For the 400th anniversary of André Le Nôtre's birth comes André Le Nôtre in Perspective (Editions Hazan), hardcover ($51), by Patricia Bouchenot-Déchin (editor), Georges Farhat (editor).

Carol Maratta (1625-1713) did this oil portrait of André Le Nôtre in 1680.

André Le Nôtre (1613–1700), the royal jardiniére paysagiste (landscape gardener) for Louis XIV, is, historically, the most celebrated landscape architect in the world (sorry, Frederick Law Olmsted). He's most recognized for his garden designs at the Cháteau de Vaux-le-Vicomte, the garden and parks designs at the Cháteau de Versailles and the radiating city plan of Versailles, which included the Avenue de Paris, the largest avenue in Europe at the time.

His ancestry made his position in life nearly inevitable, given that his grandfather held the prestigious responsibility for the gardens at the Palais des Tuileries, and that his father was also a landscape gardener with some gardening responsibilities at the Tuileries. Le Nôtre came to design the central pathway through the Tuileries, which became the grand axis to the Arc de Triomphe.

The book examines his life as the royal gardener, his practice as a landscape architect, engineer and art collector, and examines his legacy and influence.'

The book contains illustrations of original documents and the majority of extant drawings by Le Nôtre and his collaborators. The book is called "comprehensive and impeccably researched," bringing together the "scholarship of some of the world's leading experts in early-modern art, gardens and allied fields."