Louis-Pierre Baltard

Louis-Pierre Baltard
Louis-Pierre Baltard
	A bust of Louis-Pierre Baltard by Eugène Guillaume (1873), courtesy of the musée d'Orsay
Born	9 July 1764; Paris
Died	22 January 1846 (aged 81); Lyon
Nationality	French
Occupation	Architect
Children	Victor Baltard
Buildings	Palais de justice historique de Lyon

Louis-Pierre Baltard (9 July 1764 – 22 January 1846) was a French architect, and engraver and father of Victor Baltard.

Life

He was born in Paris. He was originally a landscape painter, but in his travels through Italy was struck with the beauty of the Italian buildings, and changed his profession, devoting himself to architecture.^[1]^[2]

In his new occupation he achieved great success, and was selected to prepare the plans for some of the largest public edifices in Paris. His reputation is chiefly based on his skill in engraving. Among the best known of his plates are the drawings of Paris (Paris et ses monuments, 1803), the engravings for Denon's Égypte, the illustrations of Napoleon's wars (La Colonne de la grande armée), and those contained in the series entitled the Grand prix de l'architecture, which for some time he carried on alone. He also gained distinction as an engraver of portraits.^[1]^[3]

The Palais de Justice in Lyon are his most notable project.^[4]

Baltard died, aged 81, in Lyon.

Family

Two of his children were also architects. Of these the more important was Victor Baltard, who designed Les Halles, Saint-Augustin, Paris, and the facade of Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux.

Architectural works

Louis-Pierre Baltard and Jean-Baptiste Rondelet were candidates in the competition to transform the Panthéon de Paris into the « temple de la Gloire ». In 1813, on the death of Alexandre Théodore Brongniart, Baltard proposed to undertake the building of the Palais Brongniart, but was unsuccessful.

The Palais de Justice in Lyon
Chapel of the prison Sainte-Pélagie, Paris.
Hospital and chapel of the prison Saint-Lazare, Paris (1834)
Prison Saint-Joseph, Perrache Lyon (1836)
Palais de Justice (nicknamed « Les 24 colonnes »), Lyon, on the quays of the river Saône (1842)

References

^ ^a ^b Chisholm 1911.
^ Puylaroque, Thérèse de. "Pierre Baltard, peintre, architecte & graveur, 1764-1846: biographie raisonnée et catalogue sommaire"
^ Curl, James Stevens (1999). Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-860678-9.
^ Fleming, John; Honour, Hugh; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1998). The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (5 ed.). Penguin. p. 39. ISBN 0-14-051323-X.

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Baltard, Louis Pierre". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.