Lequeu prepared this design for a temple in the former aristocratic garden adjacent to the Paris mansion of banker Nicolas Beaujon (now the Élysée Palace) in 1794. He had joined the Popular and Republican Society of the Arts that year, and members were required to demonstrate a refined form of patriotism—likely the reason Lequeu dedicated the temple to Equality. Lequeu adapted the spherical structure from a model popularized by Antoine Laurent Thomas Vaudoyer’s 1782 design for a globular house.
Jean-Jacques Lequeu (1757–1826)
Design for a Temple of Equality, 1794
Pen and black ink, gray wash, watercolor
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Departement des Estampes et de la photographie