Jean-Nicolas Huyot

Son of a builder, Huyot attended the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and won the Prix de Rome in 1807.

Following his study in Rome, between 1817 and 1821 Huyot traveled in Asia Minor, Egypt, and Greece. He developed significant credentials as an antiquarian. He was part of the Cléopâtra expedition under Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste de Forbin in 1817, and Huyot sent to Jean-François Champollion a collection of inscriptions he'd found in the temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel; this contribution was helpful in Champollion's work in deciphering hieroglyphics. Huyot also provided technical archeological assistance to the Fine Arts section of the French scientific Morea expedition into Greece in 1823.

In 1822 Huyot was elected a member of the Academy of Fine Arts of the Institut de France. Among his architectural students were Hector Lefuel, Alexis Paccard, Jean-Louis Victor Grisart, Jean-Charles Danjoy and the Swiss architect Melchior Berri.

Beginning in 1823 Huyot began presenting lectures in classical architectural history at the École des Beaux-Arts, lectures that influenced a group of self-stylized "romantic" architectural students including Félix Duban, Henri Labrouste, Léon Vaudoyer and Louis Duc. This group in turn was influential in establishing neo-Classicism as a style in mid-19th Century France.

At his death he bequeathed to the National Library a large collection of drawings and plans. He was buried in the cemetery of Père-Lachaise (8th division).

• Dictionnaire historique du cimetière du Père-Lachaise XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, Domenico Gabrielli, Édition de l'Amateur, 2002
• Louis du Chalard & Antoine Gautier, « Les panoramas orientaux du peintre Pierre Prévost (1764-1823) », in Orients, Bulletin de l'association des anciens élèves et amis des langues orientales, juin 2010, p. 85-108.