Jean Aubert the Elder

Jean Aubert the Elder (ca. 1680 – 13 October 1741) was a French architect, "responsible for many fine interiors but not a leader of the first rank."

He was the son of Jean-Jacques Aubert, master carpenter in the Bâtiments du Roi, and was trained in the large atelier of Jules Hardouin-Mansart. Aubert was employed in the Bâtiments du Roi as a designer from 1703 (Kimball p 131); in 1707, Hardouin-Mansart had him appointed an architecte du Roi and attempted to get him seated in the second class of the Académie royale d'architecture. As a protégé of Hardouin-Mansart, Aubert may have come into conflict with Robert de Cotte, Hardouin-Mansart's successor as premier architecte though not as director at the Bâtiments du Roi. Diversifying his commissions, Aubert became the architect to the Bourbon-Condé: for them he worked at Saint-Maur (1709–10), Chantilly and at other lesser possessions.

Jules Hardouin-Mansart had provided Henri-Jules de Bourbon-Condé plans for the complete transformation of his Château de Chantilly. They were realized by Daniel Gittard, and by Aubert after 1708, though documentation for work other than for the stables is lacking (Kimball p 131). The destruction of these works at the Grand Château of Chantilly (begun in December 1718, according to Fiske Kimball) during the Revolution prevents an assessment of their nature, with the exception of the fine interiors of the Petit Château, which were sufficiently complete for the Regent to be lodged there 4 November 1722 at the return of the court from the coronation of Louis XV, and the famous stables, constructed for the duc de Bourbon, between 1719 and 1735.

From 1724 Jean Aubert worked in Paris on the Palais Bourbon fronting the Seine, which was built for Louise Françoise de Bourbon (1673-1743), duchesse de Bourbon. The plans had been consigned to an Italian architect named Giardini, of whom little is known saved that he died in 1722. Pierre Cailleteau Lassurance, who succeeded him in the project and designed the decor of the vestibule (Kimball 1943 p 130), died himself two years later. Aubert took up the project, working with the already-established foundations, but redistributing the magnificently-finished apartments and introducing elliptical salons. For the decoration of the interiors he was constrained to work with Jacques Gabriel, who had been introduced to the duchess's confidence by her advisor, Abraham Peyrenc de Moras. The Palais Bourbon has undergone many transformations since, but Aubert's work can be seen in six plates of Jean Mariette, Architecture françoise.

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