Using the work of Eduard Monet as a starting point, this exhibition examines the role gardens played in the evolution of art from the early 1860s through to the 1920s. The paintings of some of the most important Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Avant-Garde artists of the early twentieth century are on show as they explored this theme.
Monet, arguably the most important painter of gardens in the history of art, once said he owed his painting “to flowers”. But Monet was far from alone in his fascination with the horticultural world, which is why we will also be bringing you masterpieces by Renoir, Cezanne, Pissarro, Manet, Sargent, Kandinsky, Van Gogh, Matisse, Klimt and Klee. Most painters were not very well acquainted with plants, flowers, trees, let alone gardens. Only a minority, Gustave Caillebotte, John Singer Sargent and of course Monet clearly understood their objects of art. It was rather the idea than the garden as reality that inspired most of them.
The garden gave the freedom to break new ground and explore the ever-changing world around them. On show are more than 120 works of above painters, but also of lesser known, such as Sorolla, Santiago Rusiño or Emile Nolde.