Auguste Montferrand (Henri Louis Auguste Ricard de Montferrand; January 23, 1786, Chaillot near Paris — June 28, 1858, Saint Petersburg) was a French and Russian architect and engineer, the foremost master of late Classicism and one of the first representatives of Eclecticism in Russia. In Nizhny Novgorod Region he is known as the author of the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka complex and the Spassky Old Yarmarka Cathedral.[1][2]
Life and education
Montferrand's father was a riding master and later director of the Royal Academy in Lyon; his paternal grandfather was a bridge-building engineer.[3] On October 1, 1806, Auguste entered the Royal Special School of Architecture in Paris, but his studies were interrupted by military service: he took part in the Napoleonic campaigns in Italy and at Dresden, was wounded, and was awarded the Legion of Honor and the rank of senior quartermaster.[3] Between campaigns he honed his professional skills in the workshop of the architects Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine and under the guidance of J. Molinos, Paris's inspector general of architecture.[1] He took part in the construction of the Church of La Madeleine in Paris.[1]
In 1814, taking advantage of Emperor Alexander I's stay in Paris, Montferrand presented him with an album of his designs and drawings and received an invitation to come to Russia.[1] In 1816 he arrived in Saint Petersburg and was appointed court architect; in Russia he took the name Avgust Avgustovich (in some documents, Avgust Antonovich).[2][3] From 1817 to 1826 he headed the drafting Committee for Construction and Hydraulic Works, the country's main architectural authority at the time.[1]
Buildings in Nizhny Novgorod
In 1817–1822, Montferrand designed and built the ensemble of the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka: administrative buildings, trading rows, and a cathedral.[1] Most of the structures were built in the Classicist tradition; the exception was the "Chinese rows," where Eastern motifs were used.[1] The main place of worship in the ensemble was the Spassky Old Yarmarka Cathedral, one of the most significant religious buildings of the Late Classicist era in the Volga Region.[2] Montferrand's Nizhny Novgorod work is the subject of a separate section in the monograph "Auguste Montferrand" by O. A. Chekanova and A. L. Rotach (Leningrad: Stroyizdat, 1990).[4]
Major Works in Saint Petersburg
Montferrand's best-known work is Saint Isaac's Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, whose construction and decoration lasted from 1818 to 1858. In building it, the architect used metal structures alongside traditional stone and brick masonry, which became an important step in the development of construction technology.[1][2] His first independent building in Saint Petersburg was the Lobanov-Rostovsky House (1817–1820), a building triangular in plan, harmoniously fitted into a difficult urban site.[1] The Alexander Column, erected on Palace Square in 1834, was a unique technical achievement of its time: specially developed calculations and devices made it possible to raise an enormous granite monolith.[1][2] In addition, Montferrand took part in creating the interiors of the Winter Palace before and after the fire of 1837, and also designed the private mansions of P. N. Demidov and Princess Gagarina on Bolshaya Morskaya Street (1835–1840).[4][1]
Montferrand's work stands on the boundary between two architectural eras: while he was the foremost architect of Late Classicism, he was one of the first in Russia to turn to eclecticism, with elements of historical styles and Eastern motifs appearing in his works as early as the 1820s.[1]
Final Years and Legacy
Montferrand died on June 28, 1858 — a month after the consecration of St. Isaac's Cathedral, to which he had given forty years of his life.[1] His biographical materials, scholarly studies, and archival documents are held in the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library.[2] A monograph on the architect's work was prepared by the researchers O. A. Chekanova and A. L. Rotach (1990).[4]
Sources
- kulturamgo.ru — July 10: Memorial Day of Auguste Montferrand
- prlib.ru — Montferrand, Auguste (Avgust Avgustovich) (1786–1858) — Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library
- tunnel.ru — Auguste Montferrand
- tatlin.ru — Auguste Montferrand
- TASS
- runivers.ru — Auguste Montferrand — Runivers: Electronic Encyclopedia and Library