BEAUX ARTS STYLE

Beaux Arts is an opulent subset of the Neoclassical

and Greek Revival architectural styles. A dominant
design during the Gilded Age ( The name,
popularized by American author Mark Twain, conjures
images of gold and jewels, lavish palaces, and wealth
beyond imagination) Beaux Arts was a popular but
short-lived movement in the United States, lasting
from roughly 1885 to 1925. Also known as
Beaux-Arts Classicism, Academic Classicism, or
Classical Revival, Beaux Arts is a late and eclectic
form of Neoclassicism. It combines classical
architecture from ancient Greece and Rome with
Renaissance ideas. Beaux-Arts architecture became
part of the late 19th century American Renaissance
movement.

KEY FEATURES OF ARTS BEAUX STYLE ARCHITECTURE

● Grandeur and Monumentality: Beaux Arts

buildings often featured large, imposing
facades and impressive entrances. They were
designed to evoke a sense of awe and
grandeur.
● Symmetry: Symmetry played a significant role
in Beaux Arts architecture. Buildings were often
designed with a balanced and symmetrical
layout, featuring a central focal point and
symmetrical wings or extensions.
● Classical Elements: Beaux Arts architecture
borrowed heavily from classical Greek and
Roman architectural elements. This included the
use of columns, pilasters, pediments, and
domes, among others.
● Ornamentation: Beaux Arts buildings were
highly ornamented. Elaborate decorative
details, such as sculptural reliefs, cornices,
balustrades, and decorative motifs, were used
to enhance the visual appeal of the structures.

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 ● Use of Classical Orders: Beaux Arts
architecture employed various classical orders,
such as the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders,
to define the design and proportions of columns
and pilasters.
● Hierarchy of Spaces: Beaux Arts buildings
often featured a clear hierarchy of spaces, with
grand public spaces located at the center and
more private spaces located towards the
periphery.
● Integration of Fine Arts: The Beaux Arts
movement aimed to integrate different artistic
disciplines. Architecture, sculpture, painting, and
decorative arts were often combined to create
a harmonious overall design.

ART WORKS OF BEAUX ARTS STYLE

A lot of artworks like paintings that followed the style was on epic themes such as
courage, sacrifice, and death, as well as the ways that changing political and
philosophical systems affected the choice and execution of these subjects.

The epic deeds of gods and heroes, enshrined in the Bible

and the works of Homer, were the primary narratives for
quite a few works. Their ideology was rooted in the study of
the idealized human form as envisioned in classical art.They
were persuasive and powerful paintings from carefully
delineated anatomy, expressive faces, and convincing
architectural and landscape settings .
The anger of achilles
The Anger of Achilles

Hémicycle

This hémicycle depicts those painters, architects, sculptors and engravers considered by
Delaroche and his contemporaries to be the greatest in history. The figures wear clothing
of their own era, ranging from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. While the
figures are arranged in natural poses, many in conversation, they are also grouped into
formal categories. It incorporates a frieze of figures from the worlds of painting,
sculpture, architecture and music may have been influenced by Delaroche’s mural.
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 AN ARCHITECT OF THE STYLE - RICHARD MORRIS HUNT

Richard Morris Hunt, (born October 31, 1827,

Brattleboro, Vermont, U.S.—died July 31, 1895,
Newport, Rhode Island), architect who established
in the United States the manner and traditions of
the French Beaux-Arts (Second Empire) style. He
was instrumental in establishing standards for
professional architecture and building in the
United States; he took a prominent part in the
founding of the American Institute of Architects
and from 1888 to 1891 was its third president.

In 1846, he became the first American to enter the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris - the
finest school of architecture in the world . Greatly influenced by his Parisian architectural
training, as well as the established design styles of Europe - notably Renaissance art -
Hunt became a champion of the Beaux-Arts idiom in America. Over the next decades, in
addition to a range of public and private commercial buildings, Hunt established a new
style in ostentatious architecture for the grand mansions of the era's eccentric
billionaires.

His works include the Fogg Museum of Art at Harvard, and the Scroll and Key Building
(1869) at Yale University, New Haven , In New York the Lenox Library (1877), two
iron-front stores (1872-74), the Tribune Building (1876) etc.

Scroll and Key Building

Lenox Library The Tribune Building

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 A CASE STUDY - MANSION HOUSE BY RICHARD MORRIS

Marble House, a Gilded Age mansion

located at 596 Bellevue Avenue in
Newport, Rhode Island, was built from
1888 to 1892 as a summer cottage for
Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt and
was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in
the Beaux Arts style.The house was
added to the National Register of
Historic Places in 1971 and was
designated a National Historic
Landmark in 2006. It is now open to the
public as a museum run by the Newport
Preservation Society.

ARCHITECTURE

● Marble House, one of the earliest

examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in
the United States, is loosely inspired by
the Petit Trianon at the Palace of
Versailles.
● The facade of the mansion features bays
that are defined by two story Corinthian
pilasters. These frame arched windows on
the ground floor and rectangular ones on
the second on most of the facade.
● A curved marble carriage ramp, fronted
by a semi-circular fountain with grotesque
masks, spans the entire western facade.
The masks serve as water spouts. The
center of this facade, facing Bellevue
Avenue, features a monumental tetrastyle
Corinthian portico.
● The north and south facades match the
western in basic design.
● The eastern facade, facing the Atlantic
Ocean, is divided into a wing on each
side. These wings semi-enclose a marble
terrace and are surrounded by a marble
balustrade on the ground floor level. The
inset central portion of this facade differs
from the others, with four bays of ground
floor doors topped by second floor arched
windows.

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● Various types and colors of marble were included in the design of the interior
such as yellow Italian marble in the hall and deep pink marble from Western
Algeria in the dining room.
● The ballroom is a Luis XIV French motif. The walls are covered with gold leaf,
crystal lights, gold leaf mirrors and a rich ceiling decoration. The gold
chandeliers are fitted for both gas and electricity. The ceiling is decorated with
stucco relief panels.
● The dining room was inspired by the interiors of Versailles in France. Large
portraits of French royalty adorn the walls of black and pink marble. The chairs
are gilded bronze carved covered with metallic thread on velvet.
● The kitchen in the basement contains a twenty five-foot long coal burning stove,
soapstone sinks and built-in ice boxes. Food was brought up to the dining room
by a dumbwaiter.

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