Victor Jean-Baptiste Mollet (22 August 1860 – 17 December 1944), usually simplyVictor Mollet, was a Frencharchitect based in Lille. He was the first architect from the Nord–Pas-de-Calais region to receive a degree from theEcole des Beaux-Arts inParis, and became one of the more prominent exponents ofregionalist architecture in northern France at the turn of the twentieth century.
Mollet matriculated first to the localEcole des Beaux-Arts in Lille, where he was a student of Alfred Newnham, before entering the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1884. He studied withLouis-Jules André, and then his successorVictor Laloux, receiving his degree (diplôme) on 22 January 1891.[1][2] That same year, Mollet participated in the Salon des artists français in Paris, exhibiting a country house ("Maison de campagne"), which won an honorable mention in the architecture section.[3]
Mollet began practice in Lille and was the first architect in the regionNord-Pas-de-Calais to have received a diploma from the Ecole in Paris. He also became chief of the architecture studio at the Ecole régionale de Lille.[4]
In 1896, he was designated as the architect in charge of the repairs to thePalais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, then was named the official architect for the structure in 1912.[5][6]
His most famous work is the Villa Saint-Charles inLambersart, just outside Lille, an eclectic, regionalist mansion constructed between 1892 and 1894 for his father, Charles Mollet, a successful master carpenter and entrepreneur in Seclin.[7] Since 2000, the villa has been classified as an official FrenchMonument historique.[8]
In the 1930s, he was commissioned with his son Louis Mollet to construct the atrium of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille.[9] Victor Mollet was very attached to his hometown of Seclin, where he built many houses for rich industrialists such as the Dujardin, Guillemaud, and Duriez families.
He was the brother ofMarie-Virginie Duhem, who was the Doyenne des Français (oldest woman in France) from 1975 to 1978 and the oldest living person on earth for five months.[10]
