Academic Theory and A.-L.-T.

Vaudoyer's Dissertation sur l'architecture

Author(s): Alice T. Friedman
Source: The Art Bulletin , Mar., 1985, Vol. 67, No. 1 (Mar., 1985), pp. 110-123
Published by: CAA

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 Academic Theory and A.-L.-T. Vaudoyer's Dissertation sur
l'architecture

Alice T. Friedman

In memory of Ann Lorenz Van Zanten Loyal academicians thus sought a compromise that would
satisfy their critics and yet maintain their power within the
The spectrum of theoretical opinion within the Acad6mie profession.
des Beaux-Arts during the first three decades of the nine-
teenth century is not yet fully understood. Although a On January 21, 1832, Antoine-Laurent-Thomas Vau-
number of important recent studies describe architectural doyer (1756-1846) delivered a short paper, the Dissertation
education and professional practice in the period, too little sur l'architecture, before his fellow members of the Aca-
is now known of the contemporary distinctions that sep-
d6rmie des Beaux-Arts. Throughout his long and successful
arated one approach from another.1 Because of this, there career as an architect, teacher, and administrator, Vau-
has been a tendency in the literature to view the Academie doyer had shunned public discussions of theory and had
as a monolithic bastion of conservatism and to identify the published little, but in this instance he not only presented
institution with the writings of its powerful Perpetual Sec- the paper verbally but deposited the text in the Bibliotheque
retary (1816-1839), Quatremere de Quincy. In the evolution Nationale and also sent a copy to the Royal Institute of
of nineteenth-century architectural theory, the Acad6mie is British Architects in London along with various other doc-
made to represent an unchanging Neoclassicism, chal- uments and drawings.3 What inspired him to take these
lenged first by the functionalism of the Ecole Polytechnique uncharacteristic steps was, it seems, his realization that the
and, later, in the 1830's, by the Romantic reform movement. Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the architectural school under the
Yet no such clear lines can be drawn on the basis of writ- Acad6mie's aegis, an institution to which he had devoted
ings by individual members of the Acad6mie or its school. most of his seventy-six years - as a teacher, librarian, sec-
Indeed, the complex network of professional relationships retary, historian and archivist - was in chaos, deeply di-
made such uniformity impossible, and the events of the vided by the most recent and serious skirmishes in a series
period 1780-1830 contributed to a range of opinion as var- of challenges to academic authority. The factionalism and
ied, and as interlaced, as the political and economic forces deep ambivalence that had been growing within the profes-
affecting patronage, government commissions, and edu- sion as a whole had finally touched the Acad6mie directly.
cational policy. When the reform movement gathered This threatened to destroy the hegemony of the system for
strength in the 1830's, it gave, as Robin Middleton has sug- which Vaudoyer had worked all his life.
gested, "new urgency and interpretation" to issues first The controversy had been sparked in 1829 by the ap-
raised within the Acad6mie during the French Revolution pearance of a project sent as a fourth-year envoi (a required
and kept alive during the conservative, and apparently part of the academic curriculum) from the French Acad6-
lackluster, early decades of the century.2 Academic theory mie in Rome by Vaudoyer's former student Henri La-
was forced to change precisely because the challenge came brouste: this was a radical reconstruction of the temples at
from within, threatening the stability of the institution. Paestum which challenged both accepted views of specific

This article is based on research begun in 1975 under the direction of 115. The classic work by R. Schneider, Quatrembre de Quincy et son
Professor Neil Levine at Harvard University. An earlier version was pre- intervention dans les arts (1788-1830), Paris, 1910, is also useful.
sented at the annual conference of the American Society for Eighteenth 2 R. Middleton, "Vive l'cole," in Middleton, ed., 1979, 38-47. The papers
Century Studies in April 1981. I am grateful to John Archer for his com-
in this collection were presented in a symposium held at the Architectural
ments at that time, and to David Stang, Margaret Deutsch Carroll, Peter Association, London, in May 1978.
Fergusson, Eugenia Parry Janis, and Katherine Park Dyer for their help
3 Vaudoyer, 1832a and 1832b. The catalogue of the Bibliotheque Nation-
in revising this essay. A grant from Wellesley College helped pay for the
ale records that the manuscript was donated by the author. This version
final preparation of the manuscript.
is in Vaudoyer's hand and labeled "1re minute." The version at the Royal
1 A selection of the most important contributions are included in Drexler,
Institute of British Architects (R.I.B.A.), in another hand, is an exact copy
ed., and Middleton, ed., 1982. The essays in the Drexler volume are re-
but omits two notes by J.-F. Lesueur on music and a footnote on the Olym-
lated to the exhibition "The Architecture of the tcole des Beaux-Arts"
pian Jupiter (fols. 8, 33, 60). In a letter to T.L. Donaldson, President of
held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from October 1975 to
the R.I.B.A., dated July 15, 1837 and bound with the R.I.B.A.'s copy of
January 1976. On Quatremere de Quincy, see A. Vidler, "The Idea of the Dissertation, Vaudoyer noted that the draft was in the Bibliotheque
Type: Transformations in the Academic Ideal," Oppositions, viII, 1977, du Roi and that the paper had been presented at the Acad6mie des Beaux-
95-113; and R.G. Saisselin, "Quatremere de Quincy and the Internal Con- Arts on January 21, 1832.
tradictions of Bourgeois Aesthetics," Marxist Perspectives, III, 1980, 100-

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 VAUDOYER'S DISSERTATION 111

dustrial
buildings and the fundamental principles of academic ar- materials.6
chaeology. Labrouste suggested not only that color had
Following the controversy over Labrouste's envoi in 1829,
been applied extensively as ornament on the walls, but also
the calls for reform intensified: a public committee was set
that graffiti and other incidental marks were to be foundup to review the teaching practices at the tcole, and in
there. He further explained in his accompanying text1830, that the architect J.-I. Hittorff, an advocate of architec-
one of the temples had in reality been used as an assembly
tural polychromy, joined with others in founding the So-
ciete Libre des Beaux-Arts with a similar aim.7 Young ar-
hall and not for religious purposes.4 Strong objections were
voiced, notably by Quatremere de Quincy, while others, chitects in Rome - Vaudoyer's son and former student
including the Director of the Academie in Rome, rose Leon
to and Labrouste's brother Theodore among them -
Labrouste's defense. sent back highly colored reconstructions to the Academie
The debate that followed was by no means confined to and called for a new commitment to pragmatism not only
the specific project or even to the theories that it advanced. as a consideration in historical reconstruction but as a fac-
It was attacked not because it suggested the use of color or tor in original design. This meant a complete restructuring
because it suggested a secular rather than a religious pro- of architectural thought, with a new emphasis on the issues
gram. It was attacked because it represented reinterpreta- of the present and on the problems posed by each specific
tion and reevaluation of a theoretical system founded on project: location, materials, function, local customs, and
the principles of immutability and universality. More im- traditions. Leon Vaudoyer expressed these ideas in a letter
portant, it was clear that this was not an isolated incident: of May 28, 1831, to his cousin and former teacher Hip-
the reform movement, with causes ranging from architec- polyte Lebas:
tural polychromy to the need for more industrially trained
designers, had been gathering strength for the past thirty What, then, is this architecture that is termed - I know
years, and it was being pushed forward by serious archi- not why - "romantic"? It is an architecture which strives
tects who had been trained in respectable institutions, as to return to true principles, in which every form is dic-
well as engineers and others outside the "liberal profession" tated by reason and need, which is conditioned by the
(since the founding of the Ecole Polytechnique in 1795 and nature of materials and which, finally, seeks to bring its
the prodigious rise of the engineering profession, their vir- art into harmony with its own century."
ulent taunts had been familiar enough).5
Public opinion stood behind the calls for reform. The The reformers viewed the conservative neoclassicism of
experience of years of political instability and social and Quatremere de Quincy and others as reactionary, and iden-
economic experiment undermined confidence in the au- tified them with the ancien regime. They seemed ready to
thority both of the institution itself and the ostensibly uni- abandon the Ecole and the Academie altogether.
versal and infallable theory of architecture that it pro- Recognizing this, A.-L.-T. Vaudoyer set down a record
pounded; further, rapid technological progress and of his own thoughts about architectural theory in the Dis-
increased industrialization seemed to many people both in sertation and defended the liberal profession of architec-
the architectural profession and in government agencies to ture. Not surprisingly, he structured his discussion accord-
demand a reformed system of architectural education in ing to categories established by Renaissance and
which academic tradition would be replaced by a more Neoclassical theorists and adopted their discourse. What is
pragmatic approach to design and an emphasis on new in- striking, however, is how strongly his thinking was influ-

4The project and Labrouste's role in determining the ideological course Baltard as Professor of Theory at the icole in 1846. See Levine, n. 356,
of mid-19th-century architecture are discussed at length by Neil Levine in and R. Middleton and D. Watkin, Neo-Classical and 19th Century Ar-
his dissertation and in his "The Romantic Idea of Architectural Legibility: chitecture, New York, 1980 (Ital. ed., 1977), for short biographies.
Henri Labrouste and the N6o-Grec" in Drexler, ed., 325-416. Middleton's 6 The founding of the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in 1829
critique of Levine (see note 2 above) and his "Hittorff's Polychrome Cam- represents another step in the process of change from liberal to technical
paign" in Middleton, ed., 1982, 174-195, present a useful analysis of the education. In F. B. Artz, The Development of Technical Education in
issue from another perspective. A great deal of valuable information is
France, Cambridge, Mass., 1966, the history of the Ecole Polytechnique
included in David Van Zanten's Ph.D. thesis, The Architectural Poly- and the rise of the engineering profession are discussed in detail (esp. 214-
chromy of the 1830s [Harvard University, 1970], Garland, 1977, and in 242).
his "Architectural Polychromy: Life in Architecture" in Middleton, ed.,
7 These developments are treated by Levine, Van Zanten and Middleton
1982, 196-215, which considers the issue from still another point of
(see note 4 above) and by Artz (as in note 6), 52-3 and n. 32.
departure.
5 For the conflict between architects and engineers, see H. Lipstadt, "Early
8 "Or, quelle est donc cette architecture qu'on appelle romantique - je
Architectural Periodicals" in Middleton, ed., 1982, 50-65, and "Soufflot, ne sais pourquoi? C'est une Architecture qui veut remonter au vrais prin-
cipes, qui veut que toute forme soit donnee par la raison et le besoin, qui
de Wailly, Ledoux: La fortune critique dans la presse architecturale," in
veut se soumettre a la nature des materiaux, qui veut enfin mettre cet art
Mosser and Rabreau, eds., 299-303. A fuller understanding of the work
en harmonie avec le siecle." All translations are by the author unless oth-
within the academic sphere of G.-A. Blouet and E.-J. Gilbert is crucial to
erwise noted. Quoted in G. Davioud, "Notice sur la vie et les oeuvres du
future studies of early 19th-century architectural theory. Both were Grand-
feu Leon Vaudoyer," Bulletin mensuel de la Societh Centrale des Archi-
Prix winners in the 1820's and both were deeply affected by new tech-
tectes, Nos. 3-4, March-April 1873, 80-92 (esp. 90-91). See also L. Hau-
nology and functionalism. Blouet published a supplement to Rondelet's
tecoeur, Histoire de I'architecture classique en France, vi, Paris, 1955, 263-
Traith theorique et practique de l'art de baitir in 1847-48; he succeeded 4.

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112 THE ART BULLETIN MARCH 1985 VOLUME LXVII NUMBER 1

enced by the reformers of the preceding generation, the through simple geometrical designs.2
"revolutionary" theorists C. de Wailly, E.-L. Boull&e, and The projects dating from Vaudoyer's years at the Aca-
C.-N. Ledoux. Like them he emphasized the search for a demie in Rome (1783-88) reveal the range of his interests
more immediate and truly universal means of expression and the extent of his abilities more fully than the early stu-
through the creation of a new architectural language; like dent projects do. He devoted himself to the study of ancient
them, he confined his theoretical speculations to the clas- buildings, producing a fourth-year envoi, a reconstruction
sical style.9 Yet as Colin Rowe and, more recently, Anthony of the Theater of Marcellus, which was highly praised and
Vidler have shown, it was precisely this "pre-romantic" eventually published." His original designs sent back to
concern for emotional expression, individuation, and spec- Paris were not so well received, however; he was severely
ificity that was fundamentally in conflict with the under- criticized by the panel of judges from the Academie for
lying assumptions of Neoclassicism and thus contributed trying too hard to achieve "effects," and it would seem from
to its decline.10 Indeed, Vaudoyer's teaching proved to be their comments (the designs themselves are lost) that they
fundamental for the Romantics precisely because he stressed particularly objected to a strong Piranesian influence man-
those issues - change over stasis, direct experience over ifested in picturesque contrasts of scale and sharp divisions
rational abstraction - which he himself first came into between areas of light and shadow.14
contact with as a young man in the 1780's and nineties. Vaudoyer's now familiar Maison d'un cosmopolite (1785)
(Figs. 3-5) reflects the mood of revision and experimenta-
Vaudoyer's biography reveals his ability to move easilytion in France and on the Continent in these years. The
between the various camps within the building world of sphere, stars, and signs of the Zodiac on the entablature
the early nineteenth century, making alliances, drawing on of the building recall Boull&e's well-known Cenotaphe a
a wide range of sources to forge an approach to design,Newton, designed in this period; both draw on mid-
and, with uncanny dexterity, not only surviving but pros- eighteenth-century aesthetic theory and the writings of Viel
pering under difficult and unstable conditions. He was born de Saint-Maux." When the project was published by C.-P.
on December 20, 1756. His early interest in architectureLandon in his Annales du musee (II, 1802), the illustration
was thwarted by his father, a merchant, who encouraged was accompanied by a text quoting Viel's Lettres sur I'ar-
him to take up a military career; it was not until after his chitecture on the correspondences between architecture and
father's death and a period in the cavalry corps of the Prince seasonal cycles in agriculture.16 The Greek Doric colonnade
de Lambesq that he was able to enter the school of the and the stars and signs of the Zodiac were probably in-
Academie Royale d'Architecture as a member of A.-F.spired by Viel's suggestion that primitive temples func-
Peyre's atelier." He won a prix d'emulation for a Laiterie tioned as astrological models, but the extent to which Vau-
(Fig. 1) in May 1782, and the following year was awardeddoyer was involved in the speculative archaeological
the Grand Prix for a Menagerie d'un souverain (Fig. 2). Hismovement led by Viel cannot be demonstrated from this
projects are representative of the prize-winning designs of project: it was sketched in a tourist's souvenir album for
these years in their use of simple, monumental shapes and a man who, when asked his nationality, apparently replied
their obsessive repetition (particularly noticeable in thethat he was a citizen of the world, a cosmopolite.17 Landon
ubiquitous colonnades) to achieve dramatic effects; his suggests that the little building would make a charming
Grand Prix drawing, with its quadrilaterally symmetricaladdition to a garden, for "this is not Architecture, but that
plan composed of circles, semicircles and squares, clearlywhich, in poetry, one might call a madrigal."18 The project
reflects his teachers' emphasis on. legibility and order should not, however, be dismissed as frivolous; the evi-

9 M. Mosser and D. Rabreau, "Nature et architecture parlante: Soufflot, 13 Description du theatre de Marcellus ' Rome, retabli dans son stat prim-
de Wailly et Ledoux touch6s par les lumieres," in Mosser and Rabreau,itif, d'aprbs les vestiges qui en restent encore ..., Paris, 1812.
eds., 222-39; see also two essays in the same collection: B. Didier, "Ledoux
14 A. de Montaiglon, ed., Correspondance des directeurs de I'Academie
&crivain," 253-59, and D. del Pesco, "L'architecture ... et la methode de
de France 'a Rome avec les surintendants des batiments, Paris, 1887-1908,
projettation de C.-N. Ledoux," 261-77. xv, 4-5, 146-47. See also the catalogue of the exhibition Piranese et les
10 Colin Rowe, "Character and Composition; or Some Vicissitudes of Ar-FranCais, Rome, 1978, and Actes du Colloque Piranese et les FranCais
chitectural Vocabulary in the Nineteenth Century," in The Mathematics (Rome, Villa Medici, 1976), Rome, 1978.
of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays, Cambridge, Mass., 1976, 56-88. See
15 J.-M. Perouse de Montclos, Etienne-Louis Boullee 1728-1799: De l'ar-
also Vidler (as in note 1), and his "The Writing on the Wall" in Middleton,
chitecture classique ai larchitecture revolutionnaire, Paris, 1969, Pt. Iv,
ed., 1979, 57-60.
chap. 3. The theme is discussed by W. Oechslin in "Pyramide et Sphere:
Notes sur l'architecture revolutionnaire du XVIIIe si&cle et ses sources
11 A. Lance, Dictionnaire des architects franCais, Paris, 1872, II, 310-13;
C. Daly, "Notices n&crologiques sur M.M. Vaudoyer et Baltard," Revue italiennes," Gazette des beaux-arts, LXXVII, April, 1971, 201-238.
generale de l'architecture et des travaux publics, vi, 1846, 547-552. 16 Annales du Mus"e, ii, 1802, 127-28. Oechslin (as in note 15), 230-31,
12 The laiterie project was generously brought to my attention by Ann n.3, notes that drawings for the Maison d'un Cosmopolite are in the
Lorenz Van Zanten. The Grand Prix project is illustrated and discussedR.I.B.A., London (Hardwick, vii, fol. 46v).
by D. Van Zanten in "Architectural Composition at the Ecole des Beaux-17 C. F. Viel de Saint-Maux, "Lettre a M. le Duc de Luxembourg" (1780),
Arts from Charles Percier to Charles Garnier" in Drexler, ed., 111-324in Lettres sur l'architecture, Brussels, 1779-Paris, 1784, 18-19.
(esp. 122-23 and 159-62). See also Grands Prix d'Architecture: Projects
18 Annales du Musee, II, 1802, 128: "Ce n'est pas de la grande architecture,
couronnks par l'Academie des Beaux-Arts de France: Publiks par D.
mais ce qu'on appelerait en po6sie un madrigal . .
Avanzo et Compie, Liege, 1842, pls. 9-12.

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 VAUDOYER'S DISSERTATION 113

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1 A.-L.-T. Vaudoyer, Laiterie. Prix It p

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114 THE ART BULLETIN MARCH 1985 VOLUME LXVII NUMBER 1

the Revolution, but he nonetheless maintained a legal office

on the first floor of the house while Vaudoyer ran a studio
and supervised students, including the young Hippolyte Le-
bas, his nephew, on the floor above. Vaudoyer had married
Mlle. Lagren&e, the daughter of the Director of the Aca-
demie in Rome, soon after his return to Paris and he was
thus himself vulnerable to accusations from anti-royalists
- but having struck up the important partnership with
Leroy, he not only survived but prospered in this period.
The two families supported each other in these years, form-
ing an association described by Leon Vaudoyer in 1868 as
- . ? ' a "union of spirit, strength and serenity which gave them
confidence in a better future."24
Vaudoyer rose to prominence in the public sector in the
late 1790's, serving on the Conseil des Batiments Civils, a
government commission created in 1793 to oversee and ap-
prove all public building in France." Under the supervision
of the Ministry of the Interior, the Conseil was made up
of engineers and established architects with a reputation
for practicality; it was headed by the elder statesmen of the
architectural profession, J.-F.-T. Chalgrin, A.-T. Brogniart,
and J.-N. Rondelet. Vaudoyer was placed in charge of the
2 A.-L.-T. Vaudoyer, Une M nagerie
section for judicial buildings, a job requiring both admin-
Prix, 1783. Plan. Paris, Ecole Nationa
Arts (photo: Museum istrative skill andof strongModern
professional - notably technical
Art
- background. Yet again we see Vaudoyer's ability to pros-
per despite the increasing enmity between engineers and
private library or
architects;from
he worked hard to build Leroy's
a successful career by c
ects were judged placing by a
his trust, and panel
his loyalty, with powerful of ar
institutions.
Leroy, Vaudoyer, The 1798 C. publicationPercier, P.-
of a proposal for the reconstruction
Baltard. Like Vaudoyer
of the Pantheon, a buildinghimself,
under Rondelet's supervision, t
closely associated testifieswith
both to Vaudoyer'sthe school
technical competence and his
Academie all their professional lives,
ambition. In 1804, running
as Architecte des Travaux
turing in courses Publics, at the
he published a pamphlet Ecole.
showing designs forIn the
Professor of Theory completion of the Madeleine;
at in the official
the competition,
Ecole
with Vaudoyer his in the
work received project
an honorable mention.26 The strength of of
Grand Prix projects his reputationfrom the
and his power in official prev
circles won him the
doyer continued post to perform
of principal the
architect in a number of government-sup- du
chivist well into ported the renovationthirties; the
projects as well. In a period during which o
ferred on him invery 1807.22
little new building took place, these took on a special
Professional ambition
importance. He remodeled and the College desa mar
Quatre Nations
political change for ensured Vaudoyer
use by the Institut de France in 1806, and in 1812 he
shared a house in the rue de Savoie with his sister and designed and built the Marche des Carmes in Paris, one of
brother-in-law, the former procureur (legal adviser) at the the few executed buildings newly designed by him. This
Chatelet, the police headquarters and prison. 23 As a formerwork is distinctive in Vaudoyer's career because of its util-
government official, M. Lebas was under suspicion during itarian program and simple, stripped-down plan and ele-

20 Ibid., 39 and n. 14. 23L. Vaudoyer, "Iloge d'Hippolyte Le Bas," Revue gknkrale des arts, xxvii,
1870, 245-51.
21 See R. Chafee, "The Teaching of Architecture at the tcole des Beaux-
24 Ibid., 245.
Arts," in Drexler, ed., 63-110. Vaudoyer began publishing the Grand Prix
in 1806. The various published editions are listed in Egbert (as in note
25 Georges Teyssot, "Citta-servizi; La produzione dei batiments civils in
19), 164-65.
Francia," Casabella, No. 424, April, 1977, 56-65, and "Planning and
22 M. Bonnaire, ed., Procks-verbaux de l'Acadkmie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, Building in Towns: The System of the Batiments Civils in France, 1795-
1937-43, iII, 93. Egbert, 55, and nn. 14, 15, cites two manuscripts by Leroy 1848," in Middleton, ed., 1982, 34-49.
and one by Vaudoyer in the Marquand Library, Princeton University, 26 Restauration des piliers du Pantheon franeais, prksentk au ministre de
which testify to Vaudoyer's role in planning and reorganization of the
l'interieur, An. VI; Projet d'achivement de l'kglise de la Madeleine d'apres
school. Another is mentioned by Hautcoeur, Histoire de I'architecture
sa premiere destination, 1804. Vaudoyer's project was published in the
classique en France, v, 1953, 266.
Annales du Muske, vii, 1804, 45-52. His second project appeared in An-
nales du Muske, xv, 1808, 75-80.

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 VAUDOYER'S DISSERTATION 115

4L

At6CI **

NNW=

~I i

3 A.-L.-T. Vaudoyer, Maison d'un Cosmopolite. Elev

(from Annales du Musee, 11, 1802, 64)

O Ci

II /

4
An

O !3f
<D
va
Va
of
5 A.-L.-T. Vaudoyer, Maison d'un Cosmopolite. Plan (from
wi
Annales du Musee, ii, 1802, 65)
fi
in
energies into teaching, returning often to the concerns of
su
his early career in Rome and Paris.
Ar Given his record of distinguished service both to the Aca-
ev
demie and its school, and to various governments through
ot
the Conseil des Batiments Civils, it is at first surprising to
in
find that Vaudoyer's Dissertation of 1832 sharply criticizes
tu
both the rules of traditional academic theory and the func-
in
tionalism of the Icole Polytechnique. Vaudoyer calls on
se
neither the highly charged authority of antiquity nor on
ot
the newer, but equally mystical, deity of Technology.29 In-

27 A presentation drawing for the Institut building was included inneeded

the before the various aspects of his thought and career can be fully
documented.
group of papers sent to the R.I.B.A. It was published in 1811 (Plan, coupe
et bl6vation du Palais de l'Institut Imphrial de France, suivant sa nouvelle
28 Daly (as in note 11), 549. See A. Soubies, Les membres de lAcadkmie
restauration.) In "The Building of the tcole des Beaux-Arts," Middleton,
des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1909, ii, 88-91.
ed., 1982, 124-37, C. Marmoz discusses Vaudoyer's participation in the
29 For the development of the theory of technology in the 17-19th cen-
planning and design of new buildings for the tcole based on his study of
documents in the Archives Nationales. turies, see J. Guillerme and J. Sebestik, "Les commencements de la tech-
nologie,"
Further study of these and of papers still held by Vaudoyer's family is
Thalks, xii, 1966, 1-72. The problem is also considered by del
Pesco (as in note 9).

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116 THE ART BULLETIN MARCH 1985 VOLUME LXVII NUMBER 1

15. I R ,, , . , OR..N

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6 A.-L.-T. Vaudoyer, Marche des Carmes, Paris, 1812-13. Plan.

(from Gourlier, Biet, Grillon et feu Tardieu, Choix d'edifices
publics projetes et construits en France, 1825-50, I, 147)
7 A.-L.-T. Vaudoyer,
vation and Sections.
stead, he places his confidence in human experience and
dieu, Choix d'edifices
scientific method. It is from Nature, understood through
1825-50, I, 148)
direct observation, that Vaudoyer claims to derive his prin-
ciples of architecture, while drawing heavily on late eigh-
teenth-century aesthetic theory and the passes
literature ofuppic- an oppor
their systems of "
turesque gardening to support his analysis.
The Dissertation begins with a disclaimer: although the
Comparing his own
treatise will offer some suggestions tothe liberal
architects and am- arts - B
ateurs who want to understand the methods and effects of on
Watelet paintin
Jacques
design, Vaudoyer wants it to be well understood Delille on
that ar-
chitecture cannot be systematized according to rules and
his treatise is not a
processes; it must not be included amongderstanding
the mechanical the so
arts.30 Throwing down the gauntlet which art commun
to the engineering
profession and the Ecole Polytechnique, tween Invention an
Vaudoyer sharply
criticizes the overuse of books, and thesubject to local con
models they con-
"science
tain, in the education of architects: books of architec
of selected ex-
dependent
amples (chefs d'oeuvres) might be used to guide an architect only on
the
in choosing forms through which to express his creative
ideas, but aspects
declaring
rules for systematic composition and gazetteers of building that he w
types were to play no part in the process
of of design. Al-
building techniqu
though Vaudoyer never mentions J.-N.-L. Vaudoyer
Durand, Pro- maintai
music,orarchitectur
fessor of Architecture at the Ecole Polytechnique, the
spired
school by name, his criticism of "systems" by Nature t
would have been
understood as an attack on the methods and texts devised ture the model is cl
by Durand for his students in the two-year architecture of artistic form than in other arts. He cautions that this
should not lead one to mistake this language for mere con-
course: the Precis
nique (1802, 1805) des
and lemons donnees
the Recueil 'i l'Ecoledes
et parallele Polytech-
edifices vention, however. The emotional effects produced by ar-
de tout genre (1800). chitecture prove the error of such an assertion, and what
Opening his paper with this defensive argument, Vau- is more, he adds, aiming a blow at his competitors in the
doyer betrays the extent to which the rise of the engineering engineering profession, art stripped of all the charm of Na-
profession and the popular support for the ideology of tech-
nology and progress had threatened the Academie and the
liberal profession. Worse still were the "architects patent" 30 Vaudoyer, 1832b, 1-2.
who, according to government decree, could buy their cert- 31 H. Lipstadt (as in note 5), 56-57.
ification.31 Calling them "demi-talents," Vaudoyer never 32 Vaudoyer, 1832b, 8-13.

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 VAUDOYER'S DISSERTATION 117

ture is no longer art at all, but merely "talent in combining ficial and acquired language. Vaudoyer neglects to mention
elements, patience, and problem-solving - talent that here, as he does later, that he still feels it necessary to work
pleases the eye for a moment, tires the spirit and says noth- within the classical style. By this omission, he implies that
ing to the soul." 33 Both the systematizers at the Ecole Poly- style is secondary to expression.
technique and the conservative academicians who believed The sources of these ideas lay in the work of Vaudoyer's
that classicism represented an artificial and yet universal colleagues and teachers of the previous generation: Leroy,
language were guilty of stripping architecture of its integral de Wailly, Boullee, and Ledoux. In Boullee's Architecture,
connection to Nature. For Vaudoyer, neither set of reasons Essai sur l'art, a treatise composed in the 1780's, we find
for doing so was acceptable. the same primacy given to the image of the building as
The formal language of architecture is inspired by direct conceived in the architect's imagination. According to
experience of Nature, and thus the key to successful design Boull&e, the expression of an idea, not technique or con-
lies in careful observation of the effects of different natural struction, was the highest goal of architecture:
landscapes on the human spirit. In the successful work of
art, the material form dissolves as the viewer is overtaken What is architecture: Shall I define it along with Vitru-
by the feelings it communicates: vius as the art of building? No! There is a gross error in
this definition. Vitruvius mistakes the effect for the cause.
When one looks at a masterpiece of history painting, one In order to execute, it is first necessary to conceive. Our
forgets that one is facing a picture and finds oneself in earliest ancestors built their huts only after they had con-
the midst of the scene represented, one shares the sadness ceived an image of them in their minds. It is this product
or joy of the characters, one divines and hears their con- of the spirit, this process of creation, that constitutes ar-
versation. Music has a similar effect. And monumental chitecture and which can consequently be defined as the
architecture, architecture that is art, arrives at the same art of designing and bringing to perfection any building
end: the material element will be forgotten if the architect whatsoever. The art of building is merely a secondary
who designs it has truly delved into the hearts of men art which, in our opinion, could appropriately be called
and observed the effects of different places and condi- the scientific side of architecture.35
tions on their spirits, or when he studies in himself the
varying emotions he has experienced when seeing, caught For Boull&e, then, Nature and human experience held the
by surprise or on reflection, under a bright clear sky, or secrets of a language of elemental forms that, if discovered,
a dark and sad horizon, the strange combinations of ef- would bring architecture closer to the essence of artistic
fects produced by different places in this great universe. imitation and, perhaps more important in the revolution-
When the artist produces the same impression by means ary period, would communicate to men regardless of na-
of imitation we have what cannot be expressed in words tion, class, or education. Drawing on Rousseau and Burke
let alone be reduced to principle.34 and on Le Camus de Mezieres' Le genie de l'architecture ou
l'analogie de cet art avec nos sensations (1780), Boullee used
Here the meaning of the work of art does not lie in the the notion of imitation to signify the process in which the
material forms themselves, not is it carried by the orders effects of Nature were reproduced through direct obser-
as analogues of human types or as abstract symbols of the vation and subsequent reformulation by the creative artist;
Ideal in Nature. Here the Vitruvian tradition is abandoned the formal language of architecture created in this process
in favor of a language that communicates directly to the consisted of simple shapes that were recognizable (either
spirit and is thus more genuinely universal than any arti- consciously or unconsciously) - it owed nothing to good

33 ". . C'est le talent des combinaisons, de la patience et des difficultes et sombre, les singulieres combinaisons d'effets, de certains lieux de ce
vaincues; talent qui plait un instant aux yeux, fatigue l'esprit et ne dit rien grand univers; quand cet artiste, enfin, produit les memes impressions,
a l'me." Vaudoyer, 1823b, 15. par des moyens d'imitation, voila ce qui ne peut se dire, et encore moins
se reduire en principes." Vaudoyer, 1832b, 16-17. My translation draws
4 "Quand on considere un chef-d'oeuvre de Peinture historique, on oublie
on Van Zanten's (as in note 12), 161-62.
qu'on est devant un tableau; on se trouve au milieu de la scene qu'il rep-
resente, on partage la tristesse ou la joie des personnages, on devine et 35 "Qu'est-ce que l'architecture? La d6finirai-je avec Vitruve l'art de batir?
on entend leur entretien. Non. Il y a dans cette definition une erreur grossiere. Vitruve prend I'effet
La Musique offre les memes effets. pour la cause. II faut concevoir pour effectuer. Nos premiers pares n'ont
Et I'Architecture monumentale, I'architecture-art, parvient au meme but, biti leurs cabanes qu'apres en avoir conCu l'image. C'est cette production
et fait oublier le mat&riel de son element, quand I'architecte qui la produit de l'esprit, c'est cette creation qui constitue l'architecture, que nous pou-
a profond6ment observe le coeur de l'homme et I'effet des lieux sur son vons, en consequence, d6finir l'art de produire et de porter a la perfection
esprit, en diff6rentes circonstances; quand il tudie, sur lui-meme les dif- tout 'difice quelconque. L'art de batir n'est donc qu'un art secondaire,
f&rentes emotions qu'il a ressenties, en voyant, ou par surprise, ou avec qu'il nous parait convenable de nommer la partie scientifique de l'archi-
r6flexion sous un ciel pur et brilliant de lumiere, ou sous un horison triste tecture." Boullke, 49.

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118 THE ART BULLETIN MARCH 1985 VOLUME LXVII NUMBER 1

models or to the selection of an ideal image from a store-society.38

house of preexisting types.36 Ledoux's Architecture was cast as an imaginary journey
In a passage of the Essai that is central for our under- of discovery and written in a tone of inspired exultation;
standing of Vaudoyer's sources, Boullee used the theory of the tension between this abandonment to fantasy and his
sensations as the basis for restructuring the fundamentalunderlying functionalist concerns reflected the contradic-
concept of character in architecture: tions of his time. The fundamental similarity of his objec-
tives with those of Durand has been suggested recently,
Let us consider an object. Our first reaction is, of course, showing that the problem of finding an architectural fusion
the result of how the object affects us. And what I callof artistic expression and efficient planning was not limited
"character" is the effect of the object which makes some to one school or approach. Obviously the various solutions
kind of impression on us. To give a building character proposed varied greatly - here differences in priorities and
is to make judicious use of every means to make us feelvalues are revealed.39 Like Vaudoyer, Ledoux decried the
no other sensations than those which the subject debasement of architecture by those technicians who would
inspires.37 "water down" the accumulated knowledge of tradition.40
For him, the architect was no ordinary craftsman practicing
These views owe a great deal to the theory of the pictur- a trade, but an inspired genius who, like Ledoux himself
esque. Declaring "ed anch'io son pittore" at the start of the on his imaginary journey, entered a trance-like state where
essay, Boull&e went on to show that one could produce images of buildings passed before his eyes. Through his
these impressions and communicate character by imitating imagination the architect could conjure up an image that
not generalized types but specific, visible, and changing would cause the viewer to feel the same vivid impression
effects in Nature. It is through the creation of these ta- that he himself felt. Just as a writer had to make his char-
bleaux, or pictorial compositions, that architecture is given acters come alive for his readers, so too the architect had
its distinctive ability to communicate character. to make his buildings "seem to live and breathe."41
The "pre-romantic" concept of character was further de- When Vaudoyer explains the process of invention, he too
veloped by Ledoux in his l'Architecture considerke sous le uses images of meditation and an imaginary journey. After
rapport de l'art, des moeurs et de la legislation (1804). Le- receiving a commission, the architect "immerses himself in
doux's designs for buildings at the ideal city of Chaux ex- his subject," studies its properties, and chooses a mode (se-
hibit two important characteristics: first, the reduction of rious, light, or monumental) in which to work. Then:
architectural form to elemental geometry and, second, an
emphasis on immediate expression of character and func- ... his spirit takes fire and is transported into a domain
tion, especially in the case of new building types such as of elevated and vivid illusions. His heated imagination
factories, or collective housing. Responding to the new so- produces in him a kind of delirium, or better, an ecstasy;
cial and economic demands of post-revolutionary society, he penetrates new and unknown places, he passes
Ledoux proposed a more legible architectural physiognomy through magnificent palaces, enchanted gardens, cool
which was at once simple to "read" and practical to use. and mysterious grottoes, and like a second Poliphilus,
His "architecture parlante" was thus appealing to the deeply he experiences successively diverse sensations as if in a
technophile society that he addressed and had the added dream. Here a rich and imposing architecture causes him
attraction of stirring democratic idealists with visions of a to recognize a Temple to the Deity; further on, there is
universal language that would make possible a truly mean- a majestic building, but much simpler, severe in char-
ingful architecture in a new, orderly, and egalitarian acter, open and easy of access - here he discovers the

36 Useful background for a discussion of this issue and its implications is impression quelconque. Mettre du caractere dans un ouvrage, c'est em-
found in R. Wittkower, "Imitation, Eclecticism and Genius," in E. R. Was- ployer avec justesse tous les moyens propres a ne nous faire eprouver
serman, ed., Aspects of the Eighteenth Century, Baltimore, 1965, 143-62; d'autres sensations que celles qui doivent resulter du sujet." Boull&e, 73.
R. Wellek, A History of Modern Criticism: 1750-1950, New Haven, 1955, m Del Pesco (as in note 9), 262-40. These issues had for years been under
discussion within the Academie. For the 18th century, see A. Braham, The
I-n; and P. Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, New York, 1969,
chaps. 4-7. The bibliography in Gay is particularly useful for treatments Architecture of the French Enlightenment, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1980.
of scientific theory and historiography. For architectural theory, see G. See also W. Szambien, "Durand and the Continuity of Tradition" in Mid-
Teyssot, "Emil Kauffmann and the Architecture of Reason: Klassizismus dleton, ed., 1982, 18-33, where an important link between Leroy and Dur-
and Revolutionary Architecture," Oppositions, xiix, 1978, 47-75; R. Mid- and is suggested. Szambien's "Notes sur le recueil d'architecture privee de
dleton, "J.-F. Blondel and the Cours d'architecture," Journal of the Society Boullke," Gazette des beaux-arts, March, 1981, 111-24, establishes the im-
of Architectural Historians, xviii, 1959, 4, 140-48; J. Rykwert, The First portant early points of overlap between the technical and liberal sides of
Moderns: Architects of the 18th Century, Cambridge, Mass., 1980, chap. the profession.
2. For painting, see R. W. Lee, "Ut pictura poesis: The Humanistic Theory
39 Del Pesco (as in note 9), 268-69. C.-N. Ledoux, L'architecture considerke
of Painting." Art Bulletin, xxii, 1940, 197-269.
sous le rapport de I'art, des moeurs et de la lkgislation, 1804, I, 2-3, 10.
37 "Portons nos regards sur un objetl Le premier sentiment que nous
40 Ibid., I, 7.
eprouvons alors vient evidemment de la maniere dont l'objet nous affecte.
Et j'appelle caractere l'effet qui resulte de cet objet et cause en nous une 41 Ibid., I, 16.

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 VAUDOYER'S DISSERTATION 119

seat of justice.42 known in France.44 Watelet's treatise set down the methods
for creating sequences of visual and psychological impres-
In this journey the architect discovers an image which he sions with elements of architecture and landscape; his ideas
then renders on paper, revealing his idea in a full tableau were popularized by books like Jacques Delille's Les jar-
of site, scale, light, and shadow. Vaudoyer's emphasis on dins: Un poeme (1782) - cited in the introduction to the
perspective drawing (and condemnation of flat projection Dissertation in company with more serious works - in
by rule and compass) is understandable here as it is a nec- which the garden designer was entreated to become like a
essary part of the formal expression of the idea as a com- painter, composing tableaux and thus giving character to
position and not as an abstract and deracinated image. the landscape.45 Such ideas had passed into common usage
Following Boull&e and Ledoux, Vaudoyer describes char- by 1782 and could easily be encountered in any number of
acter and its architectural expression in terms derived from popular and professional works on architecture and garden
the theory of the picturesque. Rather than following rules design. The theories of psychological association and the
or a systematic process of design, the architect causes each science of physionomics that underlay much of this writing
of his works to arouse sensations in the viewer by recreat- had become similarly popularized and familiar. There is no
ing images that have made a particular impression on him. doubt that these ideas strongly influenced Vaudoyer's ar-
These images are stored in his imagination but are drawn chitectural theory and that their familiarity made his teach-
from his own experience of nature itself and of architecture ing seem not revolutionary but highly acceptable to many
set into landscape compositions. Thus, according to Vau- of his colleagues. These were the ideas with which he and
doyer, a successful building will communicate its distinc- his contemporaries grew up.
tive character to even the least educated observer, enabling Yet the Dissertation emphasized character as a specific
him to distinguish one type of building from another. Here and individual quality to an extent that markedly distin-
each type is identifiable not because it recreates an ap- guished it from the works of the most outspoken of Vau-
proved model or an ideal image but because it causes the doyer's colleagues at the Academie, A.-C. Quatremere de
viewer to experience sensations that he instinctively asso- Quincy. In a long article on "Caractere" which appeared
ciates with it. The role of reason is to guide the architect in 1788, Quatremere warned against abuses in architectural
in realizing the images produced by his imagination, but language, criticizing current interest in architectural expres-
the recognition of character is natural, not learned. Because sion using mimetic rather than abstract images. Years later,
"the type of true beauty is in Nature," each building, like in the third volume of his Architecture (published in 1825),
each landscape, has its individual and specific "physiog- he conceded a distinction between a typology of form re-
nomy." Any attempt to change this after a building is com- lated to function and one whose basis was metaphysical,
pleted will result in an unintelligible message; it is, Vau- artificial, and abstract, but this was founded on the fun-
doyer says, like substituting the head of one statue for that damental difference between Architecture and the "arts me-
of another.43 caniques" - the design of furniture, clothes, and house-
Vaudoyer was clearly familiar with the eighteenth- hold goods. He held firm to the principle that ideal beauty,
century literature on landscape design and aesthetic theory: the only appropriate goal of Architecture, consisted of the
in the introduction to the Dissertation, he cites C.-H. Wa- idealized and generalized imitation of Nature.46 Such beauty
telet's treatise on painting, and he had probably read Wa- could be appreciated by the mind and had a moral effect
telet's influential work on garden design as well. Watelet on the spirit. As he explained in De l'imitation two years
was a member of the Acad6mie Royal from 1747 and pub- earlier, the purpose of architecture was
lished his Essai sur les jardins in 1774; his country estate,
Moulin-joli, included a fashionable picturesque garden well to employ matter, its forms, and the relations of their

42 "Son esprit s'enflamme et le transporte dans un champ de hautes et vives doyer was no doubt familiar (Parma, 1811). Van Zanten (in Drexler, ed.,
illusions. Son imagination &chauff6e lui procure une esp&ce de d61ire ou 152-62) discusses the use of the word tableaux and the experience of ar-
plut8t une extase. chitecture (and thus the principles of composition) which it implies in the
"Il p6netre dans les lieux nouveaux, inconnue, il parcourt des Palais approach of Vaudoyer and his contemporaries.
magnifiques, des jardins enchanteurs, des grottes myst&rieuses et fraiches; 43 Vaudoyer, 1832b, 36.
et, comme un second Poliphile, un songe, une vision lui fait 6prouver
successivement diverses sensations. 44 D. Wiebenson, The Picturesque Garden in France, Princeton, 1978, 15ff.,
64-70. For Watelet, see M. Henriet, "L'acad6micien Watelet," Gazette des
"Ici, une Architecture riche et importante lui fait reconnaltre un Temple
beaux-arts, vi, Sept-Oct., 1922, 173-94. Le Camus dedicated his Genie to
' la Divinit6.
Watelet in 1780. For the psychological theories underlying this movement,
"Plus loin, un edifice majestueux, mais plus simple, d'un caractere s&-
see H.F. Clark, "Eighteenth Century Elysiums: The Role of 'Association'
vere, et dont les abords sont faciles et ouverts, lui d6couvre le siege de la
in the Landscape Movement," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld In-
justice." Vaudoyer, 1832b, 19 ("De l'Invention"). The reference to the Hyp-
stitutes, vi, 1943, 165-89.
nerotomachia Poliphili is significant here because it links Vaudoyer to the
romantic tradition in Renaissance classicism. See J. Summerson, "An- 45 Wiebenson (as in note 44), 75.
titheses of the Quattrocento," in Heavenly Mansions, New York, 1963, 46 A.-C. Quatremere de Quincy, "Caractere" in Architecture, I, 1788, 477-
29-50, for a fuller discussion of these two tendencies of Renaissance his- 518 (esp. 508-18); "Type" in Architecture, III, 1825, 543-45. See also Vidler
toricism. Vaudoyer's associate (and the co-editor of the Annales du Mu- (as in note 1), 104ff.
see) J.G. Legrand published a translation of the work with which Vau-

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120 THE ART BULLETIN MARCH 1985 VOLUME LXVII NUMBER 1

proportions to express moral qualities, at least those work of architecture. The successful building, like a garden
which nature shadows forth in her works, and which fabrick in a picturesque landscape, continually changes be-
produce in us ideas, and their correlative emotions, of fore the eyes of the moving observer and yet preserves its
order, harmony, grandeur, wealth, unity, variety, du-distinctive character when viewed from a number of dif-
rability, eternity, etc.47 ferent angles and at various times of day.
More damaging to traditional academic theory was Vau-
The artificial language of idealized imitation, with itsdoyer's failure to emphasize the rational process by which
elaborate rules and the theory of decorum underlying thethe architect recognized the universal superiority of clas-
process of design, was sustained by the classical traditionsicism over all other styles. For him, design is instinctive;
and renewed, in theory, by frequent consultation with and the ideal architect is a creature who responds to natural
improvement on the corpus of types drawn from ancientstimuli and reacts by making art:
and Renaissance sources. By contrast, Vaudoyer's architect
was an inspired genius who could forget the rules and rely An artist has, at the very core of his being, the seed of
on his own instincts. If he seemed to follow rules, this was a talent with which Nature has endowed him. It is no
more often by accident than conscious application: "in- more possible for him to stop this seed from growing
stinct tells him what rules to follow and it is through these than it is for a tree to decide to stop sprouting leaves or
that he produces admiration, astonishment or amaze- producing fruit. As the tree is nurtured by the warming
ment."48 Elsewhere Vaudoyer spoke of "genius coupled with rays of the sun so the artist is also a part of nature and
reason" and of the careful choice of simple ornament and takes his sustenance from it . . . what more majestic
effective proportions, but for him reason was secondary to monuments could there be for the architect than the vi-
sensibility; for Quatremere, as a Neoclassical theorist, the sion of these oceans, these cliffs, waterfalls, harbors and
reverse was true. the azure vault of heaven, gigantic mountains, deep grot-
Vaudoyer was no radical but he contributed totos change
and primeval forests - what rich sights for the poetic
by eroding confidence in the principles on whichimagination!
the aca- !5o
demic edifice was built. Stressing circumstances and spec-
ificity, inspiration and creative imagination, he Poetic imagination - the ability to store up and translate
implicitly
these "rich sights" into art - is given by Nature only to
rejected the ideal and universal beauty of Neoclassicism.
Further, by emphasizing movement in and aroundher chosen few, but the capacity to feel passion, pain, and
a build-
pleasure
ing rather than a single optimum and static vantage point,is universal - people of all nations produce art
he struck a blow at the Platonic idea of fixed and absolute expressing their emotions. What is significant is that "the
principles and its expression in Vitruvian rules of propor- manner of expressing these sensations varies according to
tion. Toward the end of the Dissertation, Vaudoyer asserts climate, custom and habit. Painting, Sculpture, Music, Po-
that beauty in architecture does not come about as a result etry and Architecture - whether in China or Europe -
of static proportions and fixed relationships but from the aim towards the same ends [but] by very different means."51
changing appearance of the ensemble to the viewer. The Different times and conditions are the cause of different
task of the architect is to "move and vary this pleasant styles of architecture, not the failure of architects to ap-
tableau" and he must take care to apply himself to the de- prehend Nature's ideal harmonies. Vaudoyer maintains that
sign of the side elevations as well as the facade, anticipating "experience, taste and comparative analytical study" have
the movement of the viewer.49 This is a fundamental and shown that the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian styles are
influential idea in Vaudoyer's approach: the building is not preferable to "Gothic, Chinese, Persian, Moorish, Arab,
seen as a static combination of elements but as part of a etc.," but he quickly returns to his discussion of the im-
composition in perspective, light, and shade. Only the ren- portance of responding to nature's effects, leaving this point
dered sketch can represent the integral connection between unstressed.52
the specific material and environmental conditions and the Vaudoyer thus opened up the possibility that style is a

associate of Leon Vaudoyer and one of the "Romantics." The tone of the
47 11". .. Sa propri6te est d'employer la matiere, ses formes, et les rapports
de leurs proportions a exprimer les qualit6s morales, du moins celles que elder Vaudoyer's letter is warm and encouraging.
la nature met en evidence dans ses ouvrages, et par lesquelles se produisent 50 "Un artiste a, dans son etre, le germe d'un talent dont la nature l'a doue;
en nous les id6es et les sensations corrdlatives d'ordre, d'harmonie, de il ne lui est plus permis d'arreter cette seve et d'en d6tourner le cours, qu'a
grandeur, de richesse, d'unit6, de vari6te, de dur6e, d '6ternit6. .. ." Qua-un arbre d'arreter sa pousse et de rester sans fruits. C'est arbre est aide
tremere de Quincy, De l'imitation, 1823, 147 (facsimile ed. with an intro.dans son d&veloppement par les rayons bienfaisans du soleil. L'artiste prend
by L. Krier and D. Porphyrios, Paris, 1980). The translation is from the
aussi son d6veloppement dans la nature; . . . Quels monuments majes-
Essay on the Nature, End and the Means of Imitation in the Fine Arts,tueux pour l'architecte que l'aspect de ces mers, de ces rochers, de ces
trans. J.C. Kent, London, 1837, 168.
cataractes, de ces ports naturels, de cette voQte azuree, de ces montagnes
48 Vaudoyer, 1832b, 23. gigantesques, de ces grottes profondes et de ces forets antiques etc. Quels
riches tableaux pour l'imagination poetique!"; Vaudoyer, 1832b, 3.
49 Ibid., 65. In a letter to Louis Duc in the R.I.B.A., dated July 30, 1840,
51 Ibid., 62.
Vaudoyer describes how he returned on three successive days to observe
the changing effects of light on Duc's Bastille Column. Duc was a close 52 Ibid., 63.

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 VAUDOYER'S DISSERTATION 121

matter of choice, based not on fixed and immutable laws ornament and polychromy at Notre Dame de Lorette (1816-
but on variable causes. Although he never says so explic- 1822), drawing the criticism of Quatremere. Leon Vau-
itly, his discussion suggests that the range of choices need doyer praised the church, however, as "an improvement
not be limited to the classical corpus and its variations; not over St. Philippe du Roule [J.-F.-T. Chalgrin, 1772-1784]
only fashion but style itself could change. The incidental, just as St. Vincent de Paul [J.-I. Hittorff, 1830-1846] was
temporary, or purely ornamental elements of a design might an improvement over it."56
thus take on greater importance than they had traditionally More research into this transitional period in French ar-
been granted. These are precisely the claims of the mid- chitecture is needed in order to describe fully the varieties
century Romantics.
of theoretical opinion in the Academie and at the lcole.
The case for the conservative opposition was articulated There is solid evidence, however, of a shift within the ac-
not only by Quatremere but by L.-P. Baltard as well: as ademic world of the late 1820's and thirties towards an em-
phasis on the individual over the general, on the immediate
Professor of Theory at the lcole from 1818 to 1846, he
preached strict Neoclassical theory, lecturing about the im- present over the abstract past, and on the products of the
portance of imitating only the good examples of ancient creative imagination over positive and artificial beauty. In
art.53 Though not a member of the Academie, Baltard had this constellation of ideas lies the basis for Romantic theory.
the advantage of direct contact with students in the lecture The change in thinking that began to make itself felt in
halls. He denounced the Gothic style and was horrified by the 1820's testifies to the impact of decades of turmoil and
the growing interest in cultures other than those of antiq- political upheaval on historical consciousness. A new
uity and the Renaissance. Needless to say, he was an un- awareness of history can be discerned not only in the world
popular teacher, siding with Quatremere in his battle of architectural theory and art criticism but within French
against reform. culture generally. It was discovered that history could re-
Although the eight members of the Academie in 1832 veal the origins of institutions and the sources of ideas, just
were all committed classicists, many of them probably as scientific observation could explain the correspondence
shared Vaudoyer's liberal interpretation of theory. Too lit- between causes and effects in Nature. In the hands of a
tle is now known about the teachings of Percier and Fon- Victor Hugo or a Jules Michelet, history could teach people
taine to make any conclusive assessment of where their in the present about the lives of ordinary people in the past
views might be placed in the spectrum of opinion. Their - France's past - and thus make clear that the realities
extensive historical research and longstanding friendship of their experience were essentially unchanging.57 Echoing
with Vaudoyer suggests the possibility of an affinity with Vico and Herder, Augustin Thierry wrote in 1820:
his ideas, however." J.N. Huyot, another old academician,
was Professor of History at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts from I remind myself that at all times, in all places, many men
1822 to 1840 and apparently included in lectures the pro- could be found who felt the same aspirations that I feel,
posal that each period and each country developed an "ar- even though their situations and opinions were different
chitecture locale" in response to local conditions.55 Among from mine, but that most of them died before they could
the younger men - Francois Debret, Hippolyte Lebas, and witness the fulfillment of what they had anticipated in
Achille Leclkre - the teachings of Percier and Fontaine thought. The labors of this world are accomplished
formed the basis for research into the design and appli- slowly and each successive generation merely adds one
cation of ornament. Lebas, who ran an atelier with Vau- stone to the construction of the edifice dreamt of by ar-
doyer from 1819 to 1830, experimented with profuse dent minds.58

53 "En architecture, il n'est point d'innovation possible; tout dans cet art grateful to Neil Levine for showing this letter to me.
a 't' tent' ou pr'vu. Il n'est rien, soit en construction, soit en distribution5s Levine, 1975, n. 82, notes that the Mss of Huyot's lectures as Professor
ou en decoration, qui puisse surgir de quelque eminent cerveau que ce of History are preserved in the Institut d'Art et Archeologie, Ms 15. He
soit. L'oeuvre du genie est dans le choix et dans l'heureuse application des was replaced in this post by Lebas in 1840. The other academicien of the
el'ments generalement admis." L.-P. Baltard, Introduction au cours de older generation was E. de la Barre; he was probably the most conser-
theorie d'architecture, 1839, 10-11. See also Baltard's Discours d'ouverture vative member and the least involved with teaching. For a list of members
du cours de thkorie d'architecture, Paris, 1833; Organization de len-of the Academie, see Dictionnaire de l'Academie des Beaux-Arts, 1858,
seignement dans la section d'architecture, 1839; and Aperou ou Essai surI, 140-41.
le bon goflt dans les ouvrages d'art et d'architecture, Paris, 1841. Levine,
56 L. Vaudoyer (as in note 23), 246.
1975, nn. 621, 642, and pp. 476, 482-83, discusses Baltard's role at the
tcole. More study is needed to assess his career fully: see T. de Puyla-57 See N. Levine, "The Book and the Building: Hugo's Theory of Archi-
roque, "Pierre Baltard, peintre et dessinateur, 1764-1846," Bulletin de latecture and Labrouste's Bibliotheque Ste-Genevieve," in Middleton, ed.,
Societt de i'Histoire de l'Art FranCais, 1978, 331-39. 1982, 138-73. Hugo specifically criticized the works of this generation of
academics as empty and meaningless.
5 There is some evidence that Vaudoyer's moderate position was shared
by Fontaine. In a letter dated January 7, 1831 (sic), Fontaine praised Vau-M A. Thierry, Lettres sur l'histoire de France, No. 1, quoted in F. Stem,
doyer for his Dissertation and, in particular, its comparison of architectureed., Varieties of History from Voltaire to the Present, New York, 67. Both
with the other arts. He went on to say that both of them needed to pointS. Mellon, The Political Uses of History: A Study of Historians in the
out potential dangers to the younger generation "aux risques de passerFrench Restoration, Stanford, 1958, and N. Athanassoglou, "Under the
pour radoteurs" ("At the risk of appearing to be doddering old fools")Sign of Leonidas: The Political and Ideological Fortune of David's Leon-
Bibliotheque de la Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Papiers Ms. CCI BI3. I amidas at Thermopolae under the Restoration," Art Bulletin, Lxx, 1981, 633-
49, were particularly helpful in considering this historiographical problem.

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122 THE ART BULLETIN MARCH 1985 VOLUME LXVII NUMBER 1

With this sympathy for the past came a deep awareness enemy of their ideas. Even after his retirement from teach-
of historical change and its corollary, progress. The fluc- ing in 1830, Vaudoyer continued to work with his son and
tuations of politics and changes in economic and social contributed to the Magasin pittoresque, a new journal fa-
structure witnessed in the first two decades of the nine- vored by the Romantics. He remained in close contact with
teenth century seemed to prove the validity of relative over his former students and their colleagues. Daly himself wrote
absolute principles. In the place of received truth, two Vaudoyer's obituary notice in the Revue generale in 1846:
sources of knowledge were proposed: individual experience
and systematic technology. The Acad6mie felt compelled M. Vaudoyer belonged to the generation of the last cen-
to defend itself against both. tury: his tastes of course reflect this . . . but it must be
Vaudoyer participated in this defense by writing his Dis- added that he did not obstruct the progress made in our
sertation and presenting it before his colleagues. He de- own time. Too old to keep step with the young men of
nounced empty technology in the name of the liberal this century, he was nevertheless openminded about art
profession of architecture and, however weakly, raised up and free of that contentious spirit which struggles against
the standard of Greece and Rome for the students at the the discovery of new truth and the spontaneous flights
Ecole to follow. He gave his allegiance to the institution of creative genius.
and he paid homage to its traditions. Nevertheless, the Dis-
sertation not only reflected the revisions of his own and For Daly, Vaudoyer's legacy was his open-mindedness
previous generations but contained the germ of ideas that and generosity as a teacher:
were fundamental to the next. Like his own teachers, Vau-
doyer implied much more in his theoretical speculations M. Vaudoyer has a wonderful library of architectural
than he was able to state as principle or apply in practice. books where one might encounter illustrious figures of
He strictly respected the stylistic limits imposed by tradi- various times and diverse places; he would generously
tion even as he supported his students' search for mean- lend these precious volumes to his students. Thus they
ingful expression. He might - and apparently often did - could learn, in consulting these good friends of their
disagree with their proposals, but their ultimate goals were teacher, that Beauty shows itself in a multiplicity of forms
similar to his own. and a wide variety of styles: this mute but eloquent state-
ment is ample witness . . . to the liberality of M. Vau-
Writing in 1871, Cesar Daly, editor of the Revue generale doyer's spirit.60
d'architecture and a spokesman for the reform movement,
looked back on the late twenties and thirties as a period of For the Romantics, a man like Vaudoyer was limited by
deep ignorance, describing the tcole as a place of "doctrinal his inability to move beyond the stylistic and theoretical
excesses . . . detrimental to the legitimate and desirable in- bounds of classicism. Nevertheless, they recognized in him
fluence of true antiquity." At last, he continues, the "heavy a respect for those who sought out an expressive architec-
darkness of ill-conceived fanaticism" was illuminated by a tural language; he tempered the fantasies of the late eigh-
"blazing constellation" that teenth century with the practical sense of a post-revolu-
tionary administrator, but kept alive the spirit of inquiry
suddenly appeared in the architectural skies of France. in which he had himself been raised. When economic con-
It was at that moment when, under the general name of straints and the demands of government committees re-
Romanticism, a reaction was making itself felt against duced the opportunities for architects in the early nine-
the doctrinal excesses of the classical school . . . excesses teenth century, Vaudoyer turned his imagination to
that were breeding the false in art and weariness in the speculative theory. Images of dream landscapes dotted with
soul. This constellation... bore the names Duban, Duc, buildings danced before his eyes, and it was these images
Labrouste, and L0on Vaudoyer.59 and the feelings experienced in viewing them which in-
spired him. The contradiction between theory and practice
Although the elder Vaudoyer was in every respect a figure is striking. There is little in the Dissertation to prepare us
of authority in the period to which Daly refers, it is clear for Charles Blanc's description of Vaudoyer as "a pure
that the younger generation recognized that he was not an bourgeois, upright, inflexible, sententious and proper; he

59 Daly, "Discours prononc6s aux noms des anciens 'l1ves de Felix Du-du genie createur. ... M. Vaudoyer avait une belle bibliotheque d'ar-
ban," quoted by Levine (as in note 4), 364 (Levine's translation). chitecture ouh se rencontraient des hommes illustres de tous les temps et
60 "M. Vaudoyer appartenait a la generation du siecle dernier: ses goutsde pays tres divers: il en pretait les volumes precieux a ses dleves avec
une genereuse bienveillance. Ceux-ci pouvaient apprendre, en consultant
devaient s'en ressentir ... mais il faut ajouter que M. Vaudoyer ne r6-
cusait pas les progres accomplis de nos jours. Trop Age pour marcher du ces amis de leur maitre, que le beau se manifeste sous une multiplicite de
meme pas que les jeunes hommes de ce si'cle, on assure qu'il 6tait ce- formes, dans une grande vari6te de styles; et cette predication muette,
mais dloquente, temoigne assez, ce nous semble, de la liberalite d'esprit
pendant fort tol6rant en matiere d'art, et exempt de cet esprit tracassier
qui lutte contre le developpement des verites nouvelles et l'essor spontanede M. Vaudoyer." Daly (as in note 11), 549-50.

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did everything by compass and rule, he numbered his let-
ters and labeled his working papers."61
Bibliography
Vaudoyer looked to professional and educational insti-
Boull&e, E.-L., Architecture: Essai sur I'art, ed. J.-M. P&rouse de Montclos,
tutions to provide continuity, order, and consistency in his
Paris, 1968.
life and for the future. But he had, as Daly put it, a liberal
spirit, open to testing new ideas, confident in the power of Drexler, A., ed., The Architecture of the tcole des Beaux-Arts, Cambridge,
Mass., 1977.
reason to comprehend experience, trusting in the ability of
institutions - and in this he was indeed a "pure bourgeois" Levine, N., "Architectural Reasoning in the Age of Positivism: The N0o-
- to accommodate diversity. As a teacher he was com- Grec Idea of Henri Labrouste's Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve," Ph.D.
diss., 5 vols., Yale University, 1975 (repr. Michigan, 1977).
mitted to handing on both the academic tradition and the
freedom to question and invent that had been his teachers' Middleton, R., ed., 1979, The Beaux-Arts (A.D. Profiles, xvii).
legacy to him. Thus he serves as an important link between , ed., 1982, The Beaux-Arts and Nineteenth-Century French
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, perhaps the last in Architecture, Cambridge.
a long line of apologists for a flexible and liberal classicism. Mosser, M., and D. Rabreau, eds., Soufflot et I'architecture des lumieres,
Wellesley College Paris, 1980.

Wellesley, MA 02181 Vaudoyer, A.-L.-T., Dissertation sur l'architecture, 1832.

a) Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Cabinet des Manuscrits Francais, Mss
fr. 12340, suppt. fr. 2377.
61 "Un homme tout d'une piece, un pur bourgeois, un caractere droit,
b) Royal Institute of British Architects, London, Ms 72, sm. fo. 1823.
inflexible, un esprit sentencieux et reglk; il faisait tout par compas et par
mesure, il numerotait ses lettres, il 6tiquetait ses devoirs . . ."; C. Blanc,
"Vie de Leon Vaudoyer 1803-1872," in Les artistes de mon temps, Paris,
1872.

The 'Spook' in the Machine: Van Gogh's Pictures of Weavers in

Brabant

Carol Zemel

In December, 1883, after two difficult years in The Hagueings of them between January and July, 1884. It is this se-
and three lonely months in provincial Drenthe, Vincent van ries, with its complexities, contradictions, and diversity,
Gogh returned to his father's parsonage in Nuenen, a vil-that is my subject here.
lage in the rural Dutch province of North Brabant. Despite Weavers were not Van Gogh's only subject that winter.
his own unhappiness, he was idealistic about country life.His pictures of mills, churches, village lanes, and snow-
"I for my part," he wrote his brother Theo a month aftercovered fields also represent the traditional structures and
he arrived, "often prefer to be with people who do not even settings of country life. Still, the weaver images constitute
know the world, for instance, the peasants, the weavers,a distinct and ambitious project. As studies of country
etc., rather than being with those of the more civilizedworkers who were part of that simpler, less "civilized"
world. It's lucky for me."I Almost immediately, Van Goghworld, they are described by Van Gogh as the first in a
began to depict the local weavers at their looms, producing marketable series on rural artisans. "It would rather dis-
approximately thirty drawings, watercolors, and oil paint- appoint me," he wrote Theo in February,

A shorter version of this paper was presented at the 1981 College Art Henderson for editorial and critical advice.
Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco. I wish to thank the SUNY 1 Complete Letters, No. 351. Van Gogh's letters are designated here by
Research Foundation for a Fellowship and Grant-in-Aid enabling me to
their letter number rather than by volume or page. His works are cap-
conduct research in the Netherlands. I am indebted to Griselda Pollock,
tioned with the catalogue numbers assigned to them in De la Faille. While
University of Leeds, for encouragement and shared insight about Van still in Drenthe, some months earlier, Van Gogh declared his Rousseau-
Gogh, and to Eunice Lipton, SUNY-Binghamton, for stimulating dia- like belief in the virtues of rural life as opposed to the decadence of the
logue, criticism, and unstinting support in the past several years. In im- city: ". . . in my opinion a simple farmer who works, and works intel-
portant ways, their exemplary work on Van Gogh and Degas has deeply ligently, is the civilized man . . and in the city one finds a few men who
affected my own. I wish to thank Lili Couvee, Linda Nochlin, Carol Dun- are almost as noble .. ."; Complete Letters, No. 334; also Nos. 339, 339a.
can, and Kristin Richardson for their guidance and support, and Brian

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