Hôtel de Beauvais
The Hôtel de Beauvais is a hôtel particulier located in Paris in the 4th arrondissement at 68 rue Francois-Miron (previously rue St. Antoine). It was built by the royal architect Antoine Le Pautre for Catherine Beauvais in 1657. It is an example of eclectic French baroque architecture.
History
Catherine Beauvais was the first lady to Anne of Austria, and was rumored to have provided Louis XIV with his first heterosexual experience.[1] On August 26, 1660 King Louis the XIV and his wife made a triumphal entry into Paris, stopping at the Hotel de Beauvais to salute Beauvais, who stood on the protruding balcony that overlooked the street. In 1763 the hotel came into possession of the Bavarian ambassador, who received a visit that year from Mr. Leopold Mozart, his wife, and children, including Wolfgang, age seven. The building was restored in 2003, and today contains the administrative court of appeal of Paris and is inaccessible to the public except for the court public audiences. The courtyard was used as a theatre for a short period of time.[2]
Architecture
Hôtel de Beauvais’ façade is done in the French Baroque style, common to hôtel particuliers. Strict symmetry is created using false walls and windows.[3] The façade uses vertical bands of rusticated stone and horizontal moldings instead of orders to define major lines.[4]
Novel Elements & Precedents
The building contains several unexpected elements for an hôtel particulier. Public shops are located along the ground level, which may be a continuation of an ancient Roman tradition. The mezzanine windows, which were uncommon in Paris, may have been a throwback to High Renaissance in Rome.[5] In the plan, there are different paths for circulation for servants and noblemen. Many unusual details of the plan: the corps de logis placed along the street with the cour d’honneur behind, the circular vestibule, the angled passage from the court to the rue de Jouy, the semicircular ending of the court, and the stair at the left rear of the court, were the result of Le Pautre’s use of the foundations of the three medieval houses that originally occupied the lot.[6]
Critical Reception
Le Pautre’s major triumph was in his treatment of the irregular site and the creation of a symmetrical façade.[7] Architectural historians also laud the building for its influence on the free plan; seen in the central cour d’honneur, created by the articulation of pochè and an ambivalence towards solid space.[8]
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Foundations of the original medieval building with the outline of the completed cour d’honneur. -
Ground Floor -
First Floor -
Facade on the rue Saint-Antoine, 1660
Notes
- ^ Robert W. Berger, Antoine Le Pautre: A French Architect of the Era of Louis XIV (New York: New York University Press, 1969), 37
- ^ Leonard Pitt, Walks Through Lost Paris (Berkeley: Counterpoint LLC, 2006), 186
- ^ Berger, Antoine Le Pautre, 40
- ^ Berger, Antoine Le Pautre, 39
- ^ Howard Hibbard, The Architecture of the Palazzo Borghese: Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, XXVII (Rome: American Academy in Rome, 1962), 17
- ^ M. Du Seigneur, “L’hotel de Beauvais,” La construction moderne (1886), 378-379
- ^ Kevin Matthews, "Hotel de Beauvais," http://www.GreatBuildings.com/buildings/Hotel_de_Beauvais.html
- ^ Colin Rowe & Fred Koetter, Collage City (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1978), 78]
References
- Berger, Robert W. Antoine Le Pautre: A French Architect of the Era of Louis XIV. New York: New York University Press, 1969.
- Hibbard, Howard. The Architecture of the Palazzo Borghese: Memoirs of the American Academy of Rome, XXVII. Rome: American Academy in Rome, 1962.
- Matthews, Kevin, Hotel de Beauvais, [1] Artifice, Inc., 2008.
- Pitt, Leonard. Walks Through Lost Paris. Berkeley: Counterpoint LLC, 2006.
- Rowe, Colin and Koetter, Fred. Collage City. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1978
- Seigneur, M. Du. La Construction Moderne. 1886.