"the near plausibility of his architecture"

October 8, 2024 4:45 AM

"As in life, virtually no one paid attention to Lequeu in the century after his death" but that would change. Jean-Jacques Lequeu (1757-1826) was part of a tradition of visionary French architects, though nothing he drew was ever built. He was rediscovered in the 1930s and cast as an 18th Century forerunner of modernist architecture, and his unusual portraits, erotic sketches and outlandish visions were considered surreal. It was even suggested that his works were fabrications by Marcel Duschamp. In recent years his work has been exhibited in France, Houston and the Morgan Library in New York, inspiring reviews both laudatory and skeptical. Wikimedia Commons has a few works, but the French national library has made a lot available online. [Some are NSFW]
posted by Kattullus (5 comments total)

Authors of various essays linked:

"As in life, virtually no one paid attention to Lequeu in the century after his death" (Meredith Martin)
tradition of visionary French architects (Allison C. Meier)
outlandish visions (John F. Ptak)
surreal (Julia Margaret Lu)
even suggested (Andrew Ayers)
fabrications by Marcel Duschamp (Jake Kennedy)
exhibited in France (Otto Saumarez Smith)
laudatory (Jason Farago) [NYT, archive link]
skeptical (Brandt Junceau)
posted by Kattullus at 4:53 AM on October 8 [1 favorite]

thank you for this! cenotaph to newton [themarginalian] was reproduced on a postcard i saw in a shop many years ago. i believe i may still have this postcard somewhere & now see a greater story around it. off to read Kauffman's thesis-
posted by HearHere at 5:25 AM on October 8 [1 favorite]

Thanks! I once had a beautiful book about him, but lost it. So good to know there are online ressources
posted by mumimor at 5:41 AM on October 8

Who wouldn’t want a gigantic mermaid riding a goat as a roof ornament?
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:06 AM on October 8 [2 favorites]

Wow thanks for posting this. From this post, I was able to FINALLY find one of Lequeu's contemporaries, Etienne-Louis Boullee, designer of these amazing Neo-Classical megastructures, too large and fantastical to really be built. His stuff looks kinda like the Lincoln Memorial spread out 10 times larger.

Some links:

Etienne-Louis Boullee - Google image search
Etienne Louis Boullee's Unbuildable Tombs
The Impossible Architecture of Étienne-Louis Boullée - YouTube
DRAWING [ON] THE SUBLIME: REPRESENTATION OF THE UNREALIZED PROJECT AND THE SUBORDINATION OF THE REAL
Étienne-Louis Boullée anniversary of his death
Boullee's Opera
Étienne-Louis Boullée: Fantastic Projects of the 18th Century
Cenotaph for Newton rendered in Blender

(And after compiling this, I see that HearHere already posted Boullee)
posted by malapropist at 3:20 AM on October 9 [1 favorite]