Alexandre Brongniart

Alexandre Brongniart

Alexandre Brongniart
Born 5 February 1770
Paris, France
Died 7 October 1847 (1847-10-08) (aged 77)
Paris, France
Nationality French
Fields
Institutions Sèvres - Cité de la céramique
Manufacture nationale de Sèvres
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Alexandre Brongniart (5 February 1770 – 7 October 1847) was a French chemist, mineralogist, and zoologist, who collaborated with Georges Cuvier on a study of the geology of the region around Paris.

Life

He was born in Paris, the son of the architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart and father of the botanist Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart.

He was an instructor at the École de Mines (Mining School) in Paris and appointed in 1800 by Napoleon's minister of the interior Lucien Bonaparte director of the revitalized porcelain manufactory at Sèvres, holding this role until death. The young man took to the position a combination of his training as a scientist— especially as a mining engineer relevant to the chemistry of ceramics— his managerial talents and financial acumen and his cultivated understanding of neoclassical esthetic.[1] He remained in charge of Sèvres, through regime changes, for 47 years.

Brongniart introduced a new classification of reptiles and wrote several treatises on mineralogy and the ceramic arts. He also made an extensive study of trilobites and made pioneering contributions to stratigraphy by developing fossil markers for dating strata.

Brongniart was also the founder of the Musée national de Céramique-Sèvres (National Museum of Ceramics), having been director of the Sèvres Porcelain Factory from 1800 to 1847. In 1823, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Publications

Family

His son was Adolphe Theodore Brongniart.

His daughter Herminie married Jean Baptiste Andre Dumas.[2]

Bibliography

References

  1. The combination of characters are noted in Lynn Springer Roberts, "The Londonderry Vase: A Royal Gift to Curry Favor" Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 15.1 (1989:68-81+88) p. 73.
  2. http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf
  3. IPNI.  Al.Brongn.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "article name needed". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne. 

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