Jean-Baptiste Oudry

Arcueil, a commune just south of Paris celebrated for its Roman aqueduct, was also the site of a chateau with an extensive, structured garden since the sixteenth century. After over a century of enrichments and expansions, the gardens were revamped to suit rococo tastes between 1720 and 1730 by the chateau's proprietor, Anne-Marie-Joseph de Lorraine (1679-1739), the prince de Guise, and his architect Jean-Michel Chevotet. Beginning around 1744 and lasting for roughly a decade, Arcueil became a destination for artists working en plein air including Oudry, Charles-Joseph Natoire, and Francois Boucher. The gardens were no longer fully maintained and the increasingly unkempt and ruinous landscape held a particular aesthetic appeal. Between 1744 and 1747, Oudry drew the site repeatedly, yielding at least fifty extant views. Drawings of the park by Oudry and his contemporaries were the subject of a 2016 exhibition at the Louvre which explored the complicated history of the gardens and documented Oudry's activity at the site.
The present sheet depicts the first Grand Terrace of the new chateau. The artist has altered the perspective in order to provide a more expansive view of the site, reducing the width of the allées. At center, beyond a basin with a water feature, the staircase leading to the terrace surrounding the chateau is visible. The path at left leads to the first intermediary terrace north of the chateau, while the one at right leads to a balustrade above the cascades opposite the west facade of the chateau.