{{Short description|French painter and architect (1743–1804)}} thumb|225px|Louis Jean Desprez; posthumous lithograph by Henrik Wallgren (1795-1857), after a work done from life.thumb|''Illumination de la Croix de Saint Pierre à Rome'' '''Louis Jean Desprez''' (occasionally but incorrectly ''Jean Louis Desprez'') (28 May 1743&ndash;18 March 1804) was a French painter and architect who worked in Sweden during the last twenty years of his life.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.artic.edu/artists/40547/louis-jean-desprez |title= Louis Jean Despree|publisher= Art Institute of Chicago|accessdate=April 1, 2019}}</ref> <ref name=ljd>{{cite web|url= https://www.fondationcustodia.fr/25-Louis-Jean-Desprez-307|title = Louis Jean Desprez (Auxerre 1743 – 1804 Stockholm) |website= Fondation Custodia |date = 13 February 2018 |access-date=April 1, 2020}}</ref> <ref name=sbl>{{cite web|url= https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=17496 |title= Louis Jean Desprez|publisher= Svenskt biografiskt lexikon |author= Nils G. Wollin |accessdate=April 1, 2019}}</ref>

==Biography== Desprez, who was born in Auxerre in Bourgogne, France. He studied architecture and was awarded the Great Prize of the Académie royale d'architecture in 1776. He lived in Italy from 1777 to 1784 and was associated with Piranesi in Rome. He came to the attention of King Gustav III of Sweden, who offered him a two-year contract as director of scenic decorations at the new Stockholm Opera founded by the King two years earlier. His first task there was the decorations for the new opera ''Gustaf Wasa'' (with a libretto authored by the King in collaboration with Johan Henric Kellgren and music by Johann Gottlieb Naumann).<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336111 |title= Louis Jean Desprez, French |publisher= The Metropolitan Museum of Art|accessdate=April 1, 2019}}</ref> <ref>{{cite web|url= http://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:224094/FULLTEXT01|title= On the Stage Painting of Louis Jean Desprez and the National Project of Gustaf III |publisher= Linköpings Universitet |accessdate=April 1, 2019}}</ref> <ref name="ljd"/>

As an architect, Desprez designed in a monumental, neoclassical style influenced by his study of Greek and Roman ruins in the south of Italy and in Sicily. A good example of this is Hämeenlinna Church in Finland - Finland at that time still being part of the Swedish kingdom - completed in 1799. His greatest project was one never realized: the magnificent new palace planned by the King for the Haga Park outside Stockholm, the Haga Great Palace. Because of lack of money, only the foundations were ever built and the project was abandoned after the assassination of the King. The smaller "royal pavilion" which stands at Haga was built by architect, Olof Tempelman.<ref name="ljd"/> <ref name="sbl"/><ref>{{cite web|url= https://runeberg.org/nfch/0434.html|title =Tempelman, Olof Samuel |website= Nordisk familjebok |access-date=April 1, 2020}}</ref>

His most significant completed project was the conservatory building in the new botanical garden in Uppsala, inaugurated after his death on May 13, 1807, the 100th anniversary of Linnaeus's birth. He also built the Villa Frescati in 1791-92 for Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, after which the whole Frescati area in Stockholm later was named. <ref>{{cite web|url= https://runeberg.org/sbh/desprjea.html |title= Jean-Louis Desprez|author= Herman Hofberg |publisher= Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon|date= 1906 |access-date=April 1, 2019}}</ref> <ref name="ljd"/> <ref name="sbl"/>

==Selected works== <gallery mode=packed heights=145> File:Hämeenlinna Church.jpg| Hämeenlinna Church File:Kupferzelt Hagapark.jpg| Copper Tent at Haga Park File:Uppsala Botanical Garden in winter.jpg| Conservatory in the Botanical Garden, Uppsala File:Déjeunersalongen Drottningholms slottsteater.JPG|Déjeuner Salon at Drottningholm Castle Theater </gallery>

== See also == * Obelisk at Slottsbacken

==References== {{reflist}}

==Sources== {{commons category|Louis Jean Desprez}} *''[https://runeberg.org/nfbf/0134.html Nordisk familjebok]'' * Richard Godfrey ''Louis-Jean Desprez'' (Print Quarterly Vol. 3, No. 3, September 1986, pp.&nbsp;238–240

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Desprez, Louis Jean}} Category:1743 births Category:1804 deaths Category:18th-century French architects Category:18th-century French male artists Category:18th-century French painters Category:18th-century Swedish architects Category:18th-century Swedish male artists Category:18th-century Swedish painters Category:French emigrants to Sweden Category:French male painters Category:French neoclassical architects Category:French neoclassical painters Category:People from Auxerre Category:Prix de Rome for architecture Category:Swedish male painters Category:Swedish people of French descent