Germain Boffrand
Germain Boffrand ( [ ʒɛʁmɛ bɔf'ʁɑ ]; * 1667 in Nantes, Pays de la Loire, † 1754 in Paris) was a French architect and interior designer who is assigned to the rococo.
Life
Germain Boffrand was born the son of an architect and sculptor in Nantes. His maternal uncle, the poet Philippe Quinault, brought him to Paris in 1681, and led him in the royal court at Versailles and in the salons of Paris a. In the capital Boffrand began an apprenticeship with the sculptor François Girardon, but switched after four years for the architect Jules Hardouin -Mansart. 1709 Boffrand was admitted to the Académie Royale d'Architecture. In 1711 he was appointed first architect of the Duke of Lorraine.
He created for the Parisian aristocracy and the upper middle class town houses, including the Hôtel Lebrun, the Hôtel Amelot, the Hôtel de Villars, the Hôtel de Seignelay and the Palais Beauharnais. In the years 1709 to 1740 he devoted himself to the equipment of the Parisian palaces such as those of the Petit Luxembourg, the Grand Arsenal and the Hôtel de Soubise. In Lorraine, he was charged with the reconstruction of the castle Haroué before the duke conferred on him the construction of the new locks Luneville and La Malgrange. Probably also originate designs for the castle COMMERCY from him.
In 1743 he wrote the band La figure de Louis XIV équestre Descriptio omnium operarum quibus ad fundendam ex aere una emissione metallic, Ludovici Decimi - Quarti statuam equestrem ... / Description de ce qui a été Pratique pour fondre en bronze dun seul jet la figure équestre de Louis XIV in 1745, he published his theoretical work Livre d'Architecture, in which he dealt in French and Latin with the aesthetics of the architecture and designs of some of his most important buildings shows.