Chalgrin, Jean François

Chalgrin, Jean François (zhäN fräNswä` shälgrăN`), 1739–1811, French architect. He studied under Servandoni and in Italy as a winner of the Grand Prix de Rome (1758). He rebuilt (1777) part of the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris. His most influential work was the Church of St. Philippe-du-Roule, in which he reintroduced a basilica plan to French ecclesiastical architecture. He also enlarged the buildings of the Collège de France and, after the Revolution, altered the palace of the Luxembourg to serve as headquarters for the Directory. In 1806 he was commissioned by Napoleon to design a commemorative arch to the victorious armies of France, and the executed scheme for the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile was chiefly Chalgrin's, although he died shortly after commencement of the actual construction.

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Chalgrin, Jean François 

Born 1739 in Paris; died there Jan. 21, 1811. French architect.

Chalgrin studied under G. N. Servandoni and L. P. Moreau-Desproux. He visited Rome in 1758. Chalgrin’s early structures, which are in the classical style, include several hôtels built in the 1760’s and the Church of St. Philippe-du-Roule (1769–84). His masterpiece is the Arc de Triomphe on the Place de l’Etoile (now Place De Gaulle) in Paris (1806–37). Instead of copying classical triumphal arches, Chalgrin created an original composition: a rectangular mass cut through with a monumental passage.