Hector Lefuel

Hector-Martin Lefuel (1810 to 1880) was a French architect, best known for his work on the Palais du Louvre, including Napoleon III's expansion of the Louvre and the reconstruction of the Pavillon de Flore. Born in Versailles, he was admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1829, studied there with Jean-Nicolas Huyot, won the Prix de Rome in 1839 and spent 1840 to 1844 at the Villa Medici in Rome. As chief architect of the Chateau de Fontainebleau he designed a Rococo-style theatre in 1853, and after the death of Louis Visconti that year he was placed in charge of completing the Louvre, which opened in August 1857 as one of the showpieces of the Second Empire. His work at the Louvre and the Tuileries became an exemplar of the nascent Second Empire architectural style. He was elected to the Academie des Beaux-Arts in 1855, died in Paris and is buried at Passy Cemetery.