Ange-Jacques Gabriel
Ange-Jacques Gabriel (1698 – January 4, 1782) was a prominent French architect. Born to a Parisian family of architects and initially trained by the royal architect Robert de Cotte and his father (who died in 1742), whom he assisted in the creation of the Place Royale at Bordeaux (completed in 1755) The younger Gabriel was made a member of the Académie royale d'architecture in 1728. He was the principal assistant to his father as Premier Architecte at Versailles from 1735 and succeeded him in the position in 1742, essentially making him the premier architect of France, a role he retained for most of the reign of Louis XV. Gabriel's sober rationality in planning and detail promoted the transition from Rococo to Neoclassicism. For forty years, Gabriel supplied all designs not only for exterior construction (the wing at Versailles named for him in modern times) and also for the constant remodelling of interiors at Versailles. His Petit Trianon at Versailles (illustration, above right) is one of the gems of French Classicism.
Gabriel died in Paris in 1782.
Major worksChateau of Compiègne, 1750 onwardsPetit Trianon, at Versailles, 1762 to 1768Royal Opera, at Versailles, 1769-70Place de la Concorde (as Place Louis XV), 1772Hôtel de la Marine, Paris, 1775
External link*Petit Trianon
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