Leon Vaudoyer (1803-1872) was, with Felix Duban, Henri Labrouste and Louis Duc, one of the romantic beaux-arts architects who challenged both the authority and the philosophy of the French Academy in the years around 1830. The group's insistence on the relevance of French Medieval and Renaissance architecture to contemporary design has earned them a reputation as prophets of the historicist point of view that has come to be a fundamental theme of progressive ideologies of design well into the 20th-century. This study of the youngest member of the group provides a new interpretation of historicism in 19th century French architecture.