RENARD, Jean Augustin - b. 1744 Paris, d. 1807 Paris

French architect. He was awarded the 2nd Grand Prix of the Royal Academy of Architecture in 1772, and the Grand Prix in 1773. He received his certificate as a pupil at the Academy of France in Rome on 14 August 1774.

During his stay in Rome, from 1774 to 1780, he realized several projects which he addressed to the director of the Academy. He asked that the projects he had sent to the Academy be returned to him on his return to Paris in 1780.

On his return from Italy, he realized the decoration of the hôtel d’Orsay. In the salons decorated in the Antique, he installed some architectural elements which the Count d’Orsay had brought back from his journey to Italy. In the garden he installed his collection of statues numbering 235.

He was appointed inspector of the king’s buildings in 1784. In 1792 he was promoted to the 2nd class of the Royal Academy of Architecture. Favourable to the Revolution, he was appointed architect of the department of the Seine, inspector general of the highway of Paris and member of the Advisory Committee of Imperial buildings.

Exterior view

Private architecture during the Empire, likewise public buildings, employed also the classicising rhetoric of Roman Imperial buildings, if on a reduced scale.

The top category was represented by the H�tel Beauharnais in Paris, extended by Nicolas Bataille from 1803 for Napoleon’s stepson and later Viceroy of Italy, Eug�ne Beauharnais. At ground level, the original building by Germain Boffrand dating from 1714 was given a new Neo-Egyptian portico with battered piers adorned with reliefs and lotus-blossom columns.

Like other exoticism, the use of Egyptian motifs went back to the 18th century, but the throng of scholars who accompanied Napoleon on his expedition to Egypt in 1798 triggered off a full-blown fashion that gave rise to fountains as well.

The photo shows the Egyptian portico which is attributed to Jean Augustin Renard.