(b Cosne, Nièvre, 27 Dec 1851; d Paris, 1932). French architect and writer. He trained in the studio of Honoré Daumet, whom he much admired, at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, where he won numerous awards. Having been placed second in the competition for the Prix de Rome in 1879, he was successful the following year with a project for a ‘home for sick and infirm children’. His originality was already apparent in his first major commission after his return from Rome, the Palais de l’Hygiène (destr.) at the Exposition Universelle, Paris, of 1889. His building was in an academic style reminiscent of ancient Rome and based directly on the exercises in imaginary reconstruction that were required of Prix de Rome winners. Girault thus proclaimed his suitability for undertaking grands projets. In 1896 he built a crypt at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, to receive the ashes of the famous scientist Louis Pasteur. He modelled it on the 5th-century Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna and adorned it with marble and mosaics.

• Girault, Charles-Louis
  • collaboration
    • France, §II, 4(vi): Architecture, c 1814–c 1914: The city-machine
  • patrons and collectors
    • Belgium, §XIV: Museums
  • teachers
    • Daumet, Honoré
  • works
    • Exhibition architecture, §2: France and the USA, 1876–1915
    • France, §XIV, 6: Museum management, late 19th century and 20th
    • Museum, §II, 2: Architecture, 1850–1940
    • Paris, §II, 6(i): Urban development, 1870–1918