Jean-Louis Garnier

Jean-Louis Charles Garnier was a French architect best known for his elaborate and ornate style. He was born in Paris on 6th November 1825 and died on 3rd August 1898 in Paris aged 72. 

“Le Théâtre” (1871) 
Palais Garnier or Paris Opera House (1861-75)
Opera House at Monte Carlo (1875)
Tomb of Jacques Offenbach (1880)

1825: Jean-Louis Charles Garnier was born on 6th November 1825 on the Rue Mouffetard in Paris. His father, Jean André Garnier, was originally from the Loire. He was a blacksmith, coachbuilder and wheelwright and when he arrived in Paris he set up a carriage rental business. His mother was Felicia Colle. Charles was educated as an apprentice to Louis-Hippolyte Lebas.

1842: He attends the Ecole Royal des Beaux-Arts. 

1848: He is awarded the Premier Grand Prix de Rome and is allowed to study in Italy.

1849: He becomes a pensioner of the Academie de France a Rome and stays there until 1853.

1853: His earlier travels through Greece gave him ideas for his submission to the Paris Salon.

1860: He wins the competition to design the new Paris Opera House from a list of 170 applicants. 

1861: Construction of the Paris Opera begins.

1870: The Emperor Napoleon the Third is defeated at the Battle of Sedan during the Franco Prussian war and is deposed.

1871: Paris is besieged by the Prussians and the unfinished Opera is used as a warehouse and a military prison. Garnier publishes his book “Le Théâtre”.

1872: He designs the casino and baths at Vittel and his holiday villa in Borighera on the Italian Riviera where his wife thought he could escape from the stresses of his work in Paris. (completed 1873).

1874: He is named as a member of the Institut de France in the architecture department of the Academie des Beaux-Arts.

1875: Work on the Paris Opera is completed.

1876: He designs the Grand Concert Hall for the Monte-Carlo Casino which later became the Opera de Monte-Carlo. He publishes “Le Nouvel Opéra de Paris” a description of his work.

1878: The Monte-Carlo Opera is completed. 

1879: He designs the Nice Astronomical Observatory. 

1880: He designs the Marigny Theatre in Paris.

1881: He publishes “Nouvel Opéra de Paris”. 

1884: In “Le Temple de Jupiter Panhellenique à Egine” he publishes His designs for the reconstruction of the temple at Aegina.

1889: For the Paris Exposition Garnier has the idea for the Exposition des Habitations Humaines, which also became the subject of his book “L’Habitation Humaine” (published in 1892).

1890: He publishes “Constructions élevées aux Champs de Mars”.

1892: He publishes “L’Habitation Humaine” (The Human House).

1894: He designs his last work on the Rue Berthier in Paris, the Ateliers Berthier of the Odeon-Theatre de l’Europe.

1896: He retires from private practice. 

Jean-Louis Charles Garnier died of a second stroke on 3rd August 1898. He was buried in the Montparnasse Cemetery. 

Jean-Louis-Charles Garnier was an anxious child and his teachers described him as “a bundle of nerves”. He would suffer from bouts of depression throughout his life and was even hospitalised after a nervous breakdown. His mother noticed his talent for sketching which helped his nervous condition and supplied him with pencils and paper from an early age. As a student he was trained by Louis-Hippolyte Lebas. He had been given permission to visit the French school in Athens and was excited by viewing the Acropolis for the first time and vowed to include Greek forms in his own work in the future. However, on a visit to Turkey he became more interested in Byzantine styles than Ancient Greek.

As an architect he was fascinated by the Italian Renaissance and in particular the works of the Venetian painter Paolo Veronese and the Italian sculptor and architect Jacopo d’Antonio Sansovino.

His most famous work, the Palais Garnier, or the Paris Opera House combines Renaissance themes with examples of Neo Classical, Baroque and, the then modern, Beaux-Arts architectural style. It features a lavish design and ornamentation both inside and out characteristic of Second Empire architecture as a whole. The staircase in particular is magnificent and combines Baroque and Venetian Renaissance themes. The building is woven through with a functionality required for a complex performance space combining electricity and other technologies of the day to assist in its ease of use and thus it influenced Opera House design for many years to come. 

His style became more muted over time but later works such as the Casino in Monte Carlo are still lavish by today’s standards and in 1897 it was enlarged by Henri Schmit in order for operatic performances to be given. Garnier protested in vain over what he considered a sacrilege to his work. The Paris Opera was so successful and influential that it overshadowed many of his other works such as Cercle de la Librairie (1878–9), 117 Boulevard St-Germain and the Maison Hachette apartment-block on the same street in Paris. The Opera was a style used in public architecture right up until the First World War in 1914. The Monte Carlo Casino likewise influenced buildings along the Riviera in towns such as Vittel and the Italian Bordighera, as well as many other seaside resorts, for many years to come. The style was popular with the wealthy patrons that owners wished to attract.

On 20th May 1896 one of the chandeliers at the Palais Garnier fell through the ceiling killing a concierge and became an inspiration for one of the scenes in Gaston Leroux’s 1910 gothic novel “The Phantom of the Opera”.

Information from archINFORM Architecture database including list of works by Garnier.