Second Empire style, also known as the Napoleon III style or Haussmann style, is a highly eclectic style of architecture and decorative arts originating in the Second French Empire. It was characterised by elements drawn from many different historical styles, and also made innovative use of modern materials such as iron frameworks and glass skylights. It flourished during the reign of Emperor Napoleon III (1852–1870) and had an important influence on architecture and decoration across the rest of Europe and North America. Major examples of the style include the Opéra Garnier (1862–1875) in Paris by Charles Garnier, the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, the Church of Saint Augustine (1860–1871), and the Philadelphia City Hall (1871–1901). The architectural style was closely connected with Haussmann's renovation of Paris carried out during the Second Empire; the new buildings, such as the Opéra, were intended as the focal points of the new boulevards.
Characteristics
The Napoleon III or Second Empire style drew its inspiration from several different periods and styles, which were often combined within the same building or interior. The interior of the Opéra Garnier by Charles Garnier combined architectural elements of the French Renaissance, Palladian architecture, and French Baroque, while achieving coherence and harmony throughout. The Lions Gate of the Louvre Palace by Hector Lefuel is a Louis-Napoléon interpretation of French Renaissance architecture; few visitors to the Louvre realise it is a 19th-century addition to the building.Ducher, Robert, Caractéristique des styles (1988), pp. 188–190.
Another characteristic of the Napoleon III style is the adaptation of building design to its function and to the properties of the materials used. Examples include the Gare du Nord railway station by Jacques Ignace Hittorff, the Church of Saint Augustine by Victor Baltard, and particularly the iron-framed structures of the market of Les Halles and the reading room of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, both also by Victor Baltard.
A basic principle of Napoleon III interior decoration was to leave no surface undecorated. Another principle was polychromy — an abundance of colour achieved through coloured marble, malachite, onyx, porphyry, mosaics, and silver- or gold-plated bronze. Wood panelling was often encrusted with rare and exotic woods, or darkened to resemble ebony. The façade of the Opéra Garnier employed seventeen different coloured materials, including various marbles, stones, and bronze.Texier, Simon, Paris — Panorama de l'architecture (2012), p. 95.
Architecture
Second Empire is an architectural style that was most popular in the latter half of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. It takes its name from the architectural elements in vogue during the era of the Second French Empire.Copplestone, Trewin, ed., World Architecture: An Illustrated History from Earliest Times, Crescent Books, New York, 1963, pp. 310–311. As the Second Empire style evolved from its 17th-century Renaissance foundations, it acquired a blend of earlier European styles, most notably the Baroque, often combined with mansard roofs and low, square-based domes.Copplestone, p. 310.
The style spread rapidly and evolved as Baroque Revival architecture throughout Europe and across the Atlantic. Its suitability for large-scale application made it widely used in the design of municipal and corporate buildings. In the United States, where one of the leading architects working in the style was Alfred B. Mullett, buildings in the style were often closer to their 17th-century roots than European examples.Copplestone, p. 311.
The dominant architectural tendency of the Second Empire was eclecticism, drawing liberally from the Gothic style, Renaissance style, and the styles dominant during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI. The combination was derided by Émile Zola as "the opulent bastard child of all the styles".Zola, Émile, Nana. The finest example was the Opéra Garnier, begun in 1862 but not completed until 1875. The architect was Charles Garnier (1825–1898), who won the competition for the design at the age of thirty-seven. When the Empress Eugénie asked Garnier what the style of the building was called, he replied simply: "Napoleon III." At the time it was the largest opera house in the world, but much of the interior space was devoted to purely decorative purposes: grand stairways, vast foyers for promenading, and large private boxes. Another example was the Mairie, or city hall, of the 1st arrondissement of Paris, built in 1855–1861 in a neo-Gothic style by the architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff (1792–1867).Renault, Christophe and Lazé, Christophe, Les Styles de l'architecture et du mobilier (2006), Editions Jean-Paul Gisserot. ()
The Industrial Revolution was beginning to demand a new kind of architecture: bigger, stronger, and less expensive. The new age of railways and the enormous increase in travel it brought required new train stations, large hotels, exposition halls, and department stores in Paris. While the exteriors of most Second Empire monumental buildings usually remained eclectic, a revolution was taking place inside; following the model of The Crystal Palace in London (1851), Parisian architects began to use cast iron frames and walls of glass in their buildings.Renault, Christophe and Lazé, Christophe, Les Styles de l'architecture et du mobilier (2006), Editions Jean-Paul Gisserot.
The most dramatic use of iron and glass was in the new central market of Paris, Les Halles (1853–1870), an ensemble of huge iron and glass pavilions designed by Victor Baltard (1805–1874) and Félix Callet (1792–1854). Jacques Ignace Hittorff also made extensive use of iron and glass in the interior of the new Gare du Nord train station (1842–1865), though the façade was purely neoclassical, decorated with classical statues representing the cities served by the railway. Baltard also used a steel frame in constructing the largest new church built in Paris during the Empire, the Church of Saint Augustine (1860–1871). While the structure was supported by cast iron columns, the façade remained eclectic. Henri Labrouste (1801–1875) also used iron and glass to create a dramatic cathedral-like reading room for the National Library, Richelieu site (1854–1875).
The Second Empire also saw the completion or restoration of several architectural treasures: the Nouveau Louvre project realised a longstanding ambition of rationalising the Louvre Palace, the famed stained glass windows and structure of the Sainte-Chapelle were restored by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, and the Cathedral of Notre-Dame underwent extensive restoration. In the case of the Louvre in particular, the restorations were sometimes more imaginative than precisely historical.
Religious architecture
During the Second Empire, under the influence particularly of the architect and historian Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, French religious architecture broke away from the neoclassical style that had dominated Paris church architecture since the 18th century. Neo-Gothic and other historical styles began to appear, particularly in the eight new arrondissements farther from the centre added by Napoleon III in 1860. The first neo-Gothic church was the Basilica of Sainte-Clothilde, begun by Franz Christian Gau in 1841 and completed by Théodore Ballu in 1857.
During the Second Empire, architects began to combine metal frames with the Gothic style: the Église Saint-Laurent, a 15th-century church rebuilt in neo-Gothic style by Simon-Claude-Constant Dufeux (1862–65); Saint-Eugène-Sainte-Cécile by Louis-Auguste Boileau and Louis-Adrien Lusson (1854–55); and Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Belleville by Jean-Baptiste Lassus (1854–59). The largest new church built in Paris during the Second Empire was the Church of Saint Augustine (1860–71) by Victor Baltard, the designer of the metal pavilions of the market of Les Halles. While the façade was eclectic, the interior structure was modern, supported by slender cast iron columns.
Not all churches built under Napoleon III were in the Gothic style. Marseille Cathedral, constructed between 1852 and 1896, was designed in a Byzantine Revival style, principally by Léon Vaudoyer and Henri-Jacques Espérandieu.
The Louvre
Napoleon III's many projects included the completion of the Louvre Palace, which adjoined his own residence in the Tuileries Palace. The Nouveau Louvre project was led by architect Hector Lefuel between 1852 and 1857. Between 1864 and 1868, Napoleon III also commissioned Lefuel to rebuild the Pavillon de Flore; Lefuel added many of his own decorations and ideas to the pavilion, including a celebrated sculpture of Flore by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. Lefuel's grands guichets of the Louvre originally featured an equestrian statue of Napoleon III by Antoine-Louis Barye over the central arch, which was removed during the Third Republic.
Interior decoration and furniture
Comfort was the first priority of Second Empire furniture. Chairs were elaborately upholstered with fringes, tassels, and expensive fabrics. Tapestry work on furniture was very much in fashion. The structure of chairs and sofas was usually entirely concealed by the upholstery or ornamented with copper, shell, or other decorative elements. Novel and exotic new materials, such as bamboo, papier-mâché, and rattan, were used for the first time in European furniture, along with polychrome wood and wood painted with black lacquer. The upholstered pouffe, or footstool, appeared, along with the angle sofa and unusual chairs designed for intimate conversations between two persons (le confident) or three people (l'indiscret). The crapaud (or toad) armchair was low, with a thickly padded back and arms, and a fringe that concealed the legs.
The French Renaissance and the Henry II style were popular influences on chests and cabinets, buffets and credences, which were massive and built like small cathedrals, decorated with columns, frontons, cartouches, mascarons, and carved angels and chimeras. They were usually constructed of walnut or oak, or sometimes of pear wood stained to resemble ebony.
Another popular influence was the Louis XVI style, or French neoclassicism, which was the preferred style of the Empress Eugénie. Her rooms at the Tuileries Palace and other palaces were decorated in this manner.
Urbanism – Haussmann's renovation of Paris
The Napoleon III style is inseparable from the renovation of Paris under Georges-Eugène Haussmann, the Emperor's Prefect of the Seine between 1852 and 1870. The buildings of the renovation display a singularity of purpose and design, a consistency of urban planning that was unusual for the period. Numerous public edifices — railway stations, the tribunal de commerce de Paris, and the Palais Garnier — were constructed in the style. The major buildings, including the Opera House and the Church of Saint Augustine, were designed to serve as the focal points of the new avenues and to be visible from a great distance.
Napoleon III also built monumental fountains to decorate the heart of the city; his Paris city architect, Gabriel Davioud, designed the polychrome Fontaine Saint-Michel (officially the Fontaine de la Paix) at the head of Haussmann's new Boulevard Saint-Michel. Davioud's other major Napoleon III works included the two theatres at the Place du Châtelet, as well as the ornamental fence of Parc Monceau and the kiosks and temples of the Bois de Boulogne, Bois de Vincennes, and other Paris parks.