Parcs et jardins impériaux et aristocratiques en Russie aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles : entre formalité, paysage composé et nature apparemment vierge by Emmanuel DUCAMP – Château de Bénouville

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Parcs et jardins impériaux et aristocratiques en Russie aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles : entre formalité, paysage composé et nature apparemment vierge by Emmanuel DUCAMP – Château de Bénouville

Imperial and aristocratic parks and gardens in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries: from formality and composed landscape to apparently untouched nature

After the foundation of Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great in the early 18th century, Russian gardens were initially influenced by existing formal gardens in Western Europe, equally in the Netherlands as in France, in particular via those designed by Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond. Yet, progressively, and in the same manner as it had abroad, “English landscaped gardens” finally replaced the former, Catherine II declaring at Tsarskoie Selo, “Anglomania governs my plantomania.” For the Russians, just one more step remained to achieve an apparently untouched nature, which they strove to recreate on a national level, as in Pavlovsk, home to the Tsar Paul I. Between Saint Petersburg, Moscow, the Russian provinces and Crimea, great efforts were made to highlight a few illustrious examples, each depicting this same trend, garden pavilion architecture playing an equally important role in a quest for both the picturesque and the romantic.

Emmanuel DUCAMP

photo_emmannuel_ducamp

A Law and History of Art graduate from the University of Paris X, Emmanuel Ducamp was editorial director for Alain de Gourcuff Editeur in Paris from 1992 to 2001. In this capacity, he coordinated the publication of a series of works on Russian architecture, decorative art and art in the 18th and 19th centuries. With Oleg Neverov, curator of the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, he contributed towards the production of Grandes collections de la Russie impériale and directed the publication of Tsarskoïe Selo, a major work on the palace and gardens of this Imperial summer residence. He also published Saint-Pétersbourg, a major reference book on the town and its palaces’ general history and architecture. Since gardens are one of the subjects he cherishes most, Emmanuel Ducamp has for a long time developed an interest in Imperial and aristocratic parks in Russia, of which he has also published a number of watercolours under conservation in Russian museum collections. Professor at the École du Louvre, he regularly gives conferences on Russian or French subjects in England and the United States (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; J.-Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Art, etc.). Member of the Association des Parcs Botaniques de France (Association of French Botanical Parks) and the Société des Amateurs de Jardins (Garden Amateurs’ Society), Emmanuel Ducamp is also president of the Association Paris-Saint-Pétersbourg, which promotes cultural exchange between France and Russia.

Further reading :
Grandes collections de la Russie impériale, Flammarion, 2004
Saint-Pétersbourg, Citadelles et Mazenod, 2012
Tsarskoïe Selo, Swan Editeur, 2010 et Thames & Hudson, 2012