Published to mark the 400th anniversary of his birth, André Le Nôtre in Perspective celebrates the life and legacy of France’s famous royal gardener through an exploration of his achievements as a designer, engineer and collector of fine art. Containing forty essays written by academics, curators, landscape architects, gardeners and hydraulic engineers, the book provides fresh insights into Le Nôtre’s extraordinary genius and enduring influence on landscape and garden design. The essays consider, in parallel, Le Nôtre’s position in society, the material conditions in which his art and work developed and the role his work played in shaping the design profession. It is divided into three sections; Le Nôtre and His Times, Le Nôtre’s Art and Work and Elsewhere and After. 
Impeccably researched and lavishly illustrated, André Le Nôtre in Perspective, is a work of art, in and of itself, combining scholarship with exquisite illustrations, photographs and plans as well as designs and drawings from Le Nôtre’s notebooks. The essays present new research culled from documents unavailable in previous studies and provide a fresh perspective on Le Nôtre’s origins, family relations, social standing and clientele, reducing the aura of mystery surrounding the “famous and obscure” gardener to King Louis XIV. Le Nôtre’s multi-faceted relationship with Louis XIV is explored within the context of his role as architect of the king’s gardens, a responsibility that included providing designs for all of the royal establishments. For forty-three years Le Nôtre served as Contrôleur general, overseeing finances for construction projects and monitoring their progress. However, he maintained his passion for horticulture and never “were the spade and the rake completely replaced by the ledger and the pen”. 
While André Le Nôtre in Perspective pays homage to Versailles, it fully explores other facets of his work, including that at the Tuileries Gardens (seen above), where recent historical and archaeological research have revealed his skill as a “master craftsman working in soil”. Chapters are devoted to individual elements of his designs, including vistas, sculptures, hydraulics, parterres, trees and groves, and each is placed within its historical context.
The formal French garden, as defined through Le Nôtre’s vision, has been extensively copied and adapted and is at once both historic and modern. While vilified by proponents of the picturesque, his work inspired the avant garde, providing inspiration for twentieth and twenty-first century designers as diverse as Fletcher Steele and Le Corbusier. Versailles, Marly and the Champs- Elysees were the spatial models used by L’Enfant when he designed Washington, DC in 1791. In Landscapes of Clarity – Dan Kiley’s Modernist Origins in Seventeenth Century France, a recent post written by Charles Birnbaum, President of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, Le Nôtre’s influence on the landscape architect Dan Kiley was revealed in a 1982 lecture at the University of Virginia, when he shared, “the person who inspired me the most is Le Nôtre.”
Vaux-le-Vicomte: 17th Century Engraving
This is not a book to be taken lightly. With a shipping weight of 6.6 pounds, it contains 440 pages, 180 color images and 170 black-&-white illustrations (all of the highest quality). Despite its heft, André Le Nôtre in Perspective will not languish on your bookshelf (dusty or not) but will instead be read and reread, a rare treat to savor.
André Le Nôtre in Perspective
Edited by Patricia Bouchenot-Déchin and Georges Farhat
Editions Hazan: 2013
This review appeared in Leaflet: A Massachusetts Horticultural Society Publication, September, 2014.
Copyright © 2014 Patrice Todisco — All Rights Reserved
Thanks for the insightful review.
You are totally welcome. It really is a terrific guide to his work and a wonderful reference.