Gilles Marie Oppenort (Oppen-Oordt)
architect, decorator, and engraver; b. July 27, 1672 (at Paris); d. March 13, 1742.
Gilles Marie was the son of Cander Johan Oppen Oordt from the province of Guildres in Holland, an ébéniste (worker in fine woods) who appears frequently in the accounts of Jules Hardouin-Mansart and a pensionnaire of the king at Rome. Oppenort was directeur general des bâtiments et jardins of the Duke of Orléans, then regent. In 1719 he continued the construction of the church of S. Sulpice, Paris, which had been discontinued since 1675. He completed the church except the portal, which was added by Servandoni. He built the great altar of S. Sulpice. Oppenort was one of the chief decorators engaged in developing the style associated with the reign of Louis XV. His principal collection of engravings, Recueil des œuveres, contenant . . . sculptures sur pierce, sur marbre, . . . fragments d 'architecture, has been reproduced in facsimile.
William Kent
painter, architect, and landscape gardener; b. 1685 (in Yorkshire); d. April 12, 1748.
He went to London in 1704, and in 1710 to Rome. Returning to England in 1719, he became a protégé of Lord Burlington. He assisted Lord Burlington, and built Devonshire House, Piccadilly, and the Horseguards, Whitehall; and altered and decorated the great country houses of Stowe, Houghton, and Holkham. Kent was successful as a designer of gardens, his most important work being the park at Stowe.
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