Through the work of the greatest artist-gardeners we invite you to explore the influence that gardens exerted on the evolution of art from the 1860s to the 1920s, a period where a new aesthetic emerged. More than any other painter, Monet is known for his paintings of gardens – in particular the one he created at Giverny and that became his main subject for the last 20 years of his life. As the artist himself declared: “I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.” A great influence on many of these artists –Monet, Caillebotte, Pierre Bonnard, Le Sidaner– were the leading English garden designers of the period, like William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll, who argued for a break from the formal gardens of the past; instead advocating planting in loose drafts of colour.

But the era’s fascination with gardens was not confined to Impressionism. Matisse, Klimt and Kandinsky were all inspired by gardens to varying degrees. Special mention should be made of Emil Nolde. Long influenced by van Gogh, this pioneering German Expressionist designed an enchanted garden in northern Germany, dominated by his passion for colour. Another German, Max Liebermann had a very different conception of gardening, one that emphasised rational design and monochrome schemes. And, finally Sorolla, who created his own beautiful garden at his house in Madrid, inspired by the tradition of Islamic gardens in Spain, combining flowers with decorative tiles and paving.