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Le Notre

Name: Andre Le Notre

Nickname/Alias: originally spelled Le Nostre

Achievements:  One of the greatest French landscape architects,  who did  the gardens of Versailles.

Born: March 12, 1613; the Tuileries Gardens, Paris, France

Died: September 15, 1700; Paris, France (Aged 87)

Field & Discipline: Art; Landscape Architecture

Language: French

Father: Jean Le Nostre

Mother: Unknown

Siblings: Unknown

Spouse: Françoise Langlois (m. 1640)

Children: Unknown

Education: Apprenticed to Simon Vouet and Francois Mansart

Major Work:

Gardens at Versailles (1662-85)

Life & Times:

In 1635, at the age of 22, Le Notre was appointed gardener to Gaston, Duc d'Orleans, a post he held until the Duc's death in 1660. Two years later, on his father's retirement in 1637, he was by permission of Louis XIII allowed to inherit the title Premier Jardinier du Roi au Grand Jardin des Tuileries, employed by the king.

In 1640 Le Notre married Françoise Langlais, a daughter of a member of the lesser nobility, and in 1642-44 he was engaged on probably the earliest work for which he was solely responsible, the garden for Dominique Seguier, Bishop of Meaux.

During the late 1640s and early 1650s Le Notre then redesigned the Tuileries gardens, revealing his genius for expansive vistas, continuing the main avenue into what would later be called the Champs-Elysees, as the central axis of Paris.

Le Notre rose to fame with his designs for the grounds at Chateau Vaux le Vicomte near Melun, the country residence of  [worked for] Fouquet*, the Minister of Finance under [worked for] Louis XIV*.   The result was a unified complex of such remarkable visual harmony that it became the wonder of the age, and provided the king with a perfect model for his own future schemes.

Louis XIV was so impressed that in 1661 he engaged Le Notre to modify the royal gardens at Fontainebleau. Here Le Notre dramatically transformed the Grand Jardin du Roi, which at the time was unique in France for its huge scale (310 x 395 metres), in which he created the famous Cascades and the embroidered Grand Parterre, bearing the interwoven initials of Louis and Marie-Therese.

The following year, Le Notre was briefly engaged by [worked for] Charles II* of England to provide plans for Greenwich Park, but was unable to leave France as that year he also received the commission from Louis XIV for the enormous gardens at Versailles, where the grounds covered more than 15,000 acres. The gardens were again laid out on a single axis, this time almost 10 km long, that bisected the chateau and was interrupted at intervals to provide transverse secondary axes or avenues leading to important focal points within the landscape.

Like those of Vaux, the gardens were architectural extensions of the chateau itself, providing the ideal frame for the building, and the endless axes were made pleasing by the visual harmony resulting from the interplay of carefully adjusted proportions and optical refinements, and made interesting by the introduction of surprises, in the form of a great variety of hidden inclines, extensive waterworks including pools, cascades and fountains, pavilions, topiary, grottos, bosquets and sculptures.

For example, from the west parterre to the Grand Canal (built 1667-72), graduated terraces were used to set up a cascade of fountains and pools, fed by a complex haudraulic system, linked by gravity.

The gardens were the pride of Louis XIV, who even took the trouble in 1689 to write in his own hand a visitors' guide to the gardens. As a result, Le Notre became internationally

famous, and his services were in such demand that in the mid-1660s he established a workshop of landscape designers employed as assistants for the refining of his initial plans.

In 1666 he was given the title of 'Conseiller du Roi aux Conseils et Controleur General des Batiments de Sa Majeste', which meant that he was required to inspect all newly constructed buildings. Meanwhile, members of the French royal family were vying with one another for a garden by Le Notre, and between 1665 and 1678 he landscaped the

gardens at Clagny for the royal mistress the Marquise de Montespan, Saint-Cloud, the chateau of Philippe I, Duc d'Orleans, the king's brother, and the 16th-century gardens of the Grand Conde, Louis II of Bourbon (a cousin of Louis XIV) at Chantilly (1663-68) which were, by Le Notre's admission, his favourite creation.

In order to redesign pre-existing gardens where the buildings and sites were often highly irregular, Le Notre's aim was always imaginatively to bring a sense of visual harmony to the entire project.

Along with these demanding projects, Le Notre designed the gardens for the Trianon (1670), the palace at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the chateau of Meudon (1679-82), Colbert's chateau at Sceaux (1673-77), and the Palais Royal (1674), and those of numerous Parisian residences. He was also involved with the smaller gardens at Maintenon (1675-78), Saint-Cyr (1685-87), Gaillon (1691-92) and Les Rochers (1689).

Always seeking new sources of inspiration, Le Notre requested and was granted permission by Louis XIV to make a trip to Rome, Italy in 1679, where he met the sculptor [met] Bernini*.

In 1693 Le Notre retired from royal service with a pension, but practised until 1698, creating gardens at the chateau of Pontchartrain (1691-95).  He left the execution of his plans for the gardens at Windsor Castle, England for [planned gardens for] William of Orange* in 1698 to his nephew, Claude Desgots.

During his lifetime Le Notre had been a great collector of art, and in 1693 he donated a significant part of this collection to Louis XIV. He died a wealthy man, enriched by revenues derived from his real estate holdings, commissions, and pensions.

Although he never wrote his gardening principles down, they were soon recorded in A.J. Dezallier d'Argenville's 'La Theorie et la pratique du jardinage' (1709), while his methods were widely disseminated by his pupils, as far afield as Russia, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, and other parts of Europe, and a century later Pierre-Charles L'Enfant's plan for the U.S. capital at Washington, D.C., was influenced by Le Nôtre's design for the grounds of Versailles.

Extra Connections: Influenced [influenced] Charles Bridgeman*

Assessment: His work on the Versailles gardens marked a major step in the development of landscaping.

Oneliner:  Andre Le Notre,  who designed Versailles gardens

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