Gardens in Art
Autumn Term 2024
20 September - 25 October (7 weeks)
Members: £55 Non-members: £66
Concession: £20 (call office 020 8340 3343)
This course is for those interested in art as well as gardens. As a keen gardener as well as an art historian, Dr Peter Webb has always been interested in gardens in art, whether painted or created by artists. He has discovered important European gardens dating from the 16th century onwards, my favourite being Claude Monet’s beautiful water gardens at Giverny in Northern France, 1880s to 1920s, the subject of the majority of his paintings. Many other artists of that period including Bonnard, Liebermann, Sorolla and Kandinsky created gardens which became the subjects of their paintings. Van Gogh and Gauguin both featured gardens in their works. Garden design became an important part of the art world in Great Britain in the early 20th century. Towards the end of the century, the film maker Derek Jarman created an extraordinary garden on the beach at Dungeness in Kent, and as a friend, Peter was able to help him with the experiment. This course will feature gardens from the 16th century right up to the present day.
The course will be comprised of a series of lectures, illustrated with slides; during week seven, students will be encouraged to discuss topics they would like to revisit.
Course plan:
- Italy and France: Pierro Ligurio’s Bormazo Garden at Viterbo, Italy, 1552; Palace of Versailles, 17th century; Postman Cheval, Ideal Palace, at Hauterives, France, early 20th century
- England 18th to 21st century: Henry Hoare, Stourhead, 1735; Gertrude JekyIl and Edwin Lutyens, Hestercombe, 1904-8; Vita Sackville-West, Sissinghurst Castle, 1930s; Hamilton Finlay’s Little Sparta, Scotland, 1940s; Dale Chihuly at Kew Gardens, 2019
- Claude Monet at Giverney 1880s-1920s
- France, 19th and 20th century: Van Gogh at Arles; Gauguin in Tahiti; Henri Le Sidaner at Gerberoy; Pierre Bonnard at Veronnet
- Europe, 19th and 20th century: Max Liebermann at Wannsee, Germany; Joaquin Sorolla at Madrid; Peder Kroyer at Skagen, Denmark; Kandinsky at Murnau, Germany. Derek Jarman at Dungeness 1988-1990
- Discussion
Dr Peter Webb
Dr Peter Webb has degrees from Cambridge and London Universities and a Doctorate from the University of East Anglia. After a lectureship at Coventry College of Art, he started teaching the first degree course in England on the subject of The Erotic Arts at Hornsey College of Art in London in 1970 and lectured extensively on related topics at universities and colleges throughout the seventies and eighties. He published his influential book on the same subject in 1975, later reprinted and updated. Subsequently he has written books on Hans Bellmer, David Hockney and Leonor Fini. After Hornsey, he taught at Middlesex University in London, and he retired as Reader in the History of 20th Century Art in 1996.
