Antoine Lepautre

Who was Antoine Lepautre?

Antoine Lepautre or Le Pautre was a French architect and engraver. Born in Paris, he was the brother of the prolific and inventive designer-engraver Jean Lepautre. Antoine Lepautre has been called " "one of the most inventive architects of the early years of Louis XIV's reign". He was a protégé of Cardinal Mazarin, to whom he dedicated his Desseins de plusieurs palais, in which his imagination is given free rein.

In 1646–1648, Lepautre built a chapel for the Jansenist Convent of Port-Royal at Paris.

His Hôtel de Beauvais, rue François-Miron, built for Pierre de Beauvais and his wife Catherine Henriette Bellier, première dame de chambre to Anne of Austria, brought Lepautre celebrity for the ingenious way he made use of a highly irregular parcel of land, ranging his structure round an oval court. The Hôtel de Beauvais's architectural qualities were noted by Bernini during his Paris sojourn, and it remains Lepautre's outstanding surviving monument.

He built the Château du Vaudreuil in 1658–1660.

In 1660 Lepautre was appointed house architect to Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, the brother of Louis XIV.