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The Artist’s Garden offers an intriguing study into 20 gardens that have inspired and been home to some of the greatest painters from history.
This sumptuously illustrated and fascinating book delves into the stories behind the gardens which inspired some of the most beautiful and important works of art.
These gardens not only supplied the inspiration for creative works but also illuminate the professional motivation and private life of the artists themselves – from Cezanne’s house in the south of France to Childe Hassam at Celia Thaxter’s garden off the coast off Maine.
Flowers and gardens have often been the first choice for artists looking for a subject. A garden close to the artist’s studio is not only convenient for daily material and ideas, but also has the advantage of changing through the seasons and over time. Claude Monet’s Giverny was the catalyst for hundreds of great paintings (by Monet and other artists), each one different from the one before. Sometimes a whole village becomes the focus for a colony of artists as at Gerberoy in Picardy and Skagen on the northernmost tip of Denmark.
This book is about the real homes and gardens that inspired these great artists – gardens that can still be visited today. The relationship between artist and garden is a complex one. A few artists, including Pierre Bonnard and his neighbour Monet were keen gardeners, as much in love with their plants as their work, while for others like Sorolla in Madrid, his courtyard home was both a sanctuary and a source of ideas.
This book is as unmissable for art lovers as it is for anyone who knows the joy of time spent in gardens, offering an intriguing insight into the lives of these great painters and the gardens which inspired them to their creative heights. Now available in paperback.
List of contents
THE ARTIST AT HOME AND AT WORK
Leonardo da Vinci
Amboise, France
Peter Paul Rubens
Antwerp, Belgium
Paul Cezanne
Aix-en Provence, France
Pierre August Renoir
Champagne and Le Côte d'Azur, France
Max Liebermann
Lake Wannsee, Germany
Joaquin Sorolla
Madrid, Spain
Henri Le Sidaner
Gerberoy, Picardie, France
Emil Nolde
Seebull, Nordfriesland, Germany
Frida Kahlo
The Blue House, Coyoacán, Mexico
Salvador Dali
Portlligat and Púbol, Spain
THE ARTISTS' COMMUNITY
Monet and friends
Argenteuil, Vétheuil and Giverny, France
The Skagen Painters
North Jutland, Denmark
The Kirkcudbright artists 156
Broughton House, Kirkcudbright, Scotland, UK
William Morris and his circle 168
Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire, England, UK
New England Impressionists 182
Connecticut, Maine, and New Hampshire, USA
German Expressionists 194
Murnau, Bavaria, Germany
The Charleston artists 206
Charleston, Sussex, England, UK
Selected reading 218
Visiting details 218
Index 220
Acknowledgments and picture credits 224
About the author
Jackie Bennett has travelled widely, visiting and writing about gardens. Her books include Shakespeare’s Gardens, The Writer’s Garden, Wild About the Garden and Island Gardens. She is a former editor of The Garden Design Journal and The English Garden.
