40 Artists Magazine April 2020
The garden has maintained an influential position
throughout the history of philosophy, art and literature—
a potent symbol of an ordered life and an ordered mind.
The 18th-century French philosopher Voltaire filled his
ribald satire Candide with gardens, both fanciful and prac-
tical. The novel famously ends with the oft-stated dictate,
“We must cultivate our garden.”
Fine artists have envisioned the biblical Garden of Eden
in a variety of styles and media, from the painting seen
below, by Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553)
to the colorful, abstracted, 21st-century sculpture by Jim
Dine (American, 1935–). Greek mythology provides alter-
native references to the garden, and inspired artists such
as Frederic Leighton (English, 1830–96) used them to
paint richly sensual, seductive subjects, as seen in the
three female figures lounging in The Garden of the
Hesperides (opposite).Early European explorers often included horticulturalists
on their journeys around the globe, with the goal of bringing
back exotic specimens to plant in elaborate gardens, such as
those at the Schönbrunn Palace, in Vienna; the Jardin des
Plantes surrounding the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, in
Paris; and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London.
Illustrators like John Frederick Miller (English, 1759–96)
sometimes accompanied explorers on these expeditions, doc-
umenting their botanical discoveries in beautiful drawings.FLORALS ACROSS CULTURES
Long before the 18th-century botanical illustrators of the
Enlightenment, Chinese artists considered flowers a wor-
thy subject. As far back as 4,000 B.C., flowers have been a
major category of Chinese art. The genre reached an apex
during the Tang dynasty (618–907), a period considered
the Golden Age of the classical Chinese
garden. Paintings of birds and flowers
became associated with the Chinese
philosophy of Taoism—a state of being
in harmony with nature—which would
later see a resurgence of interest dur-
ing the social, political and cultural
upheavals in 1960s America. This
is surely an indication that in times
of stress, human beings seek solace
in nature. Particularly for urban
dwellers, nature has often been most
accessible in the form of gardens.
European and Chinese tradi-
tions come together in paintings by
Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766),
an Italian Jesuit lay brother and
missionary to China who became an
artist (see Picture of Paeonia lactiflora
from Xian’e Changchun Album, page
42). Castiglione served in the imperial
court of three Chinese emperors,
where his flower paintings were much
admired. In his surviving work, we
can clearly see influences from both
Asian and European artistic styles.
To this day, the most famous
artist-gardener is arguably Claude
Monet (French, 1840–1926). His gar-
den at Giverny is high on the list of
must-see locations for tourists visiting
France. Monet created his garden to
act as a muse for his paintings. The
pond featured in his Water Lilies series
(see Water Lily Pond, page 96), which
inspired more than 250 avant-gardeThe Garden of Eden
by Lucas Cranach the Elder
oil on panel, 20x15
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS