Hector Lefuel

He was born in Versailles, the son of Alexandre-Henry Lefuel (1782–1850), a building contractor. He was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in 1829, studied there with Jean-Nicolas Huyot and in 1833 received second place in the Prix de Rome competition. By that time, his father died, and he had to spend the next few years managing the family building business. He won the Prix de Rome in 1839 and subsequently spent the years 1840 to 1844 as a pensionary of the French Academy in Rome at the Villa Medici. == Early career ==

On his return to France, he opened his own practice and was appointed a building inspector for the Chamber of Deputies. Having carried out alterations at the Château de Meudon (1848) and for the housing of the Manufacture Royal de Porcelaine de Sèvres (1852), he was appointed chief architect of the Château de Fontainebleau, one of the residences of Napoleon III under the new monarchical Second French Empire regime; there he designed a new Roccoco-style theatre (1853). == Imperial architect ==

Due to his work on the theatre at Fontainebleau, Lefuel had received favourable notice from Napoleon III. Following the death of the architect Louis-Tullius-Joachim Visconti in 1853, Lefuel was placed in charge of the ambitious project of completing the Louvre. He kept Visconti's plans but modified the elevations, enriching them in profuse ornamental detail, and completed the project in record time for opening on 14 August 1857, when it became one of the showpieces of the Second Empire. Lefuel's work at the Louvre and the Tuileries became an exemplar of the nascent Second Empire architectural style. He was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1855, He designed funeral monuments, such as that to the composers Daniel-François-Esprit Auber and François Bazin at Père Lachaise Cemetery. Hector-Martin Lefuel died in Paris and is buried at Passy Cemetery. ==Gallery==

File:Pavillon Sully du Louvre 002.jpg|Pavillon Sully at the eastern end of the Cour Napoleon File:Appartements Napoléon III 4.jpg|Grand Salon of the Napoleon III Apartments File:Central chandelier NIII Louvre.jpg|Central chandelier of the Grand Salon File:Decorative arts in the Louvre - Room 548 - 03.jpg|Great Dining Room of the Napoleon III Apartments File:P1080712 Louvre salle romaine rwk.JPG|Salle d'Auguste (originally Salle des Empereurs) File:Paris - palais du Louvre, pavillon Mollien.jpg|Mollien Pavilion of the Denon Wing File:Paris 75001 Cour Lefuel Louvre horseshoe stairs 20110122 161143.jpg|Cour Lefuel (Denon Wing) with horse ramps leading to the former Emperor's Stables File:Palais du Louvre - Cour Lefuel -01.jpg|Tympanum over the door to the former stables from the Cour Lefuel File:Palais du Louvre - Salle du Manège -0a.jpg|Salle du Manège (former stables) File:Guichets du Louvre, Paris 25 June 2011.jpg|South facade of the Guichets du Carrousel (1861) File:Le pavillon de Flore 3.jpg|Pavillon de Flore, south facade ==Notes==