Ange-Jacques Gabriel

Ange-Jacques Gabriel, born on 23 October 1698 and dead on 4 January 1782, was the principal architect of King Louis XV of France. He came from a famous Parisian family of architects, and his father Jacques Gabriel held the title of Controller of the Buildings of the King. Gabriel became a member of the Academie royale d'architecture in 1728, worked as his father's principal assistant at Versailles from 1735, and succeeded him as chief architect of the King. His major works include the Place Louis XV, now the Place de la Concorde, the Ecole Militaire, the Petit Trianon and the opera theater at the Palace of Versailles, and the Hotel de la Marine. His style was a careful balance between French Baroque architecture and French neoclassicism, and he promoted the transition from Rococo to Neoclassicism through sober rationality in planning and detail. The source adds that he was not especially known for boldness or originality, but for craftsmanship, proportion and the creation of harmonious ensembles of monumental buildings.