Image: Palace of Versailles
Nearly 160 works are brought together in 'Jardins des Lumières, 1750-1800', including paintings, drawings, furniture, architectural projects and costumes. The exhibition’s stated selection therefore spans images, works of design, architectural proposals and elements of dress within one presentation.
The exhibition examines the emergence of a form of landscape art freed from the rules of the French formal garden. Its account of that development emphasizes irregularity, fantasy and the philosophical evocation of nature, identifying those qualities as central to the landscape art under consideration.
This examination takes place in close dialogue with the gardens commissioned by Marie-Antoinette at the Petit Trianon. The relationship is stated through the exhibition’s connection to those gardens, placing the commissioned setting directly alongside its exploration of landscape art and its departure from the French formal garden’s rules.
