THE STYLE OF LOUIS XVI. 



433 



the four angles of the block behind the theatre at Bordeaux, one of 

 which is used as the Prefecture. The designs for house fronts by 

 Neufforge, reproduced in Figs. 395 and 408, are typical of the period. 



HOTELS OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL TENDENCY. In most of the 

 houses hitherto referred to and these are representative of the mass 

 of pre-Revolutionary work there is no definite break with tradition. 

 Boullee's Hotel de Brunoy (Fig. 410) (1772) seems to have been the 

 first to inaugurate the reign of archaeology. Its front towards the 

 court, which has several storeys, is ordinary enough, but the garden front 

 is transformed into a temple of Flora. On a high flight of steps stands 

 a hexastyle Ionic portico crowned by a stepped pyramid with the 

 statue of the goddess at the apex. On this side the house appears to 

 have but a single floor, and the portico, running up much higher than 

 the only visible storey, seems inexplicable. 



HOTEL DE SALM. This type of design soon became fashionable. 

 It was imitated, for example, by Boullee's pupil, Alexandre Brongniart 

 (1739-1813), in his Hotel St Foix, Rue Basse du Rempart. Often, 

 however, common-sense prevailed, and the porticoes and colonnades 

 were so contrived as to allow the internal arrangements of the house 

 to tell their own tale. One of the best examples of the type of house 

 fashionable in the last years before the Revolution is the Hotel de Salm 

 (1782-6), now Palais de la Legion d'Honneur, designed by Pierre 

 Rousseau (born 1750 died after 1791), and finished by A. F. Peyre 

 (1739-1828). It is a near neighbour to the Palais Bourbon built sixty 



414. PARIS: HOTEL THELUSSON (NOW DESTROYED), BY LEDOUX (1780). 

 FROM KRAFFT. 



