Charles Garnier | |
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Charles Garnier by Nadar, c. 1880
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Born |
Jean-Louis Charles Garnier 6 November 1825 Paris |
Died | 3 August 1898 Paris |
(aged 72)
Nationality | French |
Occupation | Architect |
Awards | Prix de Rome - 1848 |
Buildings |
Palais Garnier (Paris Opéra) Opéra de Monte-Carlo |
Jean-Louis Charles Garnier (pronounced: [ʃaʁl ɡaʁnje]; 6 November 1825 – 3 August 1898) was a French architect, perhaps best known as the architect of the Palais Garnier and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.
Charles Garnier was born Jean-Louis Charles Garnier on 6 November 1825 in Paris, on the Rue Mouffetard, in the present-day 5th arrondissement. His father was originally from Sarthe, and had worked as a blacksmith, wheelwright, and coachbuilder before settling down in Paris to work in a horse-drawn carriage rental business. He married Felicia Colle, daughter of a captain in the French Army.
Later in life, Garnier would all but ignore the fact that he was born of humble origins, preferring to claim Sarthe as his birthplace.
Garnier became an apprentice of Louis-Hippolyte Lebas, and after that a full-time student of the École royale des Beaux-Arts de Paris, beginning during 1842. He obtained the Premier Grand Prix de Rome in 1848, at age twenty-three. The subject of his final examination was entitled:"Un conservatoire des arts et métiers, avec galerie d'expositions pour les produits de l'industrie". He became a pensioner of the Académie de France à Rome from 17 January to 31 December 1849. He traveled through Greece which provided him the subject of his fourth year submission, presented at the Paris Salon in 1853. He visited Greece with Edmond About and Constantinople with Théophile Gautier. He worked on the Temple of Aphaea in Aegina where he insisted on polychromy. He was named, in 1874, member of the Institut de France, in the architecture section of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.