Pierre Lepautre (engraver)

For the French sculptor, see Pierre Lepautre (sculptor).

Pierre Lepautre or Le Pautre (1652 – 16 November 1716) was a French drawing artist, engraver and architect,^[1] especially known as an ornemaniste, a prolific designer of ornament that presages the coming Rococo style.^[2] He was the son of the designer and engraver Jean Lepautre and nephew of the architect Antoine Lepautre.^[3] His appointment in 1699 as Dessinateur in the Bâtiments du Roi, the official design department of the French monarchy, headed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and later Robert de Cotte in the declining years of Louis XIV, was signalled by the historian of the Rococo, Fiske Kimball, as a starting point in the genesis of the new style.^[2]

Gallo-Roman building named Piliers de Tutelle in Bordeaux (France). Destroyed in 1675. Drawing and map by Claude Perrault (1613-1688), engraved by Pierre Lepautre, 1669