Impressionist Gardens

Description

Monet once said that his only two interests in life were painting and gardening. In Giverny, he combined these enthusiasms to create the most famous of artists’ gardens. This beautifully illustrated book is the first ever about the Impressionists’ shared passion for painting gardens and flowers: a favourite and richly developed subject of all the artists including Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley.

For many of the Impressionists, cultivating flowers afforded as much pleasure as painting them, and they exchanged enthusiastic letters about the propagation of irises, chrysanthemums and dahlias. With their revolutionary approach to rendering outdoor effects and fleeting atmospheric conditions, they captured the sunlit colour and mood – and even suggested the smell – of flower gardens. In doing so, they registered a new public sensibility: the love, not just of fresh air and greenery, but of gloriously colourful settings on a domestic scale.

Judith Bumpus is an independent art historian and the author of Van Gogh’s Flowers, also published by Phaidon.

“This beautifully illustrated paperback tells the stories behind their paintings and describes their love affairs with flowers. An excellent read at a stocking filler price.”—BBC Gardeners’ World

“A beautifully illustrated book…”—Christie’s Art Book Review