The
garden at Ermenonville was one of the earliest and finest examples of the
French landscape garden. The garden at Ermenonville was planned beginning in 1762 by Marquis
René Louis de Girardin, the friend and final patron of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Girardin's master plan drew its inspiration from Rousseau's novels and philosophy of the nobility of Nature. Rousseau's tomb is prominently situated on the
artificial island in Ermenonville's lake. It is remarked that
Hubert Robert was the architect. Completed by 1778 with care and craft, the garden came to resemble a natural environment, almost a wilderness, appearing untouched by any human intervention. Girardin admired the work of
William Shenstone at
The Leasowes and made a (decorative farm) at Ermenonville. An imitation of Rousseau's island is at
Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm, Germany. During the early nineteenth century it was much visited and admired. The garden at Ermenonville was described by Girardin's son in 1811 in an elegant tour-book with
aquatint plates that reveal Girardin's love of diverse vistas that capture painterly landscape effects. Enhancing the elegiac mood of these views were the altars and monuments, the 'Rustic Temple', and other details meant to evoke Rousseau's
Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse. Nearby is Rousseau's 'cabin' in the secluded désert of Ermenonville. Napoleon Bonaparte visited Ermenonville, where he remarked to Girardin that it might have been better for the French peace if neither he nor Rousseau had ever been born. Girardin retold this story again and again after the fact. ==Population==