SUYS, Tilman-François

Belgian architect who also worked in the Netherlands. He completed his architectural education in Paris, where he studied under Charles Percier and won the Prix de RomeGLOSSARYA scholarship, founded concurrently with the French Academy in Rome (1666), that enabled prize-winning students at the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris to spend a period (usually 4 years) in Rome at the state's expense. Prizes for architecture began to be awarded regularly in 1723, and prizes for engravers and musicians were added in the 19th century. The prizes were meant to perpetuate the academic tradition and during the 18th and 19th centuries winning the award was the traditional stepping stone to the highest honours for painters and sculptors. Many distinguished artists (as well as many nonentities) were Prix de Rome winners, notably David, Fragonard, and Ingres among painters and Clodion, Girardon, and Houdon among sculptors. The prizes are still awarded and the system has been adopted by other countries. in 1812. During his stay in Rome he became a protégé of King William I of the Netherlands. In 1817 he settled in Amsterdam and worked as an architect for the Dutch Crown. In this period his style shows the marks of the Empire styleGLOSSARYMajor phase of Neoclassical art that flourished in France during the time of the First Empire (1804-14). The Empire style was encouraged by Napoleon's desire for a style inspired by the grandeur of ancient Egypt and imperial Rome. In architecture it was exemplified by such Parisian buildings and monuments as the Church of the Madeleine by Pierre-Alexandre Vignon, Jean Chalgrin's Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, and Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine's Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and Vendôme Column; in painting, by Jacques-Louis David's Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I and Coronation of the Empress Josephine and Baron Antoine Gros's battle scenes; and in sculpture, by Antonio Canova's heroic statues of Napoleon and his family. created for Napoleon by his teacher Charles Percier and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine.

From 1825 onwards, Suys was employed on a series of royal commissions in Brussels. Important creations in Brussels include the great conservatory of the Botanical Garden of Brussels, which is noted for its innovative use of iron and glass construction, and the Royal Palace.

After the Belgian Revolution which established Belgium's independence from the Netherlands, Suys remained in Brussels. He devoted himself mainly to the restoration of the new nation's historic monuments. Some of these projects, especially his Gothic RevivalGLOSSARYArchitectural style that drew its inspiration from medieval architecture and competed with the Neoclassical revivals in the United States and Great Britain. Only isolated examples of the style are to be found on the Continent. The earliest documented example of the revived use of Gothic architectural elements is Strawberry Hill, the home of the English writer Horace Walpole. As in many of the early Gothic Revival buildings, the Gothic was used here for its picturesque and romantic qualities without regard for its structural possibilities or original function. Another early example of the tendency toward ornamentation and decoration was Fonthill Abbey, designed by James Wyatt, a country house with a tower 82 metres high. Nothing could more clearly illustrate both the impracticality of usage and the romantic associations with medieval life. The earliest manifestations of an interest in the medieval era were in the private domain, but by the 1820s public buildings in England were also being designed in the Gothic mode. Perhaps no example is more familiar than the new Houses of Parliament (1840), designed by Sir Charles Barry and A.W.N. Pugin. In that large cluster of buildings, the haphazard picturesque quality of the early revival was replaced by a more conscientious adaptation of the medieval English style. Other structures built around mid-century were within this basic pattern. Later, the desire for more elegant and sumptuous landmarks created the last flowering of the style. restorations, were not historically accurate, and were later harshly criticized. Suys was also engaged in urban-scale projects, notably the project for the Leopold Quarter (Quartier Léopold), commissioned to him in the 1830s and carried out in the following years.

Suys continued to carry out commissions in the Netherlands after the revolution such as the Roman Catholic, Mozes and Aaron Church in Amsterdam built between 1831 and 1847.

From 1835 to 1861 Suys was a professor at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where he taught almost every important Belgian architect of the younger generation. Through his teaching he deeply influenced later Belgian architecture in both the Neoclassical and the eclectic or revivalist styles.

Tilman-François Suys was the father and teacher of Léon-Pierre Suys who would also play an important role as an architect and urban planner in 19th-century Belgium.