Saint-Jacques, and avenues RenÃ© Coty, GÃ©nÃ©ral Leclerc, Denfert... Rose garden in Parc Monceau Parc Monceau is a public park situated in the 8th and 17th Arrondissements of Paris at the junction of Boulevard de Courcelles, Rue de Prony and Rue Georges Berger. ... [[Image:Beaumarchais. ... An alexandrine is a line of poetic meter. ... A phalanstÃ¨re was a type of building designed for an utopian community and developed in the early 1800s by Charles Fourier. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Statue of Godin at Guise. ...

External links

Bibliography

Categories: French architects | Urban planners | 1736 births | 1806 deaths Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Wikimedia Commons logo by Reid Beels The Wikimedia Commons (also called Commons or Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ... March 21 is the 80th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (81st in leap years). ... Events January 26 - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne. ... Marne is a dÃ©partement in northeastern France named after the Marne River which flows through the dÃ©partement. ... November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1806 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France RÃ©gion ÃŽle-de-France DÃ©partement Paris (75) Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Mayor Bertrand DelanoÃ« (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land area...

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