Pierre-Louis Moreau-Desproux

In Rome, from September 1754 to December 1756, half the customary three years, they were exposed to the ferment of the new neoclassical style and took part, with Marie-Joseph Peyre, in the archaeological excavations of the Baths of Diocletian; their speculative reconstructions of the complex attracted the attention of Piranesi.

On his return to Paris, Moreau-Desproux’s first commission[2] was the fully neoclassical Hôtel de Chavannes near the Porte du Temple, at that time on the outskirts of the city; the house was completed by May 1758 and was demolished in 1846 (Eriksen); it earned a critical analysis from the Abbé Laugier, theoretician of neoclassicism, in his Observations sur l'architecture 1765.

A colossal order of Ionic pilasters distinguished its façade, where the two floors were articulated by a plain banding of Greek key fret.

His official position required that he design and see constructed numerous temporary decorations erected for festive occasions: his designs for the masked ball given for the King and Queen, 23 January 1782, on the occasion of the birth of Monseigneur the Dauphin[4] was engraved by Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune.

[8] Pierre Contant d'Ivry, who worked on the reconstruction of the Palais-Royal at the same time, designed a new facade for the corps de logis on the side facing the garden court, as well as interiors that included a grand staircase at its eastern end.