Title: In the gardens of Impressionism /
Authors: Willsdon, Clare A. P.
Publisher: Vendome Press,
Year: 2004
Subjects: Impressionism (Art) France; Painting, French Themes, motives.; Gardens in art.
Abstract: "In the Gardens of Impressionism explores the Impressionists' fascination with gardens, parks and flowers in the context of the 'great horticultural movement' and of the changing political and cultural landscape in France. Drawing on sources such as gardening journals, well-known novels by Zola and Flaubert, poetry by Baudelaire, and the artists' personal letters, it describes how gardens were central to the Impressionists' discovery of their distinctive plein-air (out-of-doors) style, and how they influenced the artists as spaces which were at the same time both 'modern' and imbued with nostalgia. It also brings to life the enchanting tradition of floral symbolism in 19th-century France, and explores - for the first time ever - how this infiltrated the work of key Impressionists such as Monet. A final chapter covers the spread of Impressionist garden painting outside France, exploring the developments in Britain, Germany, North America and Japan."--Jacket.
Contents: From the Tuileries to Giverny -- Flowers of tradition -- Horticulture and pleinairisme -- Private gardens before 1870 -- Painting the Parisian "bouquet" -- Sunshine, shadows and sanctuary -- The social garden -- The working garden -- Monet in the south and at Giverny -- The fruits of the gardens of Impressionism.