Le Nôtre, André (äNdrā` lənō`trə), 1613–1700, French landscape architect. Lenôtre's first important design, the park of Vaux-le-Vicomte, attracted the attention of Louis XIV, who then entrusted to him the direction of nearly all the royal parks and gardens. He brought to full development that type of spacious formal garden, characterized by extensive unbroken vistas, that so accurately expressed the grandeur of his period. The gardens of the palace of Versailles are his most celebrated work. In 1664 he transformed the palace gardens of the Tuileries. He also designed parks for Saint-Cloud, Marly-le-Roi, Chantilly, Fontainebleau, and Saint-Germain-en-Laye. His principles in garden design dominated throughout Europe until the rise of the English school of informal and naturalistic gardens.

Bibliography

See biography by H. Fox (1962); study by F. H. Hazlehurst (1980).

Le Nôtre, André

(born March 12, 1613, Paris, France—died Sept. 15, 1700, Paris) French landscape architect. In 1637 he succeeded his father as master gardener to Louis XIII at the Tuileries Palace in Paris; he redesigned its gardens and extended the main avenue that later became the Champs-Élysées. Louis XIV placed him in charge of planning the gardens at the Palace of Versailles, which Le Nôtre transformed from a muddy swamp to a park of splendid vistas. He designed numerous other parks and gardens in France, including those at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Cloud, and Fontainebleau, and probably St. James's Park in London. His designs later influenced Pierre-Charles L'Enfant.