Francis Eginton
glass painter.
Eginton is called the reviver of glass painting in England in the eighteenth century. About fifty of his works are known. In 1794 he restored the great western window of Magdalen College, Oxford. He executed Sir Joshua Reynolds's Resurrection window at Salisbury Cathedral.
Pierre François Léonard Fontaine
architect; b. September 20, 1762; d. October 10, 1853.
Fontaine was a pupil of Antoine François Peyre. In 1785 he went to Rome, where he was joined by Charles Percier (below). He was associated with Percier in Paris, and together they were made directors of the decorations of the opera house. When Napoleon became First Consul they were made his architects, and retained that position under the Empire. Percier and Fontaine restored the châteaux of Malmaison, Saint-Cloud, Compiègne, Versailles, and other imperial residences. They restored the buildings of the court of the Louvre, and designed and built the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. They laid out the Rue de Rivoli, and built additions to the palace of the Tuileries in that street. In 1814 Percier retired from their association. Fontaine was court architect of Louis XVIII, for whom he built the Chapelle Expiatoire in the Rue d'Anjou, Paris. During the reign of Charles X he was architect to the Duke of Orleans, for whom he restored and enlarged the Palais Royal. He was chief architect of Louis Philippe. During this reign he remodelled the garden in front of the Tuileries, thus contributing to the defacement of the monument of Philibert de l'Orme. Fontaine was architect in charge of the Louvre, the Tuileries, and the royal buildings until 1848. From 1831 to 1833 he was architect of the Theatre Français, Paris. In 1849 he was chosen president of the Conseil des bâtiments civils. (For the books published by Percier and Fontaine in collaboration, see Percier.) Fontaine published alone a Histoire du Palais Royal, 4to, 61 pl.
Charles Percier
architect; b. August 22, 1764; d. September 5, 1838.
Percier was a pupil of Antoine François Peyre, in whose atelier his association with Pierre Fontaine (above) began. He was employed also by Chalgrin and Pierre Paris. In 1786 he won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome in architecture. He supported himself during the Revolution by designing furniture and decorations, introducing antique motives from Rome and Pompeii. This may be thought the beginning of the so-called style empire, popular throughout Europe in the early years of this century. In 1794 Percier and Fontaine, acting together, replaced Pierre Paris in the direction of the decoration of the Opera in Paris. Between 1802 and 1812 they had charge of the Louvre and Tuileries. They restored the colonnade of the Louvre (see Perrault, Claude), and completed the upper story of the buildings on the court. At the Tuileries they constructed the chapel and theatre, and the buildings adjacent to the Pavilion Marsau in the newly opened Rue de Rivoli. They designed the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, and the great stairway of the Museum of the Louvre which was removed by Napoleon III. They designed residences in Antwerp, Brussels, Venice, Florence, and Rome. Percier retired from the association with Fontaine in 1814. He published Restauration de la Colonne Trajane (1788), and, in association with Fontaine, Palais, Maisons et autres édifices de Rome Moderne (Paris, 1802, folio); Recueil de décorations exécutdes dans l'église Notre-Dame et au Champs-de-Mars (Paris, 1807, 1 vol. folio); Choix de plus célébres Maisons de plaisance de Rome et de ses environs (1809- 1813, grand folio); Recueil des décorations intérieurs (Paris, 1812); etc.
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