Alphonse de Gisors

[1] He was born in Paris, where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts with Charles Percier and his uncle Guy de Gisors, who helped him obtain a position with the Bâtiments Civils in 1822.

[1] Early in his career he used the classical style of Percier, designing fire stations, theatres, town halls, and other public buildings in Paris and the provinces.

[3] In 1840 he rebuilt the street facade of the chapel of the former Convent of the Daughters of Calvary (founded in 1622 by Marie de Médicis), one of the remnants incorporated into the west wing of the Petit Luxembourg.

[1][5] In the 1850s he joined a first-floor suite of rooms in the Luxembourg Palace on the courtyard side of the original corps de logis, creating the highly ornate Salle des Conférences.

Inspired by the Galerie d'Apollon of the Louvre, it influenced the nature of subsequent official interiors of the Second Empire, including those of the Palais Garnier.