Camille Lesouef

Camille Lesouef has a PhD in art history and is a research engineer in the MHA laboratory at the Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture de Grenoble. Her work focuses on the art of gardens in Europe in the first half of the 20th century. She is particularly interested in cultural transfers through the study of theories and models, and in the interrelation of garden art with the decorative arts, architecture and the visual arts.

The aim of this project is to study the theoretical and visual construction of the giardino all’italiana model and its circulation in Europe between the 1890s and 1930s. It was during this period that the term “giardino all’italiana” was popularized in Italian and foreign publications to designate Italian private gardens designed between the 16th and 18th centuries, regular, geometric villa gardens creating harmony between art and nature, architecture and landscape. Focusing on an analysis of the role of publications and photographs in the invention, definition and dissemination of this garden model, this project proposes to conduct a global investigation of this theme, in order to write a multipolar history of it, taking into account the way it was reciprocally constructed in Italy, the United States, Germany, England and France.