Façade of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, elevation view, 12th study (Projet architecture, théâtre des Champs-Elysées)

In January 1910, Gabriel Thomas Bourdelle (the primary sponsor of Hercules the Archer) asked Bourdelle to work on the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. 
Tasked with creating the theatre's sculpted decoration, Bourdelle soon took on the role of architect and proved to be a formidable project manager. In December 1910, at Gabriel Thomas’s request, he redesigned the façade for the first time, changing the plans by the architect Henry van de Velde (1863–1957), which were considered to be “too Germanic”. 
In early 1911, the Perret brothers, Auguste (1874–1956) and Gustave (1876–1952), were asked to be the contractors for the building shell. They proposed a bolder plan, based on a reinforced concrete structure. Henry van de Velde was taken off the project completely. On 20 June 1911, Auguste Perret presented a model of a partly blind, reinforced concrete façade clad in marble. It was rejected by the theatre's board of directors. Once again, Gabriel Thomas called on Bourdelle for help. 
In three weeks and thirteen sketches, he reworked the project. This twelfth study, created using a T-square and a set square, and rendered in gouache, proved the sculptor's innate ability to “conceive everything as a monument”. Perret's horizontal approach was abandoned in favour of a vertical rhythm, punctuated by high bays. 
The design of the high-relief decorations on the frieze does not yet reflect Bourdelle's final choices. But the figures in these metopes already follow the lines of the architecture. No protrusion or shadow “offends the smooth wall”, nor masks the basic frame. 
Thus the Temple of Music is also a Greek temple – a modern interpretation of the Parthenon.

Jérôme Godeau