Painting Paradise: The Art of the Garden

Really beautiful exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery looking at gardens in art and how gardens have inspired artists and craftspeople.

The first section looks at themes in gardens from how the Persian invented the term paradise and gardens in the Christian religion. After this the show was arranged chronically.

Of course I loved the section on the Renaissance garden and having been to Hampton Court recently was so interested in a painting of the garden at Whitehall Palace thought to be the first recognisable garden in art. It was just like one of the gardens I’d been to at the Palace and it had obviously been based on this picture. There was also the earliest portrait of a gardener, Jacapo Cennini, employed by the Medici.

It was interesting to see how many of the botanical pictures where by female artists. This was obviously a subject which was considered appropriate for women to work on.

The big room in the gallery was devoted to Baroque gardens and was stunning. It pointed out the landscape gardens were Britain’s man cultural export of the 18th. It was lovely to see a Delft tulip vase with tulips in it. I’ve never been able to visualise how they would have worked in use and they seem so strange.

It ended with a look at horticultural gardens of the 19th century and the growth in botanical gardens and plant collection as the empire expanded.

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