Henri Duponchel

Henri Duponchel (28 July 1794 – 8 April 1868) was in turn a French architect, interior designer, costume designer, stage designer, stage director, managing director of the Paris Opera, and a silversmith. He has often been confused with Charles-Edmond Duponchel, a contemporary who also lived and worked in Paris.

He was born Henry Duponchel on the rue des Lombards in Paris to Pierre-Henry Duponchel (c. 1752 – 18 October 1821), who ran a grocery-hardware store, and Marie-Geneviève-Victoire Théronenne (d. 8 August 1842). The family subsequently moved to the rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie. According to early biographies Duponchel took lessons from the painter and theatre enthusiast Pierre Guérin and was a fellow student with Eugène Delacroix. Duponchel and Delacroix remained good friends, and many years later, in 1831, Duponchel recommended Delacroix as a traveling companion and artist for an extended trip to Morocco with the diplomat Count Charles de Mornay. Duponchel, who did not himself know Mornay, had some influence through his friendship with the actress Mademoiselle Mars, who was Mornay's mistress. After returning from the trip, Delacroix created one of his more famous paintings, Women of Algiers (1834).

Early biographers also say that Duponchel attended courses in architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts, but this must be viewed with caution as there is no record of it in the student registers. At the time of his father's death in 1821, he had in effect become an architect, but some sources cast doubt on this, saying that he was an amateur and unaware of the technical side of the subject. Later, in February 1861, Duponchel collaborated with two other more well-established architects, Botrel and Alphonse-Nicolas Crépinet (), and submitted an architectural project in a competition for the design of a new opera house. G. Bourdin wrote unfavourably in Le Figaro that the designs were remarkable in revealing that, while Duponchel had studied the subject, it was not likely that he had completed a diploma, and that to call him an architect was an overstatement. He also pointed out that throughout his career Duponchel habitually benefited from collaboration with others. However, when the results were announced Duponchel and his collaborators won the second place prize of 4,000 francs out of 170 entrants.

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