The greatest French garden and landscape designer. Andre Le Notre followed his father as head gardener at the Jardin des Tuilleries in Paris and also studied fine art in Paris. The parks which Le Notre designed at Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles are the supreme examples of the French seventeenth century style of garden design. Le Notre also projected the central axis of the Tuileries, which became the grand axis of Paris running to the Arc de Triomphe and La Defense. The designer enjoyed a warm relationship with his patron Louis XIV. Both were men of taste with a passion for gardens and architecture. The baroque style of garden design, which they brought to a crescendo, became widely influential in Europe and beyond the wider world. Every prince and potentate dreamed of owning a garden which would 'outshine Versailles'. This ambition resulted in vast works, though few were executed with a fraction of Le Notre's excellent design judgement. [see Gothein on Le Notre]
Gardens designed by Le Notre, Andre
