Jacques-François Blondel

Jacques-François Blondel (Rouen, January 17, 1705 — January 9 1774) was a French architect. He was the grandson ("le petit Blondel") of François Blondel ("le grand Blondel"), whose course of architecture had appeared in four volumes in 1683 [ [http://www.amsterdambookfair.com/cat/papyrus.htm] .]

Biography

Born in Rouen, [W. Knight Sturges, "Jacques-François Blondel" "The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians" 11.1 (March 1952:16-19) p. 16.] he trained under his uncle Jean-François Blondel (1683-1756), architect of Rouen, then began a career as an architectural engraver, but developed into a conservative and thorough architect, whose rationally ordered mind consolidated French classical tradition and practice. He prefaced his clear and rational "Architecture française" with the remark, "I have used simple terms and a popular style with the intention of being understood by layman and artist alike; having noticed that recent books about architecture are either badly organised or over long." [Blondel, quoted in Sturges 1952:16.] His hugely influential encyclopedic work, "De la Distribution des Maisons de Plaisance, et de la Décoration des Edifices en General" was issued at Paris, 1737–38. It contained 155 carefully engraved plates. "Blondel was the most significant French architectural educator of the eighteenth century.....his objective was to establish design principles for domestic architecture that correspond to the classical principles already in practice for civil structures" (Millard 1993, p. 25).

Blondel was in Paris by 1726. His "Distribution des Maisons de Plaisance" and other engraved work attracted a commission to produce thirteen of the engravings for the festival book commemorating the "fêtes" that celebrated the wedding of Madame Elizabeth of France with Dom Philippe of Spain. In 1740 he opened his architectural courses, the "Ecole des Arts", in Paris, sanctioned by the Académie in 1743. [Sturges 1952:16.] In the ensuing years a long sequence of architects profited from his discourse: Boullée, Brongniart, Chalgrin, La Guêpière, Desprez, de Wailly, Gondoin, Ledoux, and Rondelet, and to foreigners who would bring Neoclassicism home with them: the Anglo-Swedish Sir William Chambers, and the Dane Caspar Frederik Harsdorff.

His four volumes, "L'Architecture française" (1752– 1756), brought him to official notice; he was inducted into the "Académie d'Architecture" in 1755 and appointed architect to Louis XV. [One of a number; he was not "Première Architecte du Roi".] In "L'architecture" he covered the past century and more of French buildings, setting them in their historical context and providing a wealth of detailed information that would otherwise have been lost. Though his executed body of work was small, mostly confined to work he executed at Metz under commission of the duc de Choiseul, [His classical colonnades and entrance portal for the Cathedral of Metz were replaced by more acceptable Gothic pastiches in the later nineteenth century., but Blondel's entrance survived long enough to be photographed (illustrated in Sturges 1952:18 fig. 4).] his approach was soundly grounded: for the "Encyclopédie" he contributed the article on masonry, among others.

He was among the earliest founders of schools of architecture in France, and for this he was distinguished by the French Academy; His "Cours d'architecture ou traité de la décoration, distribution et constructions des bâtiments contenant les leçons données en 1750, et les années suivantes" began appearing in 1771 and ran to nine volumes by 1777, a volume of plates to each two volumes of text; the last volumes were seen through the press by his disciple Pierre Patte. His practical, encyclopedic approach, largely ignoring the excesses of Rococo, had survived changes in taste and remained in the mainstream of French architectural training for several decades more.

Notes

References

* [http://www.amsterdambookfair.com/cat/papyrus.htm Blondel's "Cours d'architecture" catalogued and described]
*"The Mark J. Millard Architectural Collection: French Books" (National Gallery of Art) 1993. ISBN 0807612812
* [http://www.iconoclastbooks.com/jfblondel.html Blondel, "L'Architecture française"] : catalogue description of the reimpression of 1904