Alphonse de Gisors
Alphonse-Henri Guy de Gisors(3 September 1796 – 18 August 1866) was a 19th-century Frencharchitect,a member of the Gisors family of architects and prominent government administrators responsible for the construction and preservation of many public buildings in Paris.[1]
Early training and career[edit]
He was born in Paris, where he studied at theEcole des Beaux-ArtswithCharles Percierand his uncleGuy de Gisors,who helped him obtain a position with the Bâtiments Civils in 1822. He won second place in thePrix de Romein 1823 and was promoted to Architecte in 1824.[1]
Early in his career he used theclassicalstyle of Percier, designing fire stations, theatres, town halls, and other public buildings in Paris and the provinces. Around 1828 he designed the Hôtel de la Préfecture and the Hôtel de Ville inAjaccio,Corsica.[1]
Later career[edit]
His major work was an extension ofSalomon de Brosse'sPalais du Luxembourgbetween 1836 and 1841, when he added a garden-side wing parallel to the originalcorps de logisand a wood-panelled Chamber of Sessions on the first floor in an area that otherwise would have been part of a large interior courtyard. The new wing included a library (bibliothèque) with a cycle of paintings (1845–1847) byEugène Delacroix.The garden facade of his addition is so similar to the original that at first glance it is difficult to distinguish the new from the old.[2]
Southwest of thePetit Luxembourg,in theLuxembourg Garden,he constructed anorangery,which was later remodeled and enlarged to become in 1886 the new home of theMusée du Luxembourg,previously in the east wing of the Luxembourg Palace.[3]In 1840 he rebuilt the street facade of the chapel of the formerConvent of the Daughters of Calvary(founded in 1622 byMarie de Médicis), one of the remnants incorporated into the west wing of the Petit Luxembourg.[4]
From 1841 to 1847 he worked on theEcole Normale Supérieure.[1][5]
In the 1850s he joined a first-floor suite of rooms in the Luxembourg Palace on the courtyard side of the originalcorps de logis,creating the highly ornate Salle des Conférences. Inspired by theGalerie d'Apollonof theLouvre,it influenced the nature of subsequent official interiors of theSecond Empire,including those of thePalais Garnier.[2]
In 1861 he shifted theMedici Fountainin the Luxembourg Gardens slightly closer to the palace to make way for the rue de Médicis.[6]He also restored the arms of France and of the Medici on the fountain and created a 50-metre-long rectangle of water bounded by an alley ofplane trees.[citation needed]
In 1864 the extension of the rue de Rennes prompted Gisors to move theFontaine du Regard(built in 1807 at the intersection of therue de Vaugirardand the rue du Regard) and to attach it to the back of the Medici Fountain.[6]
References[edit]
Notes
Sources
- Ayers, Andrew (2004).The Architecture of Paris.Stuttgart; London: Edition Axel Menges.ISBN9783930698967.
- Cleary, Richard (1996). "Gisors", vol. 12, pp. 746–747, inThe Dictionary of Art,edited by Jane Turner, reprinted with minor corrections in 1998. New York: Grove.ISBN9781884446009.
- Poisson, Michel (1999).Paris Buildings and Monuments,p. 209. New York: Harry N. Abrams.ISBN9780810943551.
External links[edit]
- Alphonse de Gisorsat insecula
- French Senate
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