le cèdre de Versailles

The embodiment of an Oriental symbol in a Latin landscape, the Cedrus of Versailles, was first brought to France from Mount Lebanon by Louis XV in the 18th century. It was planted in his personal garden by the botanist Bernard de Jussieu so he could admire it from the windows of the Petit Palais.

Two centuries later in 1999, a terrible thunderstorm hit France and damaged two considerable Cedar trees in Versailles. During an auction organised by Les Amis de Versailles that same year, the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Penone decides to buy the two dead trees. Little didn’t he know he would be exhibiting them in the landscaped gardens of Versailles a decade later during an exhibition dedicated to his work.

Symbol of longevity and vitality, Mount Lebanon’s famously majestic Cedar tree, with its horizontal branches and fragrant wood not only represents the country’s national emblem but is also referred to as sacred by the three monotheist religions. The Cedar Reserve, situated above the Kadisha Valley in Lebanon - close to the village where the poet Gibran Khalil Gibran was born - is one of the region’s most quiet and meditative areas to discover.

It was snowing when I came to Versailles. There wasn’t a leaf on a tree. It was so pure, like a Le Nôtre sketch on white paper. This vision helped me to see what I could do in the gardens - Giuseppe Penone upon visiting Versailles before his monumental 2013 exhibition.

Penone’s next major installation in France occured in 2019, when he occupied the hypostyle hall of the Palais Iéna with Matrice di linfa, a large scale tree sculpture cut open like sacrificial altar on leather patchwork.

Close to the Cedrus of Versailles, only a few minutes away from the Petit Palais lies another hidden treasure which is well worth the visit: the Louvre Museum’s incredible gallery of casts of the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquites stored in the Royal Stables.