Painting modern garden

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Painting the Modern Garden: An Introduction William H. Robinson

Gardening was something I learned

Who was his [Monet’s] teacher?

in my youth when I was unhappy.

His garden. He owes it a great debt,

I perhaps owe it to flowers

he is proud of it, and freely shows

that I became a painter.

his mentor to passers-by.

Claude Monet, quoted in Delange 19271

Arsène Alexandre, 19012

Gardens have provided artists with a source of creative inspiration for centuries. It may seem surprising that leading modernist and avant-garde painters would continue to explore this apparently conventional subject, and even more so that they would expand and enrich it. One could argue that Claude Monet (fig. 3) was the most important painter of gardens in the history of art, yet he hardly stands alone among his contemporaries in his passion for the subject. One driving force behind this phenomenon was the remarkable number of artists who either actively gardened or directed the planting of personal gardens. A short list of artist-gardeners of the modern era would include Monet, Gustave Caillebotte, Camille Pissarro, Henri Le Sidaner, Joaquín Sorolla, Max Liebermann, Henri Matisse, Emil Nolde, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. This raises an intriguing question: how did these artists reconcile the ancient tradition of gardening and painting gardens with their ambition of forging a new modernist art?

No one knows who created the first garden. According to the Bible, human history began in a garden. Literary and visual evidence confirm that gardens were a significant presence in the cultures of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Rome. The term ‘garden’ (hortus or gardinum in Latin; gardin or jardin in old northern French) refers to an enclosed space or grounds set apart from untamed nature. The historical record argues for an expansive understanding of the term.

The British historian Roy Strong has identified 36 different garden types, including botanic, cemetery, cottage, floral, herbal, imaginary, indoor, kitchen, landscape, nursery and pleasure gardens.3 Gardens vary in size from modest kitchen gardens devoted to growing edible fruits and vegetables to vast estate gardens with trees, broad walking paths and architectural elements. Many royal and aristocratic residences, such as the Alcázar in Seville, Richmond Palace in London (Kew Gardens), the Tuileries in Paris and the Palace of Versailles, featured expansive gardens that democratic governments later transformed into public spaces for recreation and the dissemination of horticultural knowledge.4 The earliest surviving images of gardens, dating from as early as 3000–2000 BC, appear in Egyptian relief sculptures, fresco paintings and miniature models placed in tombs. They reveal

Fig. 3 Unknown photographer,

Monet in His Garden at Giverny, 1921. Autochrome, 18 x 24 cm.

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

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Painting the Modern Garden: An Introduction William H. Robinson

Gardening was something I learned

Who was his [Monet’s] teacher?

in my youth when I was unhappy.

His garden. He owes it a great debt,

I perhaps owe it to flowers

he is proud of it, and freely shows

that I became a painter.

his mentor to passers-by.

Claude Monet, quoted in Delange 19271

Arsène Alexandre, 19012

Gardens have provided artists with a source of creative inspiration for centuries. It may seem surprising that leading modernist and avant-garde painters would continue to explore this apparently conventional subject, and even more so that they would expand and enrich it. One could argue that Claude Monet (fig. 3) was the most important painter of gardens in the history of art, yet he hardly stands alone among his contemporaries in his passion for the subject. One driving force behind this phenomenon was the remarkable number of artists who either actively gardened or directed the planting of personal gardens. A short list of artist-gardeners of the modern era would include Monet, Gustave Caillebotte, Camille Pissarro, Henri Le Sidaner, Joaquín Sorolla, Max Liebermann, Henri Matisse, Emil Nolde, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. This raises an intriguing question: how did these artists reconcile the ancient tradition of gardening and painting gardens with their ambition of forging a new modernist art?

No one knows who created the first garden. According to the Bible, human history began in a garden. Literary and visual evidence confirm that gardens were a significant presence in the cultures of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Rome. The term ‘garden’ (hortus or gardinum in Latin; gardin or jardin in old northern French) refers to an enclosed space or grounds set apart from untamed nature. The historical record argues for an expansive understanding of the term.

The British historian Roy Strong has identified 36 different garden types, including botanic, cemetery, cottage, floral, herbal, imaginary, indoor, kitchen, landscape, nursery and pleasure gardens.3 Gardens vary in size from modest kitchen gardens devoted to growing edible fruits and vegetables to vast estate gardens with trees, broad walking paths and architectural elements. Many royal and aristocratic residences, such as the Alcázar in Seville, Richmond Palace in London (Kew Gardens), the Tuileries in Paris and the Palace of Versailles, featured expansive gardens that democratic governments later transformed into public spaces for recreation and the dissemination of horticultural knowledge.4 The earliest surviving images of gardens, dating from as early as 3000–2000 BC, appear in Egyptian relief sculptures, fresco paintings and miniature models placed in tombs. They reveal

Fig. 3 Unknown photographer,

Monet in His Garden at Giverny, 1921. Autochrome, 18 x 24 cm.

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

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Impressionist Gardens Clare A. P. Willsdon

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Impressionist Gardens Clare A. P. Willsdon

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26 Claude Monet Small Country Farm at Bordighera, 1884 Oil on canvas, 74 x 92.4 cm Private collection

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27 Claude Monet Moreno’s Garden at Bordighera, 1884 Oil on canvas, 43.5 x 59 cm Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Bequest of R. H. Norton, inv. 53.134

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26 Claude Monet Small Country Farm at Bordighera, 1884 Oil on canvas, 74 x 92.4 cm Private collection

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27 Claude Monet Moreno’s Garden at Bordighera, 1884 Oil on canvas, 43.5 x 59 cm Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Bequest of R. H. Norton, inv. 53.134

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Gardens of Reverie and Imagination Heather Lemonedes

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Gardens of Reverie and Imagination Heather Lemonedes

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94 Claude Monet The Artist’s Garden at Giverny, 1900 Oil on canvas, 81.6 x 92.6 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris, inv. RF 1983-6

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95 Claude Monet The Artist’s Garden at Giverny, 1900 Oil on canvas, 89.5 x 92.1 cm Yale University Library, New Haven. Collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon, B.A. 1929, L.H.D.H 1967, inv. 1983.7.12

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94 Claude Monet The Artist’s Garden at Giverny, 1900 Oil on canvas, 81.6 x 92.6 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris, inv. RF 1983-6

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95 Claude Monet The Artist’s Garden at Giverny, 1900 Oil on canvas, 89.5 x 92.1 cm Yale University Library, New Haven. Collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon, B.A. 1929, L.H.D.H 1967, inv. 1983.7.12

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Gardens of War and Regeneration William H. Robinson

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Gardens of War and Regeneration William H. Robinson

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Supporters of Past Exhibitions The President and Council of the Royal Academy would like to thank the following supporters for their generous contributions towards major exhibitions in the last ten years: 2015 Jean-Etienne Liotard 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI Ai Weiwei David Morris Ltd Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI The Terra Foundation for American Art The Cornell Leadership Circle Premiums, RA Schools Annual Dinner and Auction and RA Schools Show 2015 Newton Investment Management 247th Summer Exhibition Insight Investment Richard Diebenkorn 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI The Terra Foundation for American Art Rubens and His Legacy BNY Mellon, Partner of the Royal Academy of Arts

Australia National Gallery of Australia Qantas Airways The Woolmark Company Richard Rogers RA: Inside Out Ferrovial Agroman Heathrow Airport Laing O’Rourke Mexico: A Revolution in Art, 1910–1940 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne Conaculta James and Clare Kirkman Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation Catherine and Franck Petitgas Sectur Visit Mexico Mercedes Zobel 245th Summer Exhibition Insight Investment George Bellows 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI Edwards Wildman Premiums, RA Schools Annual Dinner and Auction and RA Schools Show 2013 Newton Investment Management

2015 Architecture Programme Lead supporter Turkishceramics

Manet: Portraying Life BNY Mellon, Partner of the Royal Academy of Arts

2014 Allen Jones RA Lead Series Supporter JTI

2012 Mariko Mori JTI

Giovanni Battista Moroni 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI UBI Banca

RA Now JTI

Anselm Kiefer BNP Paribas White Cube Radical Geometry: Modern Art of South America from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI Christie’s Dennis Hopper: The Lost Album Lead Series Supporter JTI Nikon UK Premiums, RA Schools Annual Dinner and Auction and RA Schools Show 2014 Newton Investment Management 246th Summer Exhibition Insight Investment Dream, Draw, Work: Architectural Drawings by Norman Shaw RA Lowell Libson Ltd Collections and Library Supporters Circle Renaissance Impressions: Chiaroscuro Woodcuts from the Collections of Georg Baselitz and the Albertina, Vienna JTI Edwards Wildman Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined Scott and Laura Malkin AKT II Arauco 2013 Bill Woodrow RA Lead Series Supporter JTI The Henry Moore Foundation Daumier 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI

Bronze Christian Levett and Mougins Museum of Classical Art Daniel Katz Gallery Baron Lorne Thyssen-Bornemisza John and Fausta Eskenazi The Ruddock Foundation for the Arts Tomasso Brothers Fine Art Jon and Barbara Landau Janine and J. Tomilson Hill Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Eskenazi Limited Lisson Gallery Alexis Gregory Alan and Mary Hobart Richard de Unger and Adeela Qureshi Rossi & Rossi Ltd Embassy of Israel 244th Summer Exhibition Insight Investment From Paris: A Taste for Impressionism – Paintings from the Clark 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI Edwards Wildman The Annenberg Foundation Premiums, RA Schools Annual Dinner and Auction and RA Schools Show 2012 Newton Investment Management Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI Cox & Kings Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915–1935 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI The Ove Arup Foundation The Norman Foster Foundation Richard and Ruth Rogers

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David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture BNP Paribas Welcome to Yorkshire: Tourism Partner Visit Hull & East Yorkshire: Supporting Tourism Partner NEC 2011 Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement BNY Mellon Region Holdings Blavatnik Family Foundation Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the Twentieth Century. Brassaï, Capa, Kertész, Moholy-Nagy, Munkácsi 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI Hungarofest OTP Bank 243rd Summer Exhibition Insight Investment Premiums, RA Schools Annual Dinner and Auction and RA Schools Show 2011 Newton Investment Management Watteau: The Drawings 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI Region Holdings

2009 GSK Contemporary GlaxoSmithKline

2006 238th Summer Exhibition Insight Investment

Wild Thing: Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska, Gill 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI BNP Paribas The Henry Moore Foundation

Chola: Sacred Bronzes of Southern India Cox & Kings: Travel Partner

Anish Kapoor JTI Richard Chang Richard and Victoria Sharp Louis Vuitton The Henry Moore Foundation J W Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI Champagne Perrier-Jouët GasTerra Gasunie 241st Summer Exhibition Insight Investment Kuniyoshi.

From the Arthur R. Miller Collection 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI Canon Cox & Kings: Travel Partner

Modern British Sculpture American Express Foundation The Henry Moore Foundation Hauser & Wirth Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne Sotheby’s Blain Southern Welcome to Yorkshire: Tourism Partner

Premiums and RA Schools Show Mizuho International plc

2010 GSK Contemporary – Aware: Art Fashion Identity GlaxoSmithKline

Byzantium 330–1453 J F Costopoulos Foundation A G Leventis Foundation Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cox & Kings: Travel Partner

Pioneering Painters: The Glasgow Boys 1880–1900 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI Glasgow Museums Treasures from Budapest: European Masterpieces from Leonardo to Schiele OTP Bank Villa Budapest Daniel Katz Gallery, London Cox & Kings: Travel Partner Sargent and the Sea 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI 242nd Summer Exhibition Insight Investment Paul Sandby RA: Picturing Britain, A Bicentenary Exhibition 2009–2016 Season supported by JTI The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters BNY Mellon Hiscox plc Heath Lambert Cox & Kings: Travel Partner RA Outreach Programme Deutsche Bank AG

RA Outreach Programme Deutsche Bank AG 2008 GSK Contemporary GlaxoSmithKline

Miró, Calder, Giacometti, Braque: Aimé Maeght and His Artists BNP Paribas Vilhelm Hammershøi: The Poetry of Silence OAK Foundation Denmark Novo Nordisk 240th Summer Exhibition Insight Investment Premiums and RA Schools Show Mizuho International plc RA Outreach Programme Deutsche Bank AG From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings 1870–1925 from Moscow and St Petersburg E.ON 2008 Season supported by Sotheby’s 2007 Paul Mellon’s Legacy: A Passion for British Art The Bank of New York Mellon Georg Baselitz Eurohypo AG 239th Summer Exhibition Insight Investment Impressionists by the Sea Farrow & Ball Premiums and RA Schools Show Mizuho International plc RA Outreach Programme Deutsche Bank AG The Unknown Monet Bank of America

Premiums and RA Schools Show Mizuho International plc RA Outreach Programme Deutsche Bank AG Rodin Ernst & Young