Paul Villon
Villon
Born	Paul Vincent Villon (1841-07-20)20 July 1841 Roybon, Isère, France
Died	10 October 1905(1905-10-10) (aged 64) Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France
Occupations	Landscape architect, garden designer, rocailleur
Known for	Public parks, gardens and artificial rockwork in Brazil
Notable work	Campo de Santana (park), Parque Trianon, Parque Municipal Américo Renné Giannetti, gardens of the Palácio da Liberdade

Paul Vincent Villon (20 July 1841 - 10 October 1905) was a French landscape architect, garden designer and rocailleur^[a] who worked in Brazil from the 1870s to 1905. Born in Roybon, France, he designed and built public parks, gardens and artificial rockwork in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte. His work included Campo de Santana, Quinta da Boa Vista, Catete Palace, Parque Trianon, Parque Municipal Américo Renné Giannetti and the gardens of the Palácio da Liberdade.^[1][2]

Villon was the second of the eight children of André Villon and Constance Meunier. He married Rose Pauline Combacan, and the couple had no children. He was 24 when he moved from France to Brazil.^[2]

Before leaving France, Villon worked for four years at the Grenoble firm of Meunier and Rocher Frères, which specialized in horticulture and arboriculture. In Brazil, he first made his name as a rocailleur. In Rio de Janeiro, he worked with his brother-in-law Augustin Mallemont and Emilio Wittig on artificial cascades inspired by the work of Roland of Marseille and Rocheford of Belgium. Villon was the rocailleur and landscape gardener for the works.^[2]

By the 1870s, Villon was chief rocailleur at the Imperial Quinta of São Cristóvão, now Quinta da Boa Vista.^[b] His skill in this specialized craft set him apart from other foreign gardeners and horticultural workers in Brazil and brought him into the professional circle of Auguste François Marie Glaziou, with whom he worked at Campo de Santana and Quinta da Boa Vista.^[2]

The garden at Campo de Santana was built between 1873 and 1880. In this large urban park, Glaziou used iron pieces from the Val d'Osne foundry in Haute-Marne, together with artificial cliffs, grottoes, waterfalls, rock groups, bridge railings imitating tree trunks, small buildings, ruins, lakes, curving paths and a large collection of trees raised in the nursery at Quinta da Boa Vista.^[2]

As chief rocailleur, Villon carried out the reinforced-concrete works at Campo de Santana. The work required practical knowledge of hydraulics and civil engineering, since the artificial cascade had to run over a durable artificial rock structure exposed to moving water. Glaziou remained responsible for the overall design and arrangement of the rocaille works, while Villon supplied the specialized technique needed to make them work.^[2]

At Campo de Santana, Villon's works included rustic cement bridges shaped as tree trunks, a large cascade, a grotto with artificial stalactites and stalagmites, hidden routes over artificial trunks and stones, and groups of rocks and trunks copied from natural models around Guanabara Bay and the area near the capital. Glaziou made the garden's general plan, while Villon made the artistic works: bridges, tree-trunk groups, rock groups and the great cascade.^[2]

The bridges built at the time used iron, stone, clay, sand, gravelly clay and whale oil. Villon and Glaziou also used granite boulders and cement. Glaziou wanted the rustic structures made of cement, brick and iron, and he warned the imperial administration against buying too much cement at once because it had to be used fresh and could be damaged by moisture.^[2]

Campo de Santana was warmly received when it opened. In 1880, Revista Illustrada published a large lithograph centered on the park's rocaille works.^[2]

Beyond his work as a rocailleur, Villon gradually took on broader work as a landscape architect. By 1897, his career already included work at Campo de Santana, Quinta da Boa Vista, the restoration of the park at Catete Palace and the gardens of Gavião farm, owned by the Count of Nova Friburgo.^[2]

In 1896, the buildings and gardens of Catete Palace in Rio de Janeiro were restored so the palace could serve as the seat of Brazil's presidency.^[c] Villon was hired to design the palace park. There, he built a rocky belvedere above a grotto and cascade, with a small lake surrounding the rocaille group. The engineer Aarão Reis led the restoration of Catete Palace and may have come to know Villon through the project for the Municipal Park of Belo Horizonte, whose works were taking place at the same time.^[2]

In São Paulo, Villon undertook a large private project in 1892: a park and restaurant on Paulista Avenue, then known as Parque Villon and later as Parque Tenente Siqueira Campos - Trianon.^[d] Villon designed and managed the park. By 1897, it was known as Parque Paulista. In 1907, the São Paulo municipal council sought budgets to buy the land and turn the private park into a public one. It remained private until 1910, when Mayor Barão de Duprat acquired the park and the belvedere. A new layout, based on a project by Ramos de Azevedo, opened in 1916.^[2][3]

At Parque Villon, surviving traces of Villon's rocaille work included rustic arbors, reinforced-concrete benches made to resemble wood, and a fountain that still forms a small circular lake. The lake's edge was made in rocaille imitating stone. The original plan called for streams, kiosks, shells, rock formations, cascades, a bandstand and a rustic bridge, but many of these features were never built.^[2]

Villon's work with Glaziou in Rio de Janeiro, and his park and restaurant on Paulista Avenue, helped bring him to the new capital of Minas Gerais.^[e] In November 1894, Villon presented Aarão Reis, one of the leaders of the construction of Belo Horizonte, with a plan for a large urban park. That same year, he began creating two nurseries in Belo Horizonte, one for floriculture and the other for native and exotic trees meant for the park, streets, squares and avenues of the new capital.^[2]

The nurseries were located at Bolina de Baixo, and Villon was assisted by Alexis Morim. His work in Belo Horizonte joined several roles: rocailleur, horticulturist, designer and manager of parks and gardens. The public park opened unfinished in September 1897. Inspired by the French paysager^[f] model in its layout and equipment, Villon's ambitious project was only partly completed, much like the São Paulo park. The planned features included a casino from which a 6-metre (20 ft) cascade would descend, as well as a theater, restaurant, velodrome, meteorological observatory, pavilions and other rocaille works that were not realized.^[2]

In Belo Horizonte, Villon also designed the gardens of the Presidential Palace, later known as the Palácio da Liberdade.^[g] Planting work took place in December 1898, and a contract for the garden's artistic works was signed in July 1899. In the palace's private gardens, Villon built an artificial grotto in rocaille, topped by a bandstand and surrounded by a small lake.^[2] In 2015, curatorial work by the Minas Gerais state government uncovered a fountain and a bench by Villon that had been buried in the palace gardens.^[4]

Villon also worked on Praça da Liberdade, another major Belo Horizonte project. Between 1903 and 1904, Mayor Francisco Bressane hired Antônio Nunes de Almeida to design the landscaping of Praça da Liberdade, with Villon assisting in the work.^[h] The square had large trees, a bandstand, two bridges with railings shaped like tree trunks, small lakes, a cascade, organic paths and a copy of Pico do Itacolomi in Ouro Preto, made as a large artificial rock in reinforced concrete set in a lake. The rocaille works were spread across two small islands joined by two bridges. One island held the copy of Itacolomi, and the other held two female statues over a rock group.^[2]

In 1899, Villon left his post as administrator of the Municipal Park of Belo Horizonte to become chief gardener of the Inspectorate of Maritime and Terrestrial Forests, Hunting and Fishing in Rio de Janeiro. His brother-in-law Augustin Mallemont had held the post since 1893. Villon remained in the role until his death in 1905. During the administration of Mayor Pereira Passos, with Júlio Furtado overseeing the works, Villon remodeled and landscaped several Rio de Janeiro squares and gardens. These included Praça XV de Novembro, the former Largo do Rocio, now Praça Tiradentes, the Glória gardens, a project for the Botafogo cove, and gardens in Tijuca.^[2]

These early twentieth-century works followed a different idea of public gardening from the earlier enclosed paysager gardens. Railings were removed from public gardens, flowers were planted alongside trees, and airier, more open spaces gained favor over dense groves. The ornamental beds of the Rossio garden, remodeled by Villon in 1904, used a modern mosaic system common in public gardens in France, Germany and England.^[2]

Villon's taste for rocaille still marked these later gardens. At Boa Vista, in Alto da Tijuca, he built a rustic pavilion on a rock formation surrounded by a lawn and flowers. In the Glória gardens, he followed a mixed or modern composite style connected to the model associated with André Le Nôtre. The garden had flower borders in many Art Nouveau patterns crossing the lawns, a rustic area with rock formations, ruins and artificial trunks, and three lakes. It also had a cement sidewalk in fougère^[i] mosaic style and a row of oiti trees along the outer line of the lawns. In 1906, after Villon's death, the landscape architect Luis Rei used rocaille decorative elements throughout the Valongo garden.^[2]

In 1905, with his health failing, Villon traveled to France on medical leave. He died a few months later in Nice.^[2] By the end of his life, Villon had moved from specialist rocailleur to landscape architect, with work across Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Minas Gerais, often in projects connected to Glaziou.^[2]

Villon's cement grottoes, cascades, rustic bridges and artificial rocks helped carry the fashion for constructed natural scenery into Brazilian parks and gardens. The popular Brazilian term cascateiro shows how closely these artisans were associated with cascades and grottoes. Villon's career also opens a window onto a wider professional field whose workers often left few official traces beyond newspaper notices and surviving garden features.^[2]

Villon's works included:^[2][1]

• Rocaille works at Campo de Santana, Rio de Janeiro, under the general design of Auguste Glaziou
• Work at Quinta da Boa Vista, Rio de Janeiro
• Landscape work at Catete Palace, Rio de Janeiro
• Parque Villon, later Parque Tenente Siqueira Campos - Trianon, São Paulo
• Parque Municipal Américo Renné Giannetti, Belo Horizonte
• Landscape of Praça da Liberdade, Belo Horizonte
• Landscape of Palácio da Liberdade, Belo Horizonte
• Remodeling and landscaping of Praça XV de Novembro, Praça Tiradentes, the Glória gardens, the Botafogo cove project and gardens in Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro

• Caldeira, Júnia. A Praça Brasileira: trajetória de um espaço urbano - origem e modernidade. PhD diss., State University of Campinas, 2007.
• Dourado, Guilherme Mazza. Belle Époque dos Jardins: da França ao Brasil do século XIX e início do XX. PhD diss., University of São Paulo, 2009.
• Kliass, Rosa Grena. Os parques urbanos de São Paulo. São Paulo: Pini, 1993.
• Terra, Carlos. Paisagens construídas: jardins, praças e parques do Rio de Janeiro na segunda metade do século XIX. Rio de Janeiro: Rio Books, 2013.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paul Villon.

• Paul Villon at Arte Fora do Museu