- Jacques Gabriel
Jacques Gabriel (1667–1742) was a French architect, the father of the famous
Ange-Jacques Gabriel .His mother was a cousin of
Jules Hardouin-Mansart and his father, another Jacques Gabriel was a masonry contractor for the "Bâtiments du Roi ", the French royal works, and the designer of theChâteau de Choisy for the king's cousin,La Grande Mademoiselle .The younger Jacques Gabriel was appointed one of the "controlleurs généraux" at the "Bâtiments du Roi" in 1688, at the age of twenty-one. Two years later he was sent to accompany
Robert de Cotte on an eighteen-month sojourn in Italy, sharpening his eye, and on his return was made one of the "Autres Architectes" in the "Bâtiments du Roi", where he proved an efficient administrator. He was made a member of the Académie at Mansart's reorganization of that body in 1699.Pierre-Jean Mariette , who knew him well says that he was "expert in the conduct of building, but he could not have drawn the least jot of ornament" ["Il étoit expert dans la conduite du bâtiment, mais il n'auroit pas pu dessiner le moindre bout d'ornement", quoted in Kimball, p 61.] For designers of ornament, Gabriel relied onPierre Lepautre and after Lepautre's death, onJean Aubert , another designer trained in the "Bâtiments du Roi" (Kimball p 131).Gabriel succeeded Robert de Cotte as "Premier Architecte du Roi" of de Cotte's retirement in December 1734 and held the post until he was succeeded by his "vastly more gifted" (Kimball) son,
Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1742.Gabriel's work in Paris has been much remodelled. Mariette's "Architecture françoise" offers plates illustrating several "hôtels particuliers" by Gabriel. He completed the Palais Bourbon (begun by Giardini, continued by
Pierre Cailleteau Lassurance ). He completed the Hôtel de Lassay nearby. He was responsible for the Hôtel Peyrenc de Moras (de Biron), 1728-31.Notes
References
*Fiske Kimball, (1943), 1964. "The Creation of the Rococo".
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