"Vous êtes un homme heureux, Le Nôtre" - Louis XIV

André Le Nôtre was born in 1613 the son of the gardener to the French Court and, following his father into the service of the royal family, became one of the most visionary and innovative designers of all time. His creation of the parks and gardens of Vaux Le Vicomte and Versailles, together with numerous others, defined a whole new style and indeed scale of landscape design.
His over-arching visions exploited both the nuances of the topography of the site with the help of the most recent hydraulic technology, as well as employing the latest surveying and engineering skills combined with classical allegory and iconography to create a total work of art – a 'Gesamtkunstwerk'. This encompassed both the architecture of the palace, the gardens as well as being linked to the surrounding landscape by a system of vistas, canals and avenues.
Le Nôtre's works not only perfectly mirrored the social relationships of the period but also provided the dramatic settings for numerous festivities, artistic performances, entertainments and social gatherings. By the time of his death in 1700, Le Nôtre had raised the field of landscape architecture to a new level of maturity and his ideas and approach to landscape architecture had spread across the whole of Europe.
Link: www.lenotre.culture.gouv.fr