Parterre met broderiemotieven 1670 - 1680

André Le Nôtre made this print, "Parterre met broderiemotieven", sometime in the 17th century, using etching and perhaps engraving. The relatively unmodulated lines speak to these processes. But Le Nôtre was not only a printmaker. He was principally a garden designer. This print shows a design for a parterre, a kind of formal garden, popular in France at the time. What we see rendered in ink would have been realized in meticulously arranged plantings. Think of the amount of labor involved in creating these spaces: armies of gardeners clipping hedges, raking gravel, and generally maintaining these elaborate designs. The very wealthy, of course, could command the labor required to bring such a vision to life. This print offers us an important reminder: even the most seemingly natural landscapes are often the product of intensive artifice. The rigid formality evident here speaks volumes about the social order that such gardens were meant to reflect. They are not only beautiful, but also statements of power.