Ermenonville
Ermenonville is a town and
commune 45 kilometers North-East of
Paris, in the
Oise département of
France. Population (1999): 838.
Ermenonville is notable for its park named for
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose tomb designed by the painter
Hubert Robert is on the Isle of Poplars in its lake.
The
garden at Ermenonville was one of the earliest and finest examples of the
English garden (
jardin anglais) in France. The garden at Ermenonville was planned by Count
Louis-René Girardin, friend and final patron to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Girardin's master plan drew its inspiration from Rousseau's novels and philosophy of the nobility of Nature. Rousseau's tomb, in fact, is prominently situated on the
artificial island in the lake at Ermenonville. Louis-René Girardin was probably assisted in the design by the painter
Hubert Robert. Created with care and craft, the garden came to resemble a natural environment, almost a wilderness, appearing untouched by any human intervention. Girardin admired the work of
William Shenstone at
The Leasowes and made a
ferme ornee at Ermenonville. An imitation of Rousseau's Island at Ermenonville was produced in
Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm, Germany.
It was much visited and admired during the early 19th century. The garden at Ermenonville was described by Louis-René's son in 1811 in an elegant tour-book with
aquatint plates that reveal Girardin's love of diverse vistas that capture painterly landscape effects. Enhancing the elegiac mood of these views were the altars and monuments, the 'Rustic Temple', and other details meant to evoke Rousseau's
Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse.
Nearby is Rousseau's 'cabin' in the secluded
désert of Ermenonville.
*
Ermenonville air disaster*
Château d'Ermenonville website*
Ermenonville, Parc Jean-Jacques Rousseau - a Gardens Guide review
