Ermenonville. The history of landscape art.

Ermenonville
One of the first landscape parks in France was Ermenonville, arranged by Marquis Rene Louis de Girardin, who in 1760 bought the viscountcy of Ermenonville and began to arrange a park around the old castle, built under Henry IV. The size of the park is large enough that the structures, of which there are many, do not seem to be piled up, and the terrain is diverse enough that the landscapes change continuously.

The castle stands in the middle of a river valley. Above the castle lies a small irregular lake that falls into the river in a cascade, and below — a river and a large lake, separated by a fairly wide isthmus. There are meadows irrigated by the river, small groves, dense forest, a secluded lake, wooded hills and sandy expanses. Delabord's numerous drawings convey this corner to us in detail. As far as we can judge from them, there were a lot of poetic places in the park, and although Delabord sometimes shows more than you can see, nevertheless there are a lot of beautiful corners in reality. The desert, "La desert", is really quite deserted, especially where the small birch forest turns into wide sandy spaces.

It is hardly possible to preserve in the park the kind of wild lake that Delabord's engraving draws us, and especially if there were a column and a hut on the shore of the lake, where Rousseau liked to visit, who willingly lived in Ermenonville, but on the island, spectacularly planted with poplars, the philosopher was really buried, and the tombstone sarcophagus was made according to the drawing of Yu. Robert.

The Gabrielle Tower, heavy and crowned with a machicolation and a tower placed on the edge, was considered the former abode of the beautiful Gabrielle, the mistress of Henry IV. These two monuments made up the exceptional "wealth" of the park, which was envied by the organizers of all landscape parks. A temple of philosophy, a copy of the Tivoli dedicated to Montaigne, was erected on the hillock, and each of its six columns is dedicated to Newton, Descartes, Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu, and the inscription "Rerum cognoscere causas" is made on the temple itself.

Grave grave of an unknown suicide was probably not enough for Girardin, and therefore he placed the tomb of an unknown suicide in the park and even assured that the woman who caused the unknown suicide to come to the grave to cry. On the bank of the stream was, as if by chance, placed a stone obelisk dedicated to the "singers of the village": Theocritus, Virgil, Gessner and Saint-Lambert.

Ermenonville, according to Carmontel, was the only garden of its kind in France. He was visited by Marie Antoinette, Emperor Joseph II, Gustav III and even Napoleon himself. In reality, the park, of course, is not as beautiful and poetic as Delabord's engravings depict it, but anyone with an artistic imagination can easily find there themes for paintings in the spirit of Ruisdael and even Joseph Vernet. In fact, there are streams under the shade of dense groves, and monuments spread out among the greenery. There are many buildings and monuments there, but not as many as, for example, in Monceau.

Judging by the engravings, the most beautiful building was a brewery (it housed billiards), perfectly placed on the bank of a stream and beautifully planned like Italian houses with a spectacular entrance in the form of dilapidated terraces and a well-placed statue. Engravings by various authors quite consistently convey the charm of this place, and one can believe that at one time Girardin, watching his park, was able to give the plantings the forms necessary for the intended effects. Si vous voulez parier sur le sport, vous pouvez profiter d’un bonus de bienvenue intéressant. Celui-ci est très attractif, puisqu’il vous permet de bénéficier d'un bonus pouvant aller jusqu'à $130. Pour en profiter, il est tout de même nécessaire que vous ayez validé votre identité. Le code promo 1xbet vous pouvez aussi profiter d’un bonus de bienvenue pour les casinos. Ce dernier s’élève à 200% du montant de votre premier dépôt, pour une somme totale de $1,500. Il s’avère donc particulièrement attractif.