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Signed lower left: "LeBon architect du Roy. Jur.".
This unpublished sheet represents a decorative project for the back of the choir of the church of Saint-Germain-L'auxerrois in Paris. Created by Pierre-Etienne Le Bon, this proposal deploys a refined ornamental grammar that magnifies an iconographic program dedicated to the Resurrection of Christ. The architect deploys an illusionist decor where the different artistic mediums communicate with each other. The central painting, surrounded by Corinthian pilasters and two portraits in profile, shows the empty and open tomb with soldiers on either side. In an ascending and vertical logic, proper to the subject of the Resurrection, Christ appears in an impressive sculpted group that overhangs the whole and magnifies it.
A student of Cartaud, Pierre-Etienne Le Bon seems to have a certain predilection for religious architecture. He was notably employed in Saverne and Strasbourg by Cardinal Armand Gaston Maximilien de Rohan. The latter entrusted him for a time with the direction of the execution of Robert de Cotte's plans for the episcopal and princely palace. Similarly, the architect also worked for the Parisian convent of the Assumption in 1748 where he completed the construction of the cloister with a gallery adjacent to the choir of the church. Grand prix in 1725 for a church plan for a nunnery, Pierre-Etienne Lebon was a boarder in Rome from 1728 to 1731 before being admitted to the Academy in 1741. In addition to his work, this architect plays an important role in the history of art as one of Boullée's first teachers.
Bibliography Michel Gallet, Les Architectes parisiens du XXVIIIème siècle, Paris, éditions Mengès, 1995, 493 p.
