Les jardins du comte d’Artois : les paysages d’un prince troublant by Gabriel WICK – Château de Bénouville
The Gardens of the comte d’Artois: landscapes of a troubling prince
Louis XVI’s turbulent youngest brother, the comte d’Artois, was destined to forever be eclipsed by his brother. As spare heir, his traditional role was to support his brother and to blend into the background of the monarchy. A lover of opulence, spectacle and the attention of the public, such modesty would always be difficult for Artois. The count had a natural talent for attracting attention and notoriety, and one of his principal mediums was gardens and landscapes. In this conference, Gabriel Wick will examine the role that parks and gardens played in the shaping of Artois’s public identity.
Gabriel Wick
Gabriel Wick (b. 1977 in the United Kingdom) is a doctor of history, author and exhibition curator. He teaches at the Paris campus of New York University and the French Institute of Fashion. He trained as a landscape architect at the University of California, Berkeley, and then obtained a second masters in landscape history and conservation at the National Architecture School of Versailles (ÉNSA-V), where he studied under Monique Mosser. He received his doctorate in history from the University of London – Queen Mary in 2017. He has written and co-edited a number of books and articles on 18th-century gardens, notably those of La Roche-Guyon, the domain of the Noailles at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Betz, Méréville and Rambouillet. In 2017, he curated the exhibition Hubert Robert et la fabrique des jardins at the château of La Roche-Guyon (EPCC) and in 2021, he co-curated the exhibition Vivre à l’antique at the château of Rambouillet (CMN). He is currently working on an exhibition on the landscapes of the comte d’Artois, the subject of this conference.