Louis Le Vau

Louis Le Vau, c. 1662[1]
Louis Le Vau, c. 1650

Louis Le Vau (1612 – 11 October 1670) was a French Classical architect who worked for Louis XIV of France.[2] He was born and died in Paris.

He was responsible, with André Le Nôtre and Charles Le Brun, for the redesign of the château of Vaux-le-Vicomte. His later works included the Palace of Versailles and his collaboration with Claude Perrault on the Palais du Louvre. Le Vau also designed two mirroring additions across the Parterre to the evergrowing Château de Vincennes, the Château du Raincy, the Hotel Tambonneau, the Collège des Quatre-Nations (now housing the Institut de France), the church of St. Sulpice, and Hôtel Lambert, on the Île Saint-Louis, Paris.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ The subject of this portrait was identified as Louis Le Vau in 1955 by Albert Laprade, who recognized the plan as that of the southwest corner of the old Louvre, that is the Bathing Apartment of the Queen Mother Anne d'Autriche, remodeled by Le Vau in the summer of 1661, and the building illustrated in the background as the pavilion at the north end of the Louvre's Petite Galerie (see Galerie d'Apollon), constructed after the fire of 1 February 1661 (see also Laprade 1960, chapter 3, plate 1).
         Christophe Hardouin disputed Laprade's attribution in an unpublished thesis for the University of Paris and identified the painting as Pierre Rabon's presentation piece before the Academy on 3 July 1660, which portrayed Antoine de Ratabon (1617–1670), Surintendant des Bâtiments (see Thierry Bajou; also Hilary Ballon 1999, p. 201, note 8, who was unable to examine the thesis but cites Bajou). Bajou comments that the "building plan and the facade therefore correspond to projects and not to completed buildings. It is unfortunately, just as impossible to confirm this identification, by comparing the sitter's features with those in other painted, sculpted or engraved portraits."
  2. ↑  Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Louis Levau". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Bibliography


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