Biografie von Benjamin Henry LATROBE (1764-1820)

Birth place: Fulneck, Yorkshire, England

Death place: New Orleans, LA

Addresses: Came to U.S. in 1796, active in Richmond, VA; Philadelphia; Wash., DC; Baltimore; and New Orleans

Profession: Architect, landscape and topographical painter

Studied: Educated in Germany and studied engineering and architecture in London from 1786 to 1789.

Exhibited: PAFA, 1911-13

Work: LOC; SI; MD Hist. Soc.

Comments: In addition to his well-documented architectural career (among his most notable projects were the Bank of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; the Octagon House, Wash., DC; Baltimore Cathedral; and his appointment as chief architect at the U.S. Capitol), Latrobe was also a topographical artist and a landscape painter. Many of his papers, which include drawings and watercolors, are in the Library of Congress and the Maryland Historical Society. Author: The Journal of Latrobe (1905) and Impressions Respecting New Orleans, edited by Samuel Wilson, Jr. (1951).

Sources: G&W; Talbot Hamlin, Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1955); Edward Carter, The Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1976); DAB; Rutledge, PA.; Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists, 227-28; McMahan, Artists of Washington, D.C.