Pierre Lepautre (1652–1716)

Pierre Lepautre or Le Pautre (1652 – 16 November 1716) was a French draughtsman, engraver and architect, especially known as an ornemaniste, a prolific designer of ornament that presages the coming Rococo style. He was the son of the designer and engraver Jean Lepautre and nephew of the architect Antoine Lepautre. His appointment in 1699 as Dessinateur in the Bâtiments du Roi, the official design department of the French monarchy, headed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and later Robert de Cotte in the declining years of Louis XIV, was signalled by the historian of the Rococo, Fiske Kimball, as a starting point in the genesis of the new style.