Jules Hardouin-Mansart
Hardouin-Mansart enlarged Versailles with the Hall of Mirrors, the Orangery and the palace chapel and designed the dome of Les Invalides in Paris. The mansard roof is named after his relative and teacher François Mansart.
Jules Hardouin was born in Paris in 1646, the son of the painter Raphaël Hardouin. His mother was a niece of François Mansart, the leading French architect of the mid-17th century, and Jules was trained by his relative and later took his name. He also worked with Libéral Bruant. His breakthrough came with the Château de Clagny, which he designed from 1674 for Louis XIV’s mistress Madame de Montespan. The king took a liking to the young architect, who rose rapidly at court. He became royal architect in 1675, First Architect in 1681 and, in 1699, Superintendent of the King’s Buildings, which made him the most powerful architect in France.
Under Hardouin-Mansart’s direction Versailles took on its final form. He designed the Hall of Mirrors, 1678–1684, a gallery with seventeen large mirrors facing seventeen windows overlooking the park, and the long north and south wings. He also built the Orangery, the great stables facing the town, the Grand Trianon and the palace chapel, which was completed only after his death. In Paris he designed the domed church of Les Invalides, 1677–1706, one of the masterpieces of the French Baroque, and the monumental squares of Place des Victoires and Place Vendôme, with uniform façades around an equestrian statue of the king. His style was majestic, classical and disciplined, with long rhythmic façades and a clear hierarchy between the parts.
Hardouin-Mansart died at Marly in 1708 and was succeeded by his brother-in-law and collaborator Robert de Cotte. He ran a large office of draughtsmen and builders, and the way he organised the king’s buildings became a model for state building offices across Europe. Versailles was copied by princes from Spain to Russia. For Sweden his work was decisive: Tessin the Younger visited Versailles and closely followed the architecture of the French court, and through his agent Daniel Cronström in Paris he received drawings and news from there. The interiors of the Royal Palace in Stockholm and the gardens at Drottningholm bear clear traces of Versailles. The Swedish Office of the Superintendent was also fundamentally built on the French model.