People:

Charles Rohault de Fleury (architect)
Charles Rohault de Fleury (draughtsman)
Charles-Bonaparte Marlier (engraver (printmaker))

Title:

Album of design development and presentation drawings and prints, mostly for projects for a Galerie de zoologie, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris

Date:

mid 19th century

Description:

- This album consists mainly of design development and presentation drawings and transfer lithographs - mostly plans, sections, and elevations - for eight unexecuted projects for an addition to the Cabinet d'histoire naturelle at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris. Seven of these projects are for a Galerie de zoologie, and one is for a Galerie de botanique et de paléontologie. Three types of plans, all classically-inspired, are developed for these projects, which date from 1838 to 1862. The most completely documented project, dated 9 January 1846, is represented in four pen and ink plans and forty transfer lithographs. This proposal consists of a U-shaped building surrounding a courtyard with a double row of galleries on the ground floor of the main wing. The principal façade has a colonnade of engaged Corinthian columns with pedimented entrances at each end. Two projects similar in plan to the 1846 project are dated 1839 (DR1974:0002:024:007, DR1974:0002:024:009, DR1974:0002:024:011), and 1842 (DR1974:0002:024:005 - DR1974:0002:024:006). Two projects have U-shaped plans with central courtyards and a single row of galleries, one dated 1838 (DR1974:0002:024:023, DR1974:0002:024:032, DR1974:0002:024:035 and DR1974:0002:024:038), and a second, for the Galerie de botanique et de paléontologie, dated 1839 (DR1974:0002:024:015, DR1974:0002:024:017 and DR1974:0002:024:020). Three projects have plans with a single row of galleries surrounding a central gallery: one dated 1838 (DR1974:0002:024:026 - DR1974:0002:024:028); a second possibly dated 1838 (DR1974:0002:024:043 and DR1974:0002:024:046); and a third dated 1862 (with an attached note dated 1864) (DR1974:0002:024:059-60, DR1974:0002:024:063, DR1974:0002:024:066, DR1974:0002:024:069, and DR1974:0002:024:073-074). Eight alternate plans for a Galerie de zoologie on two sheets, DR1974:0002:024:002 and DR1974:0002:024:003, include some of the designs developed in this album. Two site plans engraved by Charles-Bonaparte Marlier (DR1974:0002:024:049 - DR1974:0002:024:050), have additions by Rohault de Fleury showing his ideas for the Muséum. Also included are a site plan for a projected addition to the Galerie de minéralogie et de géologie (DR1974:0002:024:056), a transfer lithograph of elevations for the Galerie d'anatomie comparée (DR1974:0002:024:051), and a sketch for a greenhouse (DR1974:0002:024:001).

Form:
drawings
works of art

Quantity / Object type:
1 album(s)

Stage and Purpose:

design development drawings
preliminary drawings
presentation drawings (proposals)
technical drawings
detail drawings
structural drawings

Technique and media:

Manuscript in graphite on laid paper, locally mounted

Dimensions:

album: 63,3 x 47,6 x 25,5 cm sheet (smallest): 15,3 x 9,6 cm sheet (largest): 61,1 x 87,6 cm secondary support (smallest): 27,1 x 43,5 cm secondary support (largest): 57,1 x 84,1 cm

Reference number:

DR1974:0002:024:001-079

Drawing Type:

line drawings
mechanical drawings (tool-aided drawings)
finished drawings

Method of Projection:

scale drawings
profile (orthographic drawing)
plans (drawings)
site plans
sections (orthographic drawings)
elevations (drawings)

Point of View:

general views
partial views
exterior views
interior views

Physical characteristics and technical requirements:

- This album is bound between album boards covered with marbled paper and a cloth spine stamped with the title in gold. Most of the drawings, prints and transfer lithographs are laid down or locally mounted on album pages, twelve are bound directly into the album, and four are laid down on sheets of paper and inserted into the album on guards. There are three unbound objects. Drawings DR1974:0002:024:050 and DR1974:0002:024:069 are locally mounted on transfer lithographs DR1974:0002:024:051 and DR1974:0002:024:070. An unbound sheet of inscribed graph paper was found between objects DR1974:0002:024:001 and DR974:0002:024:002.

Inscription:

signed and dated - on most of the prints and drawings, by the architect, in pen and brown ink or graphite, usually l.r., the following on DR1974:0002:024:007 being typical of the longer inscriptions: "Paris ce 30 Xbre 1839 / Ch. Rohault" [some of the dates are possibly by another hand] signed and inscribed - on DR1974:0002:024:049 and DR1974:0002:024:050, by the engraver, in the plate below the image, l.r.: "Marlier sc."; l.l.: "Ch. Rohault arche."; and in the plate on the image, in various locations: with building names stamped - on many of the prints and some of the drawings, usually l.r.: "CH. ROHAULT DE FLEURY / Architecte / 18, rue Matignon" inscribed - on most of the drawings and originals, probably by the draughtsman, mostly in pen and black ink or graphite, usually t. and/or b.: with titles; and on some drawings and originals, throughout: with names of rooms and/or dimensions signed and inscribed - on DR1974:0002:024:007, DR1974:0002:024:011, and DR1974:0002:024:013, by an unknown hand, in pen and brown ink, b.: with notations, probably concerning the approval of the project [mostly illeg.], and a signature [illeg.] inscribed - on DR1974:0002:024:050, by an unknown hand, l.l.: with notes concerning modifications to the site plan dated and inscribed - on DR1974:0002:024:001, by an unknown hand, in graphite, verso, u.c.: "serres chaudes mon premier / ... / d Londres ... 1863" [partially illeg.]

Subject:

architecture
landscape architecture

Subject Descriptive Terms:

greenhouse

Credit line:
Collection Centre Canadien d'Architecture/
Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal