Jacques Lemercier
Jacques Lemercier | |
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Born | c. 1585 Pontoise, France |
Died | 13 January 1654 Paris, France |
Nationality | French |
Occupation | Architect |
Buildings |
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Jacques Lemercier (French pronunciation:
Life and career
Lemercier was born in
On his return to France, after several years working as an engineer building bridges, his first major commission, however, was to complete the Parisian Church of the Oratorians, (1616), which had been begun by
During 1638 and 1639, Lemercier was appointed premier architecte charged with supervision of all the royal building enterprises, in which capacity he fell into a disagreeable dispute with the cultivated Nicolas Poussin about the decorations in the Louvre.
The Hôtel de Liancourt (1623) stands out among Lemercier's Paris hôtels particuliers for aristocratic patrons.
Lemercier built (from 1627 on) Richelieu's Paris residence, the Palais-Cardinal, today's
Less known, because gardens are less permanent, are parterre gardens laid out to Lemercier's designs, at Montjeu, at Richelieu and at Rueil (Mignot; Gady).
At the
At the royal abbey church of Val-de-Grâce Lemercier succeeded the elder Mansart who completed the structure to the cornice line, and refused to agree to a change in the building's design.[5] Lemercier completed it with a dome.
Lemercier was engaged by
One of his last commissions was the design of the Church of Saint-Roch, where the cornerstone was laid by
In a long career, the scrupulous Lemercier amassed no fortune. Through in 1645, Lemercier was receiving, as first among the royal architects (premier architecte du Roi), a salary of 3,000 livres, after his death— in the house he had built for himself, still standing at n° 46 rue de l’Arbre Sec (Gady)— it was necessary to sell the large library he had collected, in order to settle his debts.
Lemercier died in Paris. He was succeeded as first royal architect by Louis Le Vau.
See also
Other French architects of the first half of the 17th century:
- Salomon de Brosse
- Liberal Bruant
- Pierre Le Muet
- Louis Le Vau
- François Mansart
- Clément Métezeau
Work
Notes
- ^ Sturgis, Russell (1901). A Dictionary of Architecture and Building, Volume II. New York: Macmillan. p. 739.
- ISBN 978-0199674992.
- ^ Ballon 2002, p. 247.
- cour d'honneur, a term usually applied to the entrance court of an hôtel particulier.
- ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
Bibliography
- Ballon, Hilary (2002). "The Architecture of Cardinal Richelieu", pp. 246–259, in Richelieu: Art and Power, edited by Hilliard Todd Goldfarb. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. ISBN 9789053494073.
- Gady, Alexandre, 2005. Jacques Lemercier, architecte et ingénieur du roi The first monograph devoted to Jacques Lemercier.
- Mignot, Claude (2004). "Jacques Lemercier" at culture.gouv.fr.