The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-07-29
THE ARCHITECT OF
THE CATHEDRALS
AN APPRECIATION OF Mr.. MAS
H QUERAY BY "THE BUILDER"
OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

# OF LONDON, ENGLAND.
Mr. Emmanuel Louis Masqueray was
born at Dieppe, Normandy, in the year
1862 A few years later his family
moved to Rouen, where he received
his first impressions of the beautiful
in architecture from such master
pieces as the Cathedral St. Ouen, St.
Maclou, the Palais de Justice, Hotel
de Vile, and the numerous other fine
things with which the ancient capital
of the Normans abounds. From Rou-
en- Masqueray was taken to Paris
when twelve years of age, and four
years later entered as pupil at the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts. At first he
studied under Charles Loisne, but lat
er, when Mr. Loisne retired from &C
tive work, he became a pupil of Leon
Ginain, the architect of the fine library
Of the Ecole de Medicine in Paris.
AS a student Masqueray quickly
made reputation among his young
comrades at the Ecole, and is still re-
membered in Paris as brilliant artist
who ought to have taken the Grand
Prix de Rome. But the great prize did
not dazzle him nor induce him to re-
main at the school longer than he
thought was necessary. At the age of
eighteen years he received from the
Academic des Beaux-Arts the Prix
Deschaume, and year later the Prix
Chaudesaigues. This latter prize en-
abled him to travel and study in Italy.
The Italian architecture of the Renais-
sance aroused his enthusiasm, and he
set to work measuring and drawing
such examples as the then little known
Castle of Urbino, the drawings of
which gained him a medal of the first
class at the Salon of 1883.
In the succeeding Salons of 1884 and
1885 he exhibited some remarkably
fine drawings of the tomb of Cardinal
Phocas in the Church of Santa Maria
Gel Popolo at Rome, and the Chateau
de Rambures in Picardy. The latter
structure, which was commenced in
the XIth century, but not completed
until the XVIII, is considered one of
the most complete examples of the
military architecture of the Middle
Ages. 1t lies between Longpre and LIE
Treport The drawings were purchased
by the Minister of Fine Arts for the
Commission des Monuments Histori-
ques. His restorations of the Palais
de la Cour des Aides at Rouen and
drawings of Amiens Cathedral, exhib-
tied at later Salon, led to his ap-
pointment to the Commission des Mon
uments.
A desire to see America induced him
to accept an invitation from friends
in New York to go to the American
metropolis. He at first became an
assistant in the Office of the then bud
ding firm of Carrere & Hastings, and
later accepted a position with Richard
Morris Hunt, to whom he became chief
assistant.
After Hunts death Masqueray re-
mained with his son, Richard Howland
Hunt, for few years, and then Joined
Messrs. Warren & Wetmore, with
whom he worked until his appoint
ment as Chief of Design, in 1901, of
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
While acting as assistant to Hunt
Masqueray's patience became exhaust
ed with the types of assistants which
he was able to procure-the products
of Office training only or of the Ameri-
can colleges. He resolved to establish
an atelier in which to train young men
ox, %1A nF hn 6nc
Arts. The idea was warmly approved
by Hunt, who had once himself es-
sayed the task in a very restricted
sense. (Hunt had confined his atelier
to the instruction of his own assist
ants-Post, Ware, Van Brunt, and
others-after Office hours.) 1t was
furthered by Mr.. John M. Carrere, a
former camarade OF Masqueray in the
Atelier Ginain at Paris, who under
took the organization of the Society of
Beaux-Arts Architects-an alumnus of
the French School-and of other ate
liers to create inter-atelier emulation
and establish the French system of
training by means of competitions. To
Mr.. Masqueray, therefore, is due the
credit of founding, in the year 1893, the
modern system of architectural train
ing which is practically universal
throughout the United States.
The competitions of the Society of
Beaux-Arts Architects are participated
in by the pupils of all the leading Uni
Yersities who are also members of
sateliers.' The winners of the So
ciety's Paris Prize" are admitted to
the first class in the Ecole des Beaux-
Arts at Paris, where they rival the
strongest French students, and it is
not too much to predict that in the
course of few years the American
training, founded on the lines laid
down by Mr.. Masqueray, will equal
that of France itself
Arrived in st. Louis (his atelier in
New York, having been organized as a
self-governing institution, found an
0fI1nr qaann+0 hTo nrNfnGanT In Mr.