Le Desert de Retz.

1990. [LE ROUGE, George Louis]. Le Désert de Retz: Le Jardin Pittoresque de Monsieur de Monville; A Late Eighteenth-Century French Folly Garden. By Diana Ketcham. Preface by Olivier Choppin de Janvry. Text in English and French. 120 pp. Illustrated with historical views of the park, a facsimile of 26 engravings by Le Rouge issued in 1785, and 32 new photographs of the garden sites by Michael Kenna. Oblong folio, 255 x 405 mm, bound in original blue cloth. San Francisco: The Arion Press, 1990. The de Monville estate, known as the Désert de Retz, was constructed as a gigantic broken column, an eighteenth-century fantasy meant to reveal the essence of architecture in ruins. This "magic realm" served to influence Thomas Jefferson, King Gustavus of Sweden, Marie Antoinette, and later, the Surrealists. This handsomely printed book presents Monsieur de Monville's fanciful landscape garden and its architectural monuments in a pleasing deluxe format. The new work contains reproductions of the original Le Rouge engravings of the estate, plus photographs which show the current status of the buildings and grounds. Limited Edition of 400 copies printed in Cochin type on Lustor dull paper. As new.