Jean-Esprit Isnard

Jean-Esprit Isnard was born in 1707.[1] He was baptised in the Église Saint-Laurent in Bédarrides.[1] He learned how to build pipe organs in Toulouse.[1]

His brother, Joseph Isnard, was also a renowned pipe organ builder, as was his nephew Jean-Baptiste Isnard.[1]

He became a renowned builder of pipe organs.[2] Many of his pipe organs can be found in Roman Catholic churches in Provence. In 1742, as a lay brother, he restored the pipe organ inside the Église Sainte-Marthe in Tarascon.[1] The following year, in 1743, he built the pipe organ inside the Église de la Madeleine in Aix-en-Provence.[3] He went on to build the pipe organs inside the Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur, also in Aix.[1] In Marseille, he built the organ inside the Église Saint-Cannat in 1747.[1][4] In, together with his brother Joseph Isnard, he built the pipe organ inside the Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume from 1772 to 1774.[1][5][6][7][8]

Additionally, he taught Jean-Pierre Cavaillé, the father of Dominique Cavaillé-Coll and grandfather of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811-1899), how to build pipe organs.[1]

He died in 1781 in Tarascon, where he is buried.[1]