Fédor Hoffbauer
French, 1839 - 1922
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Féodor Joseph Hubert Hoffbauer, also known as Fédor Joseph Hubert Hoffbauer and Théodore (Theodor) Josef Hubert Hoffbauer, was a German-French architectural painter, illustrator, architect, and architectural historian. He was best known for his pictorial reconstructions of historical views of Paris.
Hoffbauer, the scion of a family from Alsace, was born in Neuss on the Rhine. He came to Paris in 1851 and emigrated there in 1860. In 1873, after the Franco-Prussian War, he became a French citizen. He married Marie Clemence Belloc, who gave birth to Charles Hoffbauer (1875–1957), who later also became a painter. In 1876, Hoffbauer worked as an engraver in Paris, from 1877 as an architect, in 1881 in Meudon, and in 1896 again in Paris.
Hoffbauer showed great interest in building research and the history of urban development in Paris. From 1874 to 1889, he was a member of the Société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Île-de-France, from 1886 to 1900 a member of the Société des amis des monuments parisiens, and from 1888 to 1896 a member of its committee. From 1898 to 1922, he was a member of the Société historique du VIe arrondissement de Paris, which he had co-founded. From 1913 until his death, he was a member of the Commission du Vieux Paris, which was initiated by Paris City Councilor Alfred Lamouroux and founded in 1897 by Prefect Justin de Selves to identify and preserve historic monuments and archaeological finds.
In 1889, he became famous for his dioramas, which were exhibited under the title Diorama de Paris à travers les âges at the Théâtre Marigny on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. He had been developing these views of different phases of Parisian city history since 1875 and published them in various editions under the title Paris à travers les âges. Alongside Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, Hoffbauer's work contributed significantly to raising awareness of Paris' architectural heritage.