Charles Percier, French architect and interior decorator (b. 1764)
Charles Percier ([ʃaʁl pɛʁsje]; 22 August 1764 – 5 September 1838) was a neoclassical French architect, interior decorator and designer, who worked in a close partnership with Pierre François Léonard Fontaine, originally his friend from student days. For work undertaken from 1794 onward, trying to ascribe conceptions or details to one or other of them is fruitless; it is impossible to disentangle their cooperative efforts in this fashion. Together, Percier and Fontaine were inventors and major proponents of the rich, grand, consciously-archaeological versions of neoclassicism we recognise as Directoire style and Empire style.
Following Charles Percier's death in 1838, Fontaine designed a tomb in their characteristic style in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. Percier and Fontaine had lived together as well as being colleagues. Fontaine married late in life and after his death in 1853 his body was placed in the same tomb according to his wishes.
1838Sep, 5
Charles Percier
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Events on 1838
- 6Jan
Telegraphy
Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code). - 28Jun
Queen Victoria
Coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. - 18Aug
Puget Sound
The Wilkes Expedition, which would explore the Puget Sound and Antarctica, weighs anchor at Hampton Roads. - 3Sep
Frederick Douglass
Future abolitionist Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery. - 27Oct
Extermination Order (Mormonism)
Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be exterminated.