1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nénot, Paul Henri

NÉNOT, PAUL HENRI (1853-), French architect, was born in Paris in 1853, and when only 13 years old, was placed in the studio of M. Lequeux as architectural pupil, coming there under the influence of J. L. Pascal. Thence, when 15, he went to the École des Beaux-Arts, breaking off his studies in 1870, immediately on the outbreak of war with Germany, to enlist in an artillery regiment. Here he gained, as his first distinction, the Military Medal, and at the conclusion of the war, it was with difficulty that his patriotic enthusiasm allowed him to reassume a non-military life. He continued, however, his course at the École des Beaux-Arts, and in 1877 gained the Grand Prix de Rome. During these years he was working in the office of C. Garnier of the Opera House, Paris, and after the winning of the Grand Prix he travelled for a considerable time in Italy, Greece and Egypt. While holding this prize in Rome, he competed for the Victor Emmanuel monument in that city, receiving for his design the premium of 50,000 francs, the work itself being entrusted to an Italian. On his return to France, he entered for the great competition for the rebuilding of the Sorbonne, in which he was successful, and in 1882, despite discussion as to entrusting to so young a man such an important commission, he commenced in 1885 a work that was to occupy him for the next 17 years. He did not, however, undertake it till after a prolonged tour of inspection of the universities of Germany, Austria, Holland and Belgium. The building forms a huge parallelogram of over 900 ft. in length by 325 ft. in width, and its plan is brilliantly conceived, taking as its dictating condition the retention of Richelieu's chapel of the Sorbonne. Throughout the whole of his consideration of the treatment of this, as indeed of his other buildings, Nénot relied steadfastly on the assistance of the sculptor and the painter, and the grand amphitheatre gave him the opportunity he absolutely insisted on of employing for its decoration Puvis de Chavannes, whose mural painting of the “Sacred Grove” is his masterpiece. The hall itself, used as a salle des conferences, is an admirable example of the D-plan carried by a series of alcove recesses to an ultimate development. Nénot's other work gives evidence in equal manner of the tradition he carried forward from the school of which half a century before, Duc, Labrouste and Dubon were the founders and upholders, and shows a similar tendency to breathe fresh and revitalizing inspiration into the vernacular architecture of France. His other buildings, mostly in Paris, include the Institut Océanographique, the offices of the Compagnie Générale and those of the Compagnie Nationale des Wagons-Lits. He received many distinctions, becoming a member of the Institut in 1895, and being later elected president of the Société des Artistes Français. He was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1917.