Richard Mique (French pronunciation:[ʁiʃaːʁmik]) (18 September 1728 – 8 July 1794) was aNeoclassical French architect born inLorraine. He is most remembered for his picturesque hamlet, thehameau de la Reine — not particularly characteristic of his working style — built forMarie Antoinette, Queen of France and Navarre in thePetit Trianon gardens within the estate of thePalace of Versailles.
Richard Mique was born inNancy as the son of Simon Mique, an architect and entrepreneur ofLunéville and grandson of Pierre Mique, also an architect. Following their example,[1] he became an architect in the service ofStanisław Leszczyński, the deposed King of Poland and father ofMarie Leszczyńska, the wife ofLouis XV. Following the death ofEmmanuel Héré de Corny, Mique participated aspremier architecte in Stanisław's grand plans for reordering and embellishing Nancy, his capital as Duke of Lorraine. Stanisław made him achevalier of theordre de Saint-Michel and manoeuvred unsuccessfully to have Mique placed on the payroll of theBâtiments du roi.[2] Following his patron's death in February 1766, Mique was called to France the following October, at the suggestion ofMarie Leszczyńska's Polish confessor. His official career in France was initially stymied by the influence ofAnge-Jacques Gabriel,Premier architecte du Roi. His main clients were a series of royal ladies. ForMarie Leszczyńska he built a convent, prominently sited in the town ofVersailles, on lands at the edge of the park belonging formerly toMadame de Montespan'schâteau de Clagny, of which eleven hectares were consigned to the Queen by her husband,Louis XV. At the queen's death, her daughterMadame Adélaïde completed the project.
Mique must have gained the confidence of the Dauphin and the Dauphine for, upon the accession of the Dauphin asLouis XVI in 1774, he was appointedintendant et contrôleur général des Bâtiments du Roi; he succeeded Gabriel asPremier architecte toLouis XVI the following year, thus overseeing the last works carried out at Versailles before theFrench Revolution. He purchased aseigneurie in Lorraine, which completed his transformation to courtier-architect.
He laid out the Queen's garden at the Petit Trianon from 1774 to 1785 perhaps in collaboration with the painterHubert Robert. The design was based on sketches by the comte de Caraman, an inspired amateur of gardening. Mique was also responsible for thehameau de la Reine, a village with a functioning farm built around an artificial lake at the northeastern corner of the estate.[3]
During the Revolution, he was arrested along with his son as participants in a conspiracy to save the life of the Queen, Marie Antoinette, whose favorite architect he had been. He was brought before a revolutionary tribunal and, after a summary trial on 7 July 1794, both father and son were condemned to death and murdered at the guillotine the following day. This was just three weeks before the fall ofRobespierre and the end of theReign of Terror.
Pierre de Nolhac, the historian of thechâteau de Versailles, inLe Trianon de Marie-Antoinette (1914), found Mique to have been 'un artiste savant, habile, et digne de plus de gloire'[4] A street in the town of Versailles commemorates his name.
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