Pierre-étienne Le Bon. Project For The Choir Of The Church Of Saint-germain-l'auxerrois (paris).

Pen and brown and green ink wash. 43.4 x 29.5 cm, in a modern frame measuring 56 x 42.5 cm. Signed lower left: "LeBon architect du Roy. Jur." Title at the top of the drawing: "Project for the decoration of the back of the choir of the Royal, curial & parish church of St Germain l'Auxerrois! No. 1.2.3.4." This unpublished sheet represents a decorative project for the back of the choir of the church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois in Paris (1st arrondissement). Created by Pierre-Étienne Le Bon, this proposal with its refined ornamentation is part of an iconographic program dedicated to the Resurrection of Christ. The architect deploys an illusionist decor where the different artistic mediums communicate with each other. The central painting, surrounded by Corinthian pilasters and two profile portraits, shows the empty, open tomb. In an ascending, vertical logic, specific to the subject of the Resurrection, a sculpted Christ appears in the middle of the clouds and seems to fly away, overlooking and magnifying the whole. Pierre-Étienne Le Bon was born in Paris around 1700 and died in 1754. A student of Jean-Sylvain Cartaud, he was awarded the second Grand Prix de Rome in 1724, behind Jean-Pierre Boncour, on the program “The designs, plans, elevations and profiles of a large altar for a Cathedral church […]”, then first Grand Prix the following year on the program “A plan for a convent church of nuns […]”. He was a resident in Rome from March 1728 to 1731. (Cf. Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos, "Les Prix de Rome", Concours de l'Académie royale d'architecture au XVIIIe siècle, Berger-Levrault, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, 1984, pp. 36 and 257). Pierre-Étienne Le Bon seems to have shown a certain predilection for religious architecture. He was notably employed in Saverne and Strasbourg by Cardinal Armand Gaston Maximilien de Rohan. The latter entrusted him for a time with the direction of the execution of Robert de Cotte's plans for the episcopal and princely palace. He also worked for the Convent of the Assumption in Paris in 1748 and completed the construction of the cloister there with a gallery adjacent to the church choir. He was admitted to the Royal Academy of Architecture in 1741 and was one of the first masters of Étienne-Louis Boullée. Bibliography: Michel Gallet, Les Architectes parisiens du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, éditions Mengès, 1995. Ref. A10-32