FONTAINE, PIERRE-FRANcOIS-LEONARD, was born at Pou tole°, department of Seine-et-Oise, Franco, in 1762, and through a life of unusual duration, was associated with many of the chief buildiugs of his country. He has been called the father of the modern French school of architects—though this may refer to his years more than to rela tion of style. He began the study of architecture under Peyre tho younger ; and hero was formed with Charles Percier, one of his fellow students, an intimate friendship, broken only by the death of the latter, and an union of two artists both possessed of great though diverse talent, which largely operated upon architecture, and especially upon its departments, decorative and ornamental art. [Peecree, CHARLES].
In 1785, Fontaine obtained the second grand prize for architecture ; and, in consequence of the high merit of his work, was made a pensioner of the academy which the French maintain at Rome. There, in the course of their architectural studies, the French students select models from the ruins, which they measure and draw, designing the missing portions. Fontaine however undertook to present the restoratiou of the entire city of Rome, as it was in the Limo of the Ciesara. Ilis drawings procured him an extraordinary prize of 3000 francs. Soon after his return to France, the revolution commenced. Fontaine, during the most terrible events of that time, passed over to England, and a few yearn elapsed ere he and his friend Percier could be called upon for any practical exemplification of their talent. But during the consulate, the friends were entrusted with the work of restoring the palace of Malmaiaon. Ou attaining the imperial dignity, Napoleou I. conceived some vast projects : he named Fontaine his architect, and required of him the restoration of all the palaces, and the completion of those of the Louvre and Tuileries. He also commanded the erection of the triumphal arch of the Carrousel, and the preparation of plans for a large palace which he proposed to have built for the king of Rome, upon the heights of Chaillot, but which was not completed. Such important works occupied Fontaine and Percier during the whole period of the empire. After the events of 1814 and 1815, Fontaine was named architect to the king, aud he retained that position till the events of 1848. He then declined a similar position under the provisional government, by whom how ever he was made president of the Council of Civil Buildings.
Amongst his chief works during the reigns of Louis XV1II., Charles
X., and Louis-Philippe, may be named the grand staircase of the Louvre, and the halls called after 'Charles X., the funereal chapel of the Rue dAnjou-Saint-Houore, and the complete restoratiou of the Palaia-Royal. For the union of the Louvre and the Tuileries, projects had been prepared from 1800 by the chief French architects. The arch of the Carrousel, by Percier and Fontaine, was commenced iu 1806, and in 1811 the plan of the same architects for the extension of the Louvre having been approved of, a buildiug 700 feet in length was erected enclosing the Carrousel on the north side. In the reign of Louis XVIII., from 1820 to 1823, the new wing was extended 70 or 80 feet ; but the reign of Louis-Philippe was occupied in other works; aud the original project remained in abeyance till again taken up by the aid of another architect under the present emperor.
Tho manner of Percier and Footaiue was founded upon the study of the antique Roman architecture, of which character of art, the decorative sculpturca of the Are du Carrousel present admirable adaptations. Their work, published in 1812, entitled Recueil do Ddcorations Interiaures,' comprises designs for all kinds of furniture, and fittings for interiors of houses; and, together with their example, had a wide influence upon general taste. This has been since modified by more discursive study of models, especially those of the Renaissance period. Amongst their other publications were—oue illustrative of the chief villas of Rome and its environs; illustrations of the ceremonies at the coronation, and at the marriage of Napoleon ; plan] of the palace for the king of Rome, with plan. of the palaces of foreign sovereign. compared ; and a history of the royal residences. Fontaine was elected a member of the Institute of France in 1811, and at the time of his death wee the senior member.
lie died on the 10th of October 1853, in the ninety-second year of his age. In the later years of his life, ho retired to a secluded quarter of Paris near Pertsla.Chaise, where the remains of his friends Percicr and Bernier reposed; hero he surrounded himself with a collection of works of art, preserved his faculties to the last, and thence was attended to his grave by member* of tho Institute, by artists, and work men of all classes ; the architects of England being represented by Professor Donaldson, who was amongst those who pronounced enlogiums at the grave.