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Louis Le Vau (French pronunciation: [lwi lə vo]; c. 1612 – 11 October 1670) was a French Baroque architect, who worked for Louis XIV of France. [1] He was an architect that helped develop the French Classical style in the 17th century.
Le Vau was the first architect to carry out major work on Versailles under King Louis XIV. He built the King’s and Queen’s State Apartments and the white stone façade on the garden side, known as “Le Vau’s Envelope”.
Premier grand architecte du Versailles de Louis XIV, Le Vau est l’auteur des Grands Appartements du Roi et de la Reine ainsi que de la façade de pierre blanche côté jardin, dénommée « Enveloppe de Le Vau ».
Louis Le Vau designed the additional buildings in 1663 to house the College of the Four Nations (Collège des Quatre-Nations), paid for by a legacy from Louis XIV’s minister Cardinal Mazarin, who had brought the four entities in question—Pignerol (Pinerolo, in the Italian Piedmont), Alsace,… Read More; French literature
May 17, 2018 · The French architect Louis Le Vau (1612-1670) was one of the creators of the French classical style, which dominated the academic architecture of the 17th century. Louis Le Vau was born in Paris, the son of a master mason of the same name.
The construction in 1668–1671 of Louis Le Vau's enveloppe around the outside of Louis XIII's red brick and white stone château added state apartments for the king and the queen. The addition was known at the time as the château neuf (new château).
Louis Le Vau (1612-70): French Architect, Leading Baroque Designer: Responsible For Palace of Versailles, Vaux-le-Vicomte Chateau, Church of Saint-Sulpice
Louis le Vau, André le Nôtre, and Charles le Brun, Palace of Versailles, 1664–1710 (photo: Marc Vassal, CC BY-SA 2.0) When the King of France, Louis XIV, first decided to build a new palace and move his court out of Paris, there was nothing on his chosen site at Versailles but a smallish hunting lodge.
Louis Le Vau was a prominent French architect of the 17th century, known for his work in the Baroque style. He played a crucial role in transforming French architecture, particularly through his designs for the palaces of the aristocracy, which embraced grandeur and elaborate detailing.
Thanks to the team of Louis le Vau (architect to the aristocracy), André le Nôtre (landscape designer extraordinaire), and Charles le Brun (über-fashionable interior decorator and painter), Louis XIV’s enormous and stylish palace was completed 21 years after it was begun in 1661 allowing Louis (and his closest friends, family, courtiers ...
