12 Facts About Ange-Jacques Gabriel

Ange-Jacques Gabriel's style was a careful balance between French Baroque architecture and French neoclassicism.

Ange-Jacques Gabriel's grandfather was an architect, and his father, Jacques Gabriel received the title of Controller of the Buildings of the King at the age of twenty-one.

The young Ange-Jacques became a member of the Academie royale d'architecture in 1728, and assisted his father on the Place de la Bourse.

Ange-Jacques Gabriel became the principal assistant to his father as Premier Architecte at the Versailles from 1735 and, after his father's death, succeeded him as chief architect of the King.

Ange-Jacques Gabriel was asked to find a compromise between several competing plans for the development of the marshy land between the gates of the Tuileries Garden and the new Champs-Elysees, on land donated by the King.

Ange-Jacques Gabriel's design, combining elements of the earlier schemes, left the view toward the Seine open, and preserved unobstructed the long axis between the Tuileries and the Champs-Elysees.

Ange-Jacques Gabriel's plan called for a "chateau" with two wings flanking a central pavilion with a dome, similar to that of the Louvre.

At the request of Madame de Pompadour, Ange-Jacques Gabriel had made plans for a smaller pavilion at Versailles away from the main palace and the Grand Trianon.

Ange-Jacques Gabriel made a new proposal for the same site in 1748, but it was put on hold due to the cost.

Ange-Jacques Gabriel subsequently occupied himself with numerous modifications to the exterior of the palace, notably the completion and extension of the North Wing, following closely the original designs of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, completed in 1764.

Ange-Jacques Gabriel was not especially known for boldness or originality; borrowing extensively from the French classicism and early classical models, particularly from the Louvre.

Ange-Jacques Gabriel was known for his craftsmanship, his ability to balance the animation of the Baroque style with the more restrained neoclassicism, the proportions and balance and careful detail of his buildings, and his ability to create dramatic and harmonious ensembles of monumental buildings, as he did in the Place de la Concorde.