Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

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Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. (credit: Archives Photographiques, Paris)

(born Jan. 27, 1814, Paris, France — died Sept. 17, 1879, Lausanne, Switz.) French Gothic Revival architect, restorer, and writer. After studying architecture and training as an archaeologist, he was placed in charge of restoring the abbey church at Vézelay (1840). He assisted in restoring the Sainte-Chapelle (1840) and Notre-Dame de Paris (1845) and supervised the restoration of many other medieval buildings, including Amiens Cathedral (1849) and the fortifications of Carcassonne (1852). In his later restorations he often added new elements of his own design, intrusions for which he was criticized in the 20th century. He is most distinguished for his writings, which include the Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle (1854 – 68) and Entretiens sur l'architecture (1858 – 72). His theories of rational architectural design linked the revivalism of the Romantic period to 20th-century Functionalism and influenced the architects of the Chicago School.

For more information on Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, visit Britannica.com.

Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879), French architect and theorist, consciously chose the Gothic style of architecture, not as a 19th-century revival style based on emotional associations but as a logical, reasoned, functional expression.

Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc considered that "The beauty of a structure … [lies in] the judicious use of materials and means at the disposal of the constructor." His practical application of this theory centered in architectural reconstructions and renovations; his architectural designs are few.

Viollet-le-Duc was born in Paris on Jan. 27, 1814. He rejected the idea of a formal architectural education at the École des Beaux-Arts, and in 1830 he began to study architecture, first with J. J. M. Huvé and later with Achille Leclère. As professor of composition and ornament, he taught for a short period at the École de Dessin, Paris.

In 1840 the Commission of Historical Monuments assigned Viollet-le-Duc the task of restoring the Romanesque church of La Madeleine at Vézelay. During the same year, in association with J. B. A. Lassus, Viollet-le-Duc restored the Ste-Chapelle, Paris, and in 1844 they won the competition for the restoration of Notre Dame, Paris. Viollet-le-Duc also restored the town of Carcassonne; the château at Pierrefonds; the cathedrals of Sens, Narbonne, Toulouse, and Amiens; the abbey church of Saint-Denis; and Notre-Damedu-Port at Clermont-Ferrand. His philosophy was "to restore [the building] to a state of completeness that may never have existed."

Viollet-le-Duc adapted Gothic forms to metal and iron and was interested in the decorative possibilities of the material, as expressed by the medieval smithy. His authoritative studies of Gothic architecture were the Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XI au XVI siècle (10 vols., 1854-1868) and the Dictionnaire raisonné du mobilier français de l'époque carlovingienne à la Renaissance (6 vols., 1858-1875). His Entretiens sur l'architecture (part 1, 1862-1863, part 2 1868-1872) expressed his philosophy of the functional structure of the Gothic style as employed in his own projects, some of which were of iron construction. His "vaulting systems for large spaces" utilized diagonal and vertical supports in compression and tension, as supports and hangers, with socket knuckle joints. In some cases wrought-iron decoration was fastened to the structure.

Viollet-le-Duc's own architectural compositions were comparable to the bold and forceful creations of the High Victorian Gothic style in England. His tomb for the Duc de Morny (1858) in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris and the church of St-Denys-de-l'Estrée at Saint-Denis (1864-1867) reflect this trend. The architect was a favorite of Empress Eugénie and, with the support of Napoleon III, became professor of the history of art and esthetics at the École des Beaux-Arts after curriculum changes of 1863, partially instigated by his publication of articles on architectural education. His appointment was not a success. Viollet-le-Duc died in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Sept. 17, 1879.

Further Reading

The two best sources of material on Viollet-le-Duc are in John Summerson, Heavenly Mansions (1949), and Henry Hope Reed, The Golden City (1959).

An influential French architect, designer, and theorist, Viollet-Le-Duc was highly influential on a number of progressive architects and designers such as Hector Guimard, Antoni Gaudí, René Lalique, and Frank Lloyd Wright, transmitting his outlook through a series of important texts, especially his two-volume Entretiens sur l'architecture (Architectural Discussions, 1863-72). After an early career that included the teaching of drawing, the design of ornaments, and travels in France and Italy, he took up the post of architectural auditor for the Council of Civilian Buildings in 1938, after which he became increasingly involved in the restoration of Gothic buildings including Notre Dame in Paris (commencing 1842). In 1849 he was appointed to improve standards of design in the state manufactories of Sèvres, Gobelins, and Beauvais and, in 1853, was commissioned for the design of the furniture and fittings of a railway train for Napoleon III. Several other commissions followed over succeeding decades, though it was through his writings rather than his designs (with strong medieval leanings) that his influence was felt. These included his ten-volume Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture (1858-68), the six-volume Dictionnaire du mobilier français (1863-72), and Entretiens sur l'architecture. The latter contained his ideas on iron construction, the relationship between form and decoration, and the role of new materials, all of which, together with the plates, can be seen to have been influential on a number of practitioners of Art Nouveau at the turn of the century.

French architect, archaeologist, rationalist, scholar, and theorist, author of the influential Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XI^e au XVI^e siècle (published 1854–68, with a definitive edition of 1875) and the important Entretiens (Discourses) on architecture (1863–72). The Dictionary helped to consolidate the course of the Gothic Revival in France (one of its aims was to promote Gothic through logical exposition), and it was scoured for details in England and Germany: Burges noted that all the English Gothic Revivalists of his generation ‘cribbed’ from Viollet-le-Duc, though probably not one in ten ever read the text. The fine illustrations helped to create an international taste for French Gothic, especially of the early period. Under the aegis of Prosper Mérimée (1803–70), dramatist, wit, and Inspector-General of Historic Monuments, Viollet-le-Duc established a reputation as a restorer of medieval buildings, notably the Madeleine, Vézelay (1840–59), Sainte-Chapelle, Paris (from 1840—with Duban), and Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris (1844–64—with J.-B.-A. Lassus). It was primarily through the study and restoration of historic buildings such as these that the Gothic Revival gained momentum in France, not least through a system of training instigated by Viollet and his colleagues. From 1844 he restored Carcassonne, including the walls and fortifications, but this, and especially his work on the Château de Pierrefonds, Oise (1858–70), drew criticism for their dominant, drastic, and conjectural natures.

His interpretation of Gothic was as a rational style, the construction clearly defined by buttresses and flying buttresses supporting ribs and vaults, the whole essentially a skeletal system, with curtain-walls and webs really non-structural infill. Forces were transferred to the ground by these systems, and this notion of Gothic became widely accepted, especially by apologists for the much later Modern Movement (even though surviving ruined Gothic buildings might sometimes have prompted different conclusions). In his Entretiens he suggested similarities between iron structures and Gothic systems, and proposed new techniques to design framed buildings that would be a modern equivalent of Gothic. His ideas had a profound effect on many architects, including Perret and Frank Lloyd Wright, especially his insistence on the importance of structure, purpose, dynamics, techniques, and the visible expression of these. In particular he saw parallels between the giving of form to myths in Antiquity and the possibilities in C19 to express mechanical power. Such views made some critics see him as a proto-Modernist, and there can be no doubt about his influence on the architectural worlds of the Continent and the USA.

He published Dictionnaire raisonné du mobilier français de l'époque carolingienne à la renaissance (Analytical Dictionary of French Furniture from the Carolingian Period to the Renaissance—1858–75), Histoire de l'habitation humaine depuis les temps préhistoriques jusqu'à nos jours (History of the Human Dwelling-Place from Prehistoric Times to the Present—1875), and many other works, including L'art russe, ses origins, ses éléments constitutifs, son apogée, son avenir (Russian Art, its Origins, its Constituent Elements, its Zenith, its Future—1877), translated into Russian (1879), which may have had some influence on Constructivism. As an architect, his work was often aesthetically somewhat coarse, even clumsy, as in the elephantine Morny Tomb, Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris (1865–6), and the ungainly Church at Aillant-sur-Tholon, Yonne (1864–7), while his somewhat drastic reconstructions of historic fabric helped to spur William Morris to found the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) and encourage the beginnings of the conservation movement.

Bibliography

• Auzas (ed.) (1965)
• Bercé & Foucart (1988)
• Crook (1981, 1987)
• Fancelli et al. (1990–2)
• Foucart (ed.) (1980)
• Heard (ed.) (1990)
• Leniaud (1994)
• Marrey (ed.) (2002)
• Midant (2001)
• Middleton & Watkin (1987)
• Placzek (ed.) (1982)
• Pevsner (ed.) (1969, 1972)
• Summerson (ed.) (1963)
• Jane Turner (1996)
• Vassallo(1996)
• Viollet-le-Duc(1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1959)
• Viollet-le-Duc & Narjoux (1979)
• Vogt et al. (eds.) (1976)
• van Zanten (1987)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

Viollet-Le-duc, Eugène-Emmanuel (1814-79). French architect, restorer of medieval buildings, and prolific writer on architectural matters. At the age of 25 he was commissioned by Mérimée to restore the abbey church of Vézelay, and it is through the lens of Viollet-le-Duc's inspired interventionism that this Romanesque masterpiece is still to be seen today. Later commissions included the Sainte-Chapelle, Notre-Dame de Paris, Saint-Denis, Amiens Cathedral, the ramparts of Carcassonne, and Saint-Sernin in Toulouse. As a writer on architecture he recommended a rational and functional approach that was curiously at odds both with his restorations and with the majority of his original buildings.

[Malcolm Bowie]