Paul Sédille

Paul Sédille (16 June 1836, Paris – 6 January 1900) was a French architect and theorist; and designed the 1880 reconstruction of the iconic Magasins du Printemps department store in Paris.

Life

Though Sédille is best known for his Printemps design, he was also associated with the Creusot family foundry and was very active in professional associations and architectural education in the 1880s. He wrote a number of compelling pieces of architectural criticism, especially his review of contemporary Viennese and British architecture, and reflected what were by and large Teutonic theoretical concerns that have come to be understood as architectural realism, based on the works of Gottfried Semper.

Directly related to his interest in Semper, Sédille was an advocate of highly-coloured polychrome architecture. His participation in the Universal Expositions of 1878 and 1889 in Paris were demonstration pieces of his approach of integrating colorful terra cotta tilework and structural into the vocabulary of classical, beaux-arts architectural forms.

Sédille made his mark as a private architect executing residential commissions during an age that celebrated heroic, civic works such as the Paris Opéra (1860–1875) by Charles Garnier or the Palais de Justice (Paris, 1857–68) by Joseph-Louis Duc and Honoré Daumet.

Work

renovation of the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, with interior work by sculptor Jules Dalou, Paris, 1880 Basilique du Bois-Chenu, Domrémy-la-Pucelle (origin of Joan of Arc), begun 1881, consecrated 1896 Printemps department store renovation, Paris, with sculptor Henri Chapu, 1883 monument to industrialist Eugène Schneider, with sculptor Henri Chapu