Type of Document Master's Thesis Author Bowers, Paige Author's Email Address paige@paigebowers.com URN etd-06042012-104004 Title Building the Big Chief: Charles Garnier and the Paris of His Time Degree Master of Arts (M.A.) Department History Advisory Committee
Advisor Name Title Martin, Benjamin Committee Chair Lindenfeld, David Committee Member Marchand, Suzanne Committee Member Keywords
- Garnier
- Bourbon Restoration
- July Monarchy
- Second Empire
- France
- bourgeoisie
- Paris Opera House
- Reconstruction of Paris
- Prix de Rome
Date of Defense 2012-05-15 Availability unrestricted Abstract The Paris Opera House, or Palais Garnier, is known as the backdrop forthe Broadway musical Phantom of the Opera, which has been seen by more
than 100 million people worldwide since its debut a quarter-century
ago. Outside of France, more people know about the fictional phantom
Erik and his white mask than they do Charles Garnier, the building’s
real life architect. Based on substantial archival research at
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra
and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, this study presents
a rare biographical portrait of Garnier, whose rags-to-riches tale was
emblematic of a nineteenth-century Paris where opportunities abounded
for men of talent and drive.
Born the son of a blacksmith, Garnier was too sickly to follow in his
father’s professional footsteps. He took advantage of new educational
opportunities that taught him first how to read and write, then to
draw, then to be an architect. The award of a Prix de Rome in 1848
granted him five years to study, sketch and travel throughout Italy,
Greece and Turkey. Away from Paris, he stoked his ambitions, refined
his sensibilities and gained an appreciation for classical buildings
and art. Sifting through rubble with his bare hands at the Temple of
Aegina, the power of ancients seized his imagination. On his return to
Paris, his newly developed expertise enabled him to win the commission
to build the new Opera house which Napoleon III wanted to be the crown
jewel of his refurbished and modernized Paris. Garnier needed thirteen
years to complete the work, but when it was done, it stood
magnificent. Born in obscurity and poverty, Garnier was now wealthy
and the most famous architect in Europe.
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