Édouard André i jego realizacje ogrodowe w Polsce i na Litwie

ENÉdouard André (1840–1911) was one of the most prolific and at the same time most all-round landscape architects of the last quarter of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century in the world. He is recognised as the author and promoter of the so called “mixed style” of garden design – le style mixte – that in one garden mixed two traditional compositions: a regular garden situated in the direct vicinity of a palace with a more distant landscape park. Already as a mature person, André accepted the commissions from Polish aristocratic families; two tasks in the lands of the Prussian partition at Samostrzel and Potulice, and four in Lithuania: at Landwarów (Lentvaris) near Vilnius, at Zatrocze (Užutrakis), Waka Trocka (Trakų Vokė) and at Połąga (Palanga) on the Baltic coast. Courtesy of Florence André and Stéphanie de Courtois I have gained an access to the voyage journals from 1897, 1898 and 1899 to Poland and Lithuania written by Édouard’s son, René-Édouard André and his letters from June of 1898 to his fiancé kept at disposal of the Association Édouard André. At Samostrzel of the Bniński family a park was being created in the 1880s. Its main attraction was the terrace complex situated in front of the palace, decorated with pergolas, gazebos, rows of niches with sculptures and parterres. It seems that Édouard André, undoubtedly referring to Italian models (Tivoli), drew here also from his earlier experiences (Monte Carlo). The palace and romantic park at Potulice also existed before, and André, recommended to Aniela Potulicka by Emilia Bnińska, transformed it in 1898, created a new space in the mixed style, with a twin lane on the palace’s axis and wide terraces on the park side. André’s parks in Lithuania for Tyszkiewicz brothers were made almost at the same time. At Landwarów the design was initiated in 1896 or 1897.A huge regular garden was created in front of the palace’s back façade and landscape park consisting of two parts: “Riviera” on the lake and “Switzerland” with unusually diversified lay of the land and four ponds with waterfalls and cascades. At Połąga on the Baltic shore a new palace (1896–1897) was designed by Franz Heinrich Schwechten commissioned by Feliks Tyszkiewicz. At the same time a park was being constructed in seaside dunes overgrown with pines. One of the most interesting elements in the Połąga Park – the Birute Hill – was incorporated as a beauty spot, and its slope was used to make a grotto with a copy of the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes. The idea of modern rosary was André’s achievement developed for Jules Gravereaux for his Roseraie de L’Haÿ. Second important task of André commissioned by Feliks Tyszkiewicz was the landscape design of the so-called “resort institution”. The institution was designed probably in 1898 or 1899. It is possible that at Józef Tyszkiewicz’ Zatrocze the works on the park began in 1897 or 1898. As a result, a great park was established in the mixed style with a view terrace behind the back façade, parterres at the front and side façades and with a large landscape park decorated with streams, artificial rocks and cascades and a hill crowned with a view arbour. Waka belonged to Jan Tyszkiewicz who commissioned André to transform the existing park surrounding the palace he inherited from his father. The works were carried out at the same time as in other parks in Lithuania and were finished in 1900. André transformed the existing park layout into a scenic park. A characteristic feature of André’s designs is that he maximally emphasised the attributes of selected style: the extreme formalism of geometric gardens and extreme naturalism of scenic parks. When designing his gardens, he had in mind both their aesthetic and purely practical values. [From the publication]

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