Montferrand, Henri-Louis-Auguste-Ricard de
Montferrand, Henri-Louis-Auguste-Ricard de (1786–1858). Russian architect of French birth. He studied in Paris, worked in the office of Percier & Fontaine, then under Vignon on the Madeleine, Paris. Having presented (1814) some architectural drawings to Tsar Nicholas I (reigned 1801–25), he emigrated to Russia in 1816 where he was appointed Court Architect. Among his most important works in St Petersburg may be cited the Lobanov-Rostovsky House (1817–20), St Isaac's Cathedral(1818–58— influenced by Soufflot's Ste-Geneviève, Paris, with an iron-framed dome (c.1841–2) ), the exterior of which was modelled on Wren's dome of St Paul's Cathedral, London), and the Alexander Column (1829–34). The use of iron in the Cathedral was an important precedent for the later dome of the Capitol, Washington, DC, by Walter. Montferrand could turn his hand to Gothic, Russian vernacular, Moorish, and Chinoiserie styles, and designed several interiors of the Winter Palace (e.g. Hall of Peter the Great, Field-Marshals' Hall and Rotunda, and private rooms for the Tsarinas Aleksandra and Mariya—1827 to early 1830s). He published lavish monographs on the Cathedral (1845) and the Column (1836).
Bibliography
Butikov (1980);
G. Hamilton (1983);
Montferrand (1845);
Jane Turner (1996)
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