Jean Aubert was court architect to the
Princes of Condé. He was the son of Jean-Jacques Aubert, master carpenter in the
Bâtiments du Roi, and was trained in the large atelier of
Jules Hardouin-Mansart. The young Aubert was employed in the Bâtiments du Roi as a designer from 1703. In 1707, Hardouin-Mansart had him appointed an
architecte du Roi and attempted to get him seated in the second class of the
Académie royale d'architecture. As a protégé of Hardouin-Mansart, Aubert may have come into conflict with
Robert de Cotte, Hardouin-Mansart's successor as
premier architecte though not as director at the Bâtiments du Roi. Diversifying his commissions, Aubert became the architect to the
Bourbon-Condé: for them he worked on the Château de Saint-Maur (1709–10), the
Château de Chantilly, and other lesser possessions. Jules Hardouin-Mansart had provided Henri-Jules de Bourbon-Condé plans for the complete transformation of his
Château de Chantilly. They were realized by
Daniel Gittard, and by Aubert after 1708, though documentation for work other than for the stables is lacking (Kimball p 131). The destruction of these works at the Grand Château of Chantilly (begun in December 1718, according to
Fiske Kimball) during the
Revolution prevents an assessment of their nature, with the exception of the fine interiors of the Petit Château, which were sufficiently complete for the Regent to be lodged there 4 November 1722 at the return of the court from the coronation of Louis XV, and the famous stables, constructed for the duc de Bourbon, between 1719 and 1735. , as designed by Aubert From 1724 Jean Aubert worked in Paris on the
Palais Bourbon fronting the
Seine, which was built for
Louise Françoise de Bourbon (1673-1743), duchesse de Bourbon. The plans had been consigned to an Italian architect named Giardini, of whom little is known save that he died in 1722.
Pierre Cailleteau Lassurance, who succeeded him in the project and designed the decor of the vestibule (Kimball 1943 p 130), died himself two years later. Aubert took up the project, working with the already-established foundations, but redistributing the magnificently-finished apartments and introducing elliptical salons. For the decoration of the interiors he was constrained to work with
Jacques Gabriel, who had been introduced to the duchess's confidence by her advisor, Abraham Peyrenc de Moras. The Palais Bourbon has undergone many transformations since, but Aubert's work can be seen in six plates of
Jean Mariette,
Architecture françoise. Right next to the Palais Bourbon, Jean Aubert was also put in charge of the
Hôtel de Lassay, which Lassurance had also begun, for the marquis de Lassay, the lover of the duchesse de Bourbon. If the edifice came under some criticism, its interiors marked a step towards the freest
rococo. Between 1728 and 1731 Aubert constructed for the wealthy speculator Abraham Peyrenc de Moras the
Hôtel Biron, named for a later owner, which now houses the
Musée Rodin. Jacques Gabriel's role in its construction has recently been disallowed. In 1736, he built a little annex to the hôtel, which had been purchased from the widow of Peyrenc de Moras by the duchesse du Maine, herself a Bourbon-Condé by birth. Jean Aubert frequented the unofficial Académie du Petit-Luxembourg, in the Hôtel du
Petit Luxembourg, that was founded in 1729 by the
comte-abbé de Clermont, another member of the house of Condé, the younger brother of the builder of the stables of Chantilly. For the abbé, who was
commendatory abbot of
Chaalis, Aubert created the plans for the reconstruction of
Chaalis Abbey in 1736. Begun in 1739 and intended as a large
quadrangle, only the entrance wing with the abbot's residence was completed. Further work was halted in 1745 due to lack of funds and never resumed. In 1738 Aubert built the lodgings at the
Abbey of Fontevraud where
Mesdames de France, the daughters of
Louis XV, passed some years of their youth under the supervision of the abbesse de Montmorin. Jean Aubert married Geneviève Brunault, the couple was childless. In Paris they lived in rue des Tournelles, probably in one of the buildings there that belonged to the heirs of Mansart. ==Principal works==