André Mollet (garden architect)

André Mollet (* around 1600; † June 7, 1665 in London ) was a gardener and garden architect of French origin. He wrote a garden book thatsignificantly influencedthe design of baroque princely gardens.

Origin and education

André Mollet was the son of Claude Mollet and the grandson of Jacques Mollet (died around 1608). Little is known about his youth. Like his brothers Jacques (the younger), Noël and Claude (the younger), he received training as a gardener. For all the brothers, the transfer of knowledge by their famous father, who was the king's gardening director, premier jardinier du Roi (“the king's first gardener”), was decisive . André Mollet gained his practical experience in the royal gardens at the time of Louis XIII. with a focus on the design of broderie parterres , a contemporary modern element of the still young baroque garden .

First own garden designs

André Mollet entered the service of the Dutch governor Friedrich Heinrich von Orange in 1633 . He expanded the garden of Honselersdijk Castle near Delft by adding two French-style garden parterres for him . He also worked on the nascent pleasure garden of Huis ter Nieuburgh in Rijswijk near The Hague, the summer residence of the governor. In 1635 Mollet returned to Paris from the Netherlands. In 1641 and 1642 he stayed in England and worked for Queen Henrietta Maria, particularly in the gardens of Wimbledon Castle .

Work for Kristina of Sweden

As early as 1646, André Mollet had signed a contract with an envoy from the Swedish court in Paris, which entrusted him with the design of the royal gardens in Stockholm . It was not until the summer of 1648, after numerous preparations such as buying plants and providing gardening tools, that Mollet traveled to Stockholm to take up service with the young Queen Kristina . The details of the agreement with the queen are not known; his payment was comparable to that of a chamberlain at the royal court. As a result of the Thirty Years War, Sweden was able to considerably expand and consolidate its position in Europe.

André Mollet's work focused on two gardens in Stockholm: the old Kungsträdgården ("Royal Garden") and the new Humlegården ("Hop Garden "; originally a vegetable garden). Mollet was not seen as a conventional master gardener, but as an expert who mastered the new, artistic type of garden design in the French style: the creation of richly ornamented garden parterres , which also included skill, the patterns of the drawn plans life-size in the area of ​​the garden transferred to. The restrictions brought about by the Nordic climate with its severe winters presented a particular challenge.

Mollet left Sweden in the summer of 1653 . The motives for his departure are not known. Taking care of Kungsträdgården , his son Jean Mollet (c.1630-1708), who had already worked as an assistant to his father; he stayed in Sweden all his life.

During his stay in Sweden, André Mollet wrote his garden book Le jardin de Plaisir . It contained an appendix with copperplate engravings showing various forms of broderie and parter redesign, including two mazes . The book was printed in Stockholm in 1651, the text in French, German and Swedish, plus thirty large copper engravings; so three book editions could be offered. The German translation came from Gregor Geijer .

London time

André Mollet returned to France from Sweden. Nothing is known about his work during this period. In 1658 at the latest he left France to take over the management of the gardens of St James's Palace in London . After the country returned to the monarchy, his client was King Charles II . Mollet was accompanied by his nephew Gabriel (died 1603), who was also his assistant. Little is known about Mollet's horticultural work in London. He prepared an abridged English edition of his gardening book, which was addressed both to the king and to the large number of aristocratic gardeners in England. The book was published posthumously in London in 1670 under the title The Garden of Pleasure . André Mollet died in London on June 7, 1665, possibly as a victim of the beginning plague epidemic .

Publications

• Le jardin de plaisir (1651, 1981)
• Der Lust Gartten (1651, 2006; German and Swedish translation)

literature

• Sten Karling : The importance of André Mollet and his family for the development of the French formal garden . In: Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the history of landscape architecture . Volume 3, 1973, pp. 1-8, I-XII, 9-25.
• Göran Lindahl, Åke Nisbeth : André Mollet - a biography . In: André Mollet : Le jardin de Plaisir (commentary). Gyllene Snittet , Uppsala 2007, ISBN 978-91-631-7178-9 , pages 12-19.
• Michel Conan : Claude Mollet et sa famille . In: Créateurs de jardins et de paysages en France de la Renaissance au XXIe siècle . Volume 1. Actes Sud , Arles 2001, ISBN 2-7427-3280-2 , pages 23-31 (here 27-28).

Web links

• Biographical article: Online at Architektura