Victor Laloux
Encyclopedia
Victor Alexandre Frederic Laloux (Tours
, 15 November 1850 – Paris
, 1937) was a French
Beaux-Arts architect
and teacher.
atelier of Louis-Jules André
, with his studies interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War
, and was awarded the annual Prix de Rome
in 1878. He spent 1879 through 1882 at the Villa Medici
in Rome.
On his return to France Laloux rose quickly through the academic system, serving on many juries, societies and foundations. As practitioner, he produced major commissions in a highly ornamented neo-classical surface style, collaborating with sculptors and muralists squarely in the Beaux-Arts tradition, but doing so on innovative cast-iron frames. Metal framing allowed higher interior spaces, more generous fenestration, and glass roofs, notably in the sunlit barrel-vault of the Gare d'Orsay.
Laloux was awarded the American AIA Gold Medal
in 1922, and the RIBA Royal Gold Medal
in 1929. In 1936, the year before his death, his successor as head of the atelier was Charles Lemaresquier.
. Atelier training in the context of the École
focused on the annual Prix de Rome
competition, and by this measure Laloux was the school's most successful teacher, training 16 winners.
The students educated in Laloux's atelier include:
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
, 15 November 1850 – Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, 1937) was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Beaux-Arts architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and teacher.
Life
Born in Tours, Laloux studied at the Paris École des Beaux-ArtsÉcole des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
atelier of Louis-Jules André
Louis-Jules André
Louis-Jules André was a French academic architect and the head of an important atelier at the École des Beaux-Arts.- Biography :...
, with his studies interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
, and was awarded the annual Prix de Rome
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
in 1878. He spent 1879 through 1882 at the Villa Medici
Villa Medici
The Villa Medici is a mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and now property of the French...
in Rome.
On his return to France Laloux rose quickly through the academic system, serving on many juries, societies and foundations. As practitioner, he produced major commissions in a highly ornamented neo-classical surface style, collaborating with sculptors and muralists squarely in the Beaux-Arts tradition, but doing so on innovative cast-iron frames. Metal framing allowed higher interior spaces, more generous fenestration, and glass roofs, notably in the sunlit barrel-vault of the Gare d'Orsay.
Laloux was awarded the American AIA Gold Medal
AIA Gold Medal
The AIA Gold Medal is awarded by the American Institute of Architects conferred "by the national AIA Board of Directors in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture."...
in 1922, and the RIBA Royal Gold Medal
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture....
in 1929. In 1936, the year before his death, his successor as head of the atelier was Charles Lemaresquier.
Work
Laloux's work includes:- the neo-Byzantine Basilica of St. Martin, ToursBasilica of St. Martin, Tours.Basilica of St. Martin, is a Roman Catholic basilica dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, on whose tomb it was built. It is located in Tours, France....
, in ToursToursTours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
, 1886–1924 - Gare de ToursGare de ToursGare de Tours is a railway station serving the city Tours, Indre-et-Loire department, western France. It is situated on the Paris–Bordeaux railway, the Tours–Saint-Nazaire railway, and the non-electrified Tours–Le Mans railway...
, in ToursToursTours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
, 1896–1898, with four allegorical limestone statues of cities by Jean Antoine InjalbertJean Antoine InjalbertJean Antoine Injalbert was a much-decorated French sculptor, born at Béziers.- Life :The son of a stonemason, Injalbert was a pupil of Augustin-Alexandre Dumont and won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1874. At the Exposition Universelle of 1889 he won the Grand Prix, and in 1900 was a member of...
(Bordeaux and Toulouse) and Jean-Baptiste HuguesJean-Baptiste HuguesJean-Baptiste Hugues was a French sculptor.He won the Grand Prix de Rome for sculpture in 1875. He was resident at the Villa Medicis from 1876 to 1879. When he was alive, he gained some fame : his works were exhibited at the Salons and were always commented on by critics and writers at the time...
(Limoges and Nantes) - the ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
Gare d'Orsay, now the Musée d'OrsayMusée d'OrsayThe Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, an impressive Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture,...
, 1900 - Hotel de Ville, RoubaixRoubaixRoubaix is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is located between the cities of Lille and Tourcoing.The Gare de Roubaix railway station offers connections to Lille, Tourcoing, Antwerp, Ostend and Paris.-Culture:...
, 1903, with architectural sculpture by Alphonse-Amédée CordonnierAlphonse-Amédée CordonnierAlphonse-Amédée Cordonnier was a French sculptor.Born in La Madeleine, Nord, Cordonnier was educated in nearby Lille, then in Paris, then in Rome, on a scholarship funded by the foundation of Jean-Baptiste Wicar... - Hotel de Ville, Tours, 1904, also with sculpture by Cordonnier
- completion of the Crédit Lyonnais headquartersCrédit Lyonnais headquartersThe Crédit Lyonnais headquarters is installed in a haussmannian style building in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris...
, Paris, 1913 - the U.S. Embassy, Paris, with his student, American architect William Delano, 1931
- Palais du Hanovre, Paris, with his student Charles Lemaresquier, 1932
Influence
As professor, Laloux assumed the direction of Louis-Jules André's atelier when André died in 1890. Laloux would ultimately train about 600 students through the years, including 132 Americans. Laloux's influence is visible in the U.S. in buildings like the 1921 San Francisco City HallSan Francisco City Hall
San Francisco City Hall, re-opened in 1915, in its open space area in the city's Civic Center, is a Beaux-Arts monument to the City Beautiful movement that epitomized the high-minded American Renaissance of the 1880s to 1917. The structure's dome is the fifth largest in the world...
. Atelier training in the context of the École
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
focused on the annual Prix de Rome
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
competition, and by this measure Laloux was the school's most successful teacher, training 16 winners.
The students educated in Laloux's atelier include:
- William Lawrence BottomleyWilliam Lawrence BottomleyWilliam Lawrence Bottomley, born February 24, 1883 in New York, New York, was a noted architect in twentieth-century New York, New York, Middleburg, Virginia and Richmond, Virginia...
, American - Arthur Brown, Jr., American
- Jacques CarluJacques CarluJacques Carlu was a French architect and designer, working mostly in Art Deco style, active in France, Canada, and in the United States....
, French - George Shepard ChappellGeorge Shepard ChappellGeorge Shepard Chappell was an American architect, journalist and author. He graduated from Yale University in 1899 and then trained at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He wrote several humorous books during the 1920s and early 1930s, including a series of travel parodies...
, American - François-Benjamin ChaussemicheFrançois-Benjamin ChaussemicheFrançois-Benjamin Chaussemiche was a French architect.Chaussemiche was born in Tours, and in 1883 entered the École des Beaux-Arts where he became a student and later colleague of Victor Laloux...
, French - John Walter Cross of Cross and Cross, American
- William Delano, American
- Georges Gromort, French
- Henry-Barthélemy Gutton, French
- George HoweGeorge Howe (architect)George Howe was an American architect and educator, and an early convert to the International style. With William Lescaze, he designed Philadelphia's PSFS Building .-Biography:...
, American - Charles Lemaresquier, French
- Miguel Ventura TerraMiguel Ventura TerraMiguel Ventura Terra was a Portuguese architect.Ventura Terra studied in Porto and later in the École de Beaux-Arts of Paris in the atelier of Victor Laloux...
, Portuguese - Guillaume TronchetGuillaume TronchetGuillaume Tronchet was a French architect.- Life :Guillaume Tronchet studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris in the studio of Louis-Jules André, then in 1890 in that of Victor Laloux...
, French - William Van AlenWilliam Van AlenWilliam Van Alen was an American architect, best known as the architect in charge of designing New York City's Chrysler Building .-Life:...
, American, designer of the Chrysler BuildingChrysler BuildingThe Chrysler Building is an Art Deco style skyscraper in New York City, located on the east side of Manhattan in the Turtle Bay area at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Standing at , it was the world's tallest building for 11 months before it was surpassed by the Empire State... - Charles Weeks of Weeks and DayWeeks and DayWeeks and Day was an American architectural firm founded in 1916 by architect Charles Peter Weeks and engineer William Peyton Day ....
, American - Lucien WeissenburgerLucien WeissenburgerLucien Weissenburger , was a French architect. He was one of the principal architects to work in the Art Nouveau style in Lorraine and a member of the board of directors of the École de Nancy....
, French