Philippe de La Guêpière
Encyclopedia
Philippe de La Guêpière (c. 1715 – October 30, 1773) was a French
architect
whose main commissions were from Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg
.
, south of Paris
, the son of Lucien de La Guêpière, clerk of the works at the château de Sceaux
, where the architect employed by Louis XIV
's natural son, the duc du Maine
, had been his uncle, Jacques de La Guêpière (1670–1734).
Apparently having followed the architectural courses of the theoretician Jacques-François Blondel
, from the 1730s La Guêpière took courses in architecture in Paris. He attended the Académie royale d'architecture. In 1750 he issued his engraved folio
volume Plans, coupes et élévations de différents palais et églises. That same year Leopoldo Retti, who was engaged in building the Neues Schloss
in Stuttgart
for Karl Eugen, made an artistic reconnoitering trip to Paris, in the company of the duke's garden designer Hemmerling. In Paris he oversaw the engraving of a suite of four folio sheets of the floorplan, section, elevations and profiles of the schloss that was being built. In Paris he may have encountered La Guêpière. At any rate, in 1752 Karl Eugen named La Guêpière architect to his court of Württemberg
, to fill the post left empty by the unexpected death of Retti, in September the previous year.
La Guêpière was one of the group of French-trained architects, like François de Cuvilliés
in Munich
, who brought the latest French style to the small German courts. He was occupied with works at the ducal Residenz of Stuttgart, the Neues Schloss that was built adjacent to the former palace http://www.schloesser-magazin.de/eng/objekte/st/st_ne/st_ne01e.php, and also at that of Karlsruhe
. He was also responsible for the palatial retreat Schloss Solitude
near Stuttgart
and the waterside Schloss of Monrepos
in the grounds of Ludwigsburg
(1760–64).
La Guêpière's work at the Stuttgart Neues Schloss was never completed. By 1756 the shell of the wing that faced the city was completed, the central Mittelbau erected and the interior decoration in the garden wing was complete. First the garden wing was destroyed by fire in 1762, then Karl Eugen faced opposition over his extravagance and abandoned Stuttgart for Ludwigsburg
. The Neues Schloss was bombed to a ruin in World War II
and has been rebuilt as a shell with modern interiors and some reproduced reception rooms http://www.schloesser-magazin.de/eng/objekte/st/st_ne/st_ne01e.php.
At Ludwigsburg Palace
, the alternate seat of the duke, La Guêpière was occupied in 1757–1758, in providing a court theater and in refurbishing the main block of the palace. Here the palace was not badly damaged in World War II. The theatre retains its stage machinery constructed under the direction of La Guêpière, the oldest surviving stage machinery preserved in Europe. The water pavilion
Monrepos
was built from 1755 and completed in 1764 [Hlawtsch 1991].
, developing his style towards the Goût grec
the "Greek taste' that was the early forerunner of neoclassicism
. His folio volume Recueil d'esquisses d'architecture was issued from Paris in 1765.
La Guêpière was the architect of the neoclassical hôtel de ville of Montbéliard
in Franche-Comté
, where his patron Karl Eugen was stathouder. The corps de logis of the château was also rebuilt in more stylish and commodious fashion.
His works in France include interiors (since replaced) for the former bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève
. A pavilion to contain a menagerie
at the Château de Sceaux
, sometimes credited to him, was built by Jacques de La Guêpière.
He died in Paris.
The only monograph
devoted to La Guêpière is Hans Andreas Klaiber's Der Württembergische Oberbaudirektor Philippe de La Guêpière: Ein Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte der Architektur am Ende des Spätbarock, published in Stuttgart in 1959.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
whose main commissions were from Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg
Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg
Charles Eugene , Duke of Württemberg was the eldest son of Duke Karl I Alexander and Princess Maria Augusta of Thurn and Taxis .-Life:...
.
Early life
Philippe was born in Sceaux, Hauts-de-SeineSceaux, Hauts-de-Seine
Sceaux is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-Wealth:Sceaux is famous for the Château of Sceaux, set in its large park , designed by André Le Nôtre, measuring...
, south of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, the son of Lucien de La Guêpière, clerk of the works at the château de Sceaux
Château de Sceaux
The Château de Sceaux is a grand country house in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, not far from Paris, France. Located in a park laid out by André Le Nôtre, it houses the Musée de l’Île-de-France, a museum of local history. The former château was built for Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's minister of...
, where the architect employed by Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
's natural son, the duc du Maine
Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine
Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Legitimé de France was the eldest legitimised son of the Louis XIV of France and his maîtresse-en-titre, Madame de Montespan...
, had been his uncle, Jacques de La Guêpière (1670–1734).
Apparently having followed the architectural courses of the theoretician Jacques-François Blondel
Jacques-François Blondel
Jacques-François Blondel was a French architect. He was the grandson of François Blondel , whose course of architecture had appeared in four volumes in 1683 -Biography:...
, from the 1730s La Guêpière took courses in architecture in Paris. He attended the Académie royale d'architecture. In 1750 he issued his engraved folio
Book size
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...
volume Plans, coupes et élévations de différents palais et églises. That same year Leopoldo Retti, who was engaged in building the Neues Schloss
New Castle (Stuttgart)
The New Palace is a building which stands on the south edge of Schlossplatz, the central square in Stuttgart, Germany. The castle is built in late Baroque style....
in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
for Karl Eugen, made an artistic reconnoitering trip to Paris, in the company of the duke's garden designer Hemmerling. In Paris he oversaw the engraving of a suite of four folio sheets of the floorplan, section, elevations and profiles of the schloss that was being built. In Paris he may have encountered La Guêpière. At any rate, in 1752 Karl Eugen named La Guêpière architect to his court of Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
, to fill the post left empty by the unexpected death of Retti, in September the previous year.
La Guêpière was one of the group of French-trained architects, like François de Cuvilliés
François de Cuvilliés
François de Cuvilliés was a Belgian-born Bavarian decorative designer and architect who was instrumental in bringing the Rococo style to the Wittelsbach court at Munich and to Central Europe in general.Cuvilliés was so diminutive in stature that it was as a court dwarf he first came to the notice...
in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, who brought the latest French style to the small German courts. He was occupied with works at the ducal Residenz of Stuttgart, the Neues Schloss that was built adjacent to the former palace http://www.schloesser-magazin.de/eng/objekte/st/st_ne/st_ne01e.php, and also at that of Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
. He was also responsible for the palatial retreat Schloss Solitude
Castle Solitude
Castle Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany , was built as a hunting lodge between 1764 and 1769 under Duke Karl Eugen of Württemberg. It is not a true castle, but rather a rococo palace. Since 1956 the area is part of the urban district of Stuttgart-West. The castle is located on a high plain between...
near Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
and the waterside Schloss of Monrepos
Monrepos
Mon Repos was also a grand and famous park in the former Finnish city of Viipuri, now Vyborg, Russia.Monrepos is a lakeside palace in Ludwigsburg, Germany...
in the grounds of Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg urban district with about 87,000 inhabitants...
(1760–64).
In Stuttgart
At Stuttgart La Guêpière lost little time in engraving and publishing further designs. His Recueil de differens projets d’architecture représentant plusieurs monuments publics et autres (Stuttgart, Jean Nicolas Stoll) was published on December 11, 1752. Like his Paris engravings, it broke with earlier traditions of architectural treatises by featuring just the works of a single architect (Klaiber).La Guêpière's work at the Stuttgart Neues Schloss was never completed. By 1756 the shell of the wing that faced the city was completed, the central Mittelbau erected and the interior decoration in the garden wing was complete. First the garden wing was destroyed by fire in 1762, then Karl Eugen faced opposition over his extravagance and abandoned Stuttgart for Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg urban district with about 87,000 inhabitants...
. The Neues Schloss was bombed to a ruin in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and has been rebuilt as a shell with modern interiors and some reproduced reception rooms http://www.schloesser-magazin.de/eng/objekte/st/st_ne/st_ne01e.php.
At Ludwigsburg Palace
Ludwigsburg Palace
Ludwigsburg Palace is a historical building in the city of Ludwigsburg , Germany. It is one of the country's largest Baroque palaces and features an enormous garden in that style....
, the alternate seat of the duke, La Guêpière was occupied in 1757–1758, in providing a court theater and in refurbishing the main block of the palace. Here the palace was not badly damaged in World War II. The theatre retains its stage machinery constructed under the direction of La Guêpière, the oldest surviving stage machinery preserved in Europe. The water pavilion
Pavilion (structure)
In architecture a pavilion has two main meanings.-Free-standing structure:Pavilion may refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure. Large or small, there is usually a connection with relaxation and pleasure in...
Monrepos
Monrepos
Mon Repos was also a grand and famous park in the former Finnish city of Viipuri, now Vyborg, Russia.Monrepos is a lakeside palace in Ludwigsburg, Germany...
was built from 1755 and completed in 1764 [Hlawtsch 1991].
Return to Paris
He left Württemberg in 1768, with Schloss Solitude almost completed, to return to Paris, where he was one of the first architects to turn away from RococoRococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
, developing his style towards the Goût grec
Goût grec
Goût grec is the term applied to the earliest expression of the neoclassical style in France, it refers specifically to the decorative arts and architecture of the mid-1750s to the late 1760s. The style was more fanciful than historically accurate though the first archaeological surveys of Greece...
the "Greek taste' that was the early forerunner of neoclassicism
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
. His folio volume Recueil d'esquisses d'architecture was issued from Paris in 1765.
La Guêpière was the architect of the neoclassical hôtel de ville of Montbéliard
Montbéliard
Montbéliard is a city in the Doubs department in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France. It is one of the two subprefectures of the department.-History:...
in Franche-Comté
Franche-Comté
Franche-Comté the former "Free County" of Burgundy, as distinct from the neighbouring Duchy, is an administrative region and a traditional province of eastern France...
, where his patron Karl Eugen was stathouder. The corps de logis of the château was also rebuilt in more stylish and commodious fashion.
His works in France include interiors (since replaced) for the former bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève
Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève
The Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève inherited the writings and collections of one of the largest and oldest abbeys in Paris. Founded in the sixth century by Clovis I and subject to the rule of St. Benedict Abbey, initially devoted to the apostles Peter and Paul, in 512 received the body of the St...
. A pavilion to contain a menagerie
Menagerie
A menagerie is/was a form of keeping common and exotic animals in captivity that preceded the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in seventeenth century France in reference to the management of household or domestic stock. Later, it came to be used primarily in reference to...
at the Château de Sceaux
Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine
Sceaux is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-Wealth:Sceaux is famous for the Château of Sceaux, set in its large park , designed by André Le Nôtre, measuring...
, sometimes credited to him, was built by Jacques de La Guêpière.
He died in Paris.
The only monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
devoted to La Guêpière is Hans Andreas Klaiber's Der Württembergische Oberbaudirektor Philippe de La Guêpière: Ein Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte der Architektur am Ende des Spätbarock, published in Stuttgart in 1959.