{"id":4267,"date":"2020-07-17T22:47:50","date_gmt":"2020-07-18T02:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/?p=4267"},"modified":"2022-01-21T21:04:03","modified_gmt":"2022-01-22T02:04:03","slug":"jean-jacques-lequeu-visionary-architect-drawings-from-the-bibliotheque-nationale-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/2020\/07\/17\/jean-jacques-lequeu-visionary-architect-drawings-from-the-bibliotheque-nationale-de-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Jean-Jacques Lequeu: Visionary Architect. Drawings from the Biblioth\u00e8que nationale de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City<\/strong><\/p>\n

January 31\u2013September 13, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

by J. Cabelle Ahn<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Figure 1. Installation view of Jean-Jacques Lequeu: Visionary Architect. Drawings from the Biblioth\u00e8que nationale de France.<\/em> The Morgan Library & Museum, New York. Photo by the author, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Architects and scholars Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown introduced the idea of the \u201cduck\u201d and the \u201cdecorated shed\u201d in their influential and controversial publication <\/span>Learning from Las Vegas<\/span><\/i> (1972).1<\/sup> These two rivaling concepts speak to the continuity and disjunction between the architectural interior and the exterior. Venturi and Brown question the accepted relationship between space, structure, program, and ornament by undertaking a close study of the Las Vegas Strip and its gaudy monuments. Preceding Venturi\u2019s \u201cduck\u201d by two centuries, the architectural designs by Jean-Jacques Lequeu are equally reminiscent of the campiness of the Strip. Cow-shaped barns, butter churns atop gothic spires, a gate groaning under the weight of an oversized Gallic Hercules, temple entrances carved in the shape of smoke\u2014these are some of the tame offerings by the enigmatic French architect, whose career spanned a period of great political instability. While none of his proposals were realized, the sheer eclecticism of his architectural inventions has posthumously invited adulation and interrogation, from his canonization as a forerunner of twentieth-century modernism to suggestions that he might have been Marcel Duchamp\u2019s (1887\u20131968, France) alter ego.2\u00a0<\/span><\/sup> The exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum, however, evades modernist preoccupations to firmly root him in his contemporary moment as well as within the machinery of the French Enlightenment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The exhibition at the Morgan is the final iteration of a show first mounted at the Petit Palais in Paris, which was almost entirely drawn from the collection of drawings Lequeu donated to the Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale de France (BnF) six months before his death.3\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0Less than half of the drawings from the Petit Palais travelled to the Morgan, and the reduced format and the new layout promote a different narrative\u2014a difference encapsulated in the title change from <\/span>Builder of Fantasy <\/span><\/i>to <\/span>Visionary Architect.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"
Figure 2. Installation view of Jean-Jacques Lequeu: Visionary Architect.<\/em> Drawings from the Biblioth\u00e8que nationale de France. The Morgan Library & Museum, New York. Photo by the author, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The show examines five aspects of Lequeu\u2019s graphic production: his physiognomic preoccupations (fig. 2), his unpublished architectural treatise (<\/span>Architecture civile<\/span><\/i>), his responses to the French Revolution, his erotic drawings, and his ingenuity as an engineer. His unconventional designs for civic infrastructures and the unrestrained fantasy behind his speculative projects spotlight his deviation from the monolithic dogma of architectural conventions established by the Royal Academy of Architecture in Paris. By beginning the exhibition with his portrait and physiognomic studies, the Morgan exhibition immediately highlights how his approach to drawing was rooted in his interest in the body over academic doctrine\u2014an interest echoed in a separate section displaying his erotic drawings. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Figure 3. Jean-Jacques Lequeu (1757\u20131826, France). Hermitage Gate; Drinking Den of the Arid Wilderness; The Rendezvous of Bellevue<\/em> (n.d.), from Architecture civile.<\/em> Pen, watercolor, and wash drawing. Paris, Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale de France, D\u00e9partement des estampes, R\u00e9serve, HA-80 (2)-FOL, pl. 55. Image \u00a9 BnF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Architectural drawings are particularly governed by graphic requirements in terms of color, shading, and compositional perspectives.4<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0<\/span>Lequeu was undeniably well-versed in both architectural theory and technical draftsmanship. Plate 55 from the <\/span>Architecture civile <\/span><\/i>(fig. 3), which Duboy once speculated to be a preparatory study for Duchamp\u2019s <\/span>Bottle Rack<\/span><\/i> (1914), reads as an index of his architectural erudition. The rustic hermitage likely references the origin of architecture as naturally borne of tree trunks, a standard feature in architectural theory since Vitruvius.5\u00a0<\/span><\/sup> The diverse forms and subsequent shadows on the fa\u00e7ade of the Bellevue confirm his mastery of sciography\u2014a technique of shading in orthographic projections, often in grey wash.6<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Figure 4. Jean-Jacques Lequeu (1757\u20131826, France). Detail from Dairy<\/em> (n.d.), from Architecture civile.<\/em> Pen, watercolor, and wash drawing. Paris, Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale de France, D\u00e9partement des estampes, R\u00e9serve, HA-80 (2)-FOL, pl. 59. Image \u00a9 BnF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Morgan\u2019s rearranged array of sheets from Lequeu\u2019s <\/span>Architecture civile <\/span><\/i>particularly emphasizes how he reinterpreted the eighteenth-century notion of <\/span>convenance<\/span><\/i> (architectural decorum). The sequential display of his projects ranging from an invented architectural order featuring a chained aristocrat to a minimalist spherical \u201ctemple of equality\u201d reveals how Lequeu responded to the erosion of legible architectural codes during the French Revolution. In the successive section, the exhibition stresses the sensorial specificities of his buildings. The side-by-side presentation of the gothic dairy covered in cow udders (fig. 4) and the cow-shaped stable (fig. 5) are not only emblematic of Venturi and Brown\u2019s \u201cducks,\u201d but also of his architectural eclecticism.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Figure 5. Jean-Jacques Lequeu (1757\u20131826, France). Design for a Cowshed in the Shape of a Cow; Gate to the Hunting Grounds<\/em> (n.d.), from Architecture civile.<\/em> Pen, watercolor, and wash drawing. Paris, Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale de France, D\u00e9partement des estampes, R\u00e9serve, HA-80 (2)-FOL, pl. 74. Image \u00a9 BnF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Lequeu, it was not enough that form followed function. Instead, all five senses were to be engaged. Nearly all of the drawings are replete with annotations in his tidy bureaucratic hand. Where pertinent, the exhibition didactics helpfully point out several of his written remarks that range from quotes by Voltaire, Herodotus, and Pliny; self-compiled lists of animals, wines, and tree species; and recipes for perfume and pastes. An example is a recipe included in his hunting-gate design (fig. 5) for \u201cPierre de porc\u201d (Pork Stone), which was a paste that would make the gate smell of urine and rotten egg, thus sensorially conveying its function. Additional translations of Lequeu\u2019s notations might have further clarified his peculiar fixation on the smell, taste, sound, and tactility of buildings, which mirrored the period\u2019s preoccupation with sensationalism.7<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Figure 6. Jean-Jacques Lequeu (1757\u20131826, France). Elevation of Pulpit for Saint-Sulpice<\/em> (1788). Pen, watercolor, and wash drawing. Paris, Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale de France, D\u00e9partement des estampes, R\u00e9serve, HA-80 (E)-FT 4. Image \u00a9 BnF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the Morgan exhibition invites close consideration of Lequeu\u2019s graphic prowess, there are a few sheets from the Paris exhibition that are particularly missed. One is Lequeu\u2019s design for the pulpit of Saint-Sulpice (fig. 6). His design of a globe instead of a shell vertically attached to a pillar, as was custom, demonstrates his early departures from academic constraints<\/span> and would have explicitly linked him to his eighteenth-century contemporaries.8<\/span><\/sup><\/span> Additionally, many of the pornographic anatomical drawings that belonged to the restricted section at the <\/span>BnF<\/span> (dubbed later as \u201cL\u2019enfer\u201d [hell]), did not travel to the United States, which dampens the physiological and psychosexual dimension of his<\/span> architectural praxis<\/span>.9<\/span><\/sup><\/span> Yet, the Morgan\u2019s focus on Lequeu\u2019s role as a \u201cvisionary <\/span>architect\u201d<\/span><\/i> rather than a conveyor of fantasies stresses his unbound graphic imagination rather than positing them as unnatural curiosities.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the <\/span>Encyclop\u00e9die<\/span><\/i>, the architect and professor Jacques-Fran\u00e7ois Blondel (1705\u20131774) asserts that \u201ca good architect is not an ordinary man,\u201d and that he must be accomplished in literature, history, mathematics, stereotomy, technical drawing, as well as \u201can inborn aptitude, intelligence, taste, enthusiasm, and creativity.\u201d10<\/span><\/sup> Lequeu\u2019s drawings reveal that he was an extraordinary architect who went above and beyond Blondel\u2019s requirements. His strange, poignant, and absurd drawings thus challenge and naturalize the unnatural role of the architect during this period of political transformations in France. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>____________________<\/span><\/p>\n

J. Cabelle Ahn<\/span><\/h4>\n

J. Cabelle Ahn is a PhD Candidate in History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University and the current Samuel H. Kress Predoctoral Fellow at the Drawing Institute of the Morgan Library & Museum, NY. Her dissertation is titled \u201cMultiple Exposures: The Exhibition of Drawings in Eighteenth-century France.<\/span><\/p>\n

____________________<\/span><\/p>\n

Footnotes<\/h4>\n

1. In contrast to decorated sheds, Venturi and Scott Brown termed buildings whose form explicitly referenced their function as \u201cducks,\u201d a nickname inspired by The Long Island Duckling drive-in that was literally in the shape of a duck: \u201cThe duck is the special building that <\/span>is <\/span><\/i>a symbol; the decorated shed is the conventional shelter that <\/span>applies <\/span><\/i>symbols,\u201d Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steve Izenor, <\/span>Learning from Las Vegas, <\/span><\/i>rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA, and London: The MIT Press, 1977), 87. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

2. See Emil Kaufmann, <\/span>Von Ledoux bis Le Corbusier: Ursprung und Entwicklung der autonomen Architektur,<\/span><\/i> (Vienna and Leipzig: Rolf Passer, 1933); see Philippe Duboy, <\/span>Jean-Jacques Lequeu: une \u00e9nigme,<\/span><\/i> (Paris: Hazan, 1987). Sol LeWitt and Claes Oldenburg additionally studied Lequeu\u2019s drawings via the 1967 exhibition\u00a0<\/span>Visionary Architects<\/span><\/i>, a presentation of eighteenth-century French architectural drawings that was supported by the Menil Foundation which travelled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

3.<\/span> The exhibition in the Petit Palais <\/span>(December 11, 2018<\/span>\u2013<\/span>March 31, 2019) <\/span>was <\/span>curated by Corinne Le Bitouz\u00e9 and Christophe Leribault in collaboration with Laurent Baridon, Jean-Philippe Garric, and Martial Gu\u00e9dron, and <\/span>is accompanied by the following catalogue: <\/span>Laurent Baridon, Jean-Philippe Garric, Martial Gu\u00e9dron, and Corinne Le Bitouz\u00e9, <\/span>Jean-Jacques Lequeu, B\u00e2tisseur de fantasmes, <\/span><\/i>(Paris: Norma, 2018). The exhibition subsequently travelled in\u00a0a reduced format to The Menil Collection (October 4, 2019\u2013January 5, 2020) which was co-curated by \u00c9douard Kopp and Kelly Montana. The Morgan show was curated by Jennifer Tonkovitch, Eugene and Clare Thaw Curator of Drawings and Prints. The entire collection of Lequeu\u2019s drawings at the BnF have been digitized<\/a> and the Morgan show is presently accompanied by an online exhibition<\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

4. An important eighteenth-century manual for architectural drawings was Nicolas Buchotte, <\/span>Les r\u00e8gles du Dessin et du Lavis<\/span><\/i>, (Paris: Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1721).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

5. Anthony Vidler, \u201c<\/span>Rebuilding the\u00a0<\/span>Primitive Hut<\/span>: The Return to Origins from Lafitau to\u00a0<\/span>Laugier<\/span>,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>in <\/span>The Writing of the Walls: Architectural Theory in the Late Enlightenment,<\/span><\/i> (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1987), 7\u201322.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

6. Similarly suggested by Val\u00e9rie N\u00e8gre in Baridon, Garric, Gu\u00e9dron, and Le Bitouz\u00e9, <\/span>Jean-Jacques Lequeu, b\u00e2tisseur de fantasmes, <\/span><\/i>78. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

7. Eighteenth-century sensationalism was spearheaded by Condillac and later by Le Camus de M\u00e9zi\u00e8res in architecture. See also Lequeu\u2019s posthumous inventory for a glimpse at his sources in Werner Szambien, \u201cL’inventaire apr\u00e8s d\u00e9c\u00e8s de Jean-Jacques Lequeu,\u201d <\/span>Revue de l\u2019Art<\/span><\/i> no. 90 (1990): 104\u2013107.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

8. The drawing responded to an open concours which was held to replace the provisionary wooden pulpit designed by Giovanni Niccol\u00f2 Servandoni. The commission was eventually awarded to <\/span>Charles de Wailly for his Bernini-esque design.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

9. For more on this, see Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, \u201cLequeu\u2019s Corpus: Lascivious Architecture,\u201d in <\/span>Self and History. Essays in Honour of Linda Nochlin<\/span><\/i>, ed. Aruna D\u2019Souza (London: Thames & Hudson, 2001), 25\u201342. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

10. \u201cUn bon\u00a0<\/span>architecte<\/span><\/i>\u00a0n\u2019est point un homme ordinaire . . .<\/span> les dispositions naturelles, l\u2019intelligence, le go\u00fbt, le feu & l\u2019invention,\u201d <\/span>Jacques-Fran\u00e7ois Blondel, \u201cArchitecte,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Encyclop\u00e9die ou Dictionnaire raisonn\u00e9 des sciences, des arts et des m\u00e9tiers, <\/span><\/i>vol. 1 (Paris: <\/span>Briasson, <\/span>1751), 616.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City January 31\u2013September 13, 2020 by J. Cabelle Ahn Architects and scholars Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown introduced the idea of the \u201cduck\u201d and the \u201cdecorated shed\u201d in their influential and controversial publication Learning from Las Vegas (1972).1 These two rivaling concepts speak to the continuity and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15902,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15902"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4267"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5216,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267\/revisions\/5216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}