Beyond Giverny - The Gardens of Caillebotte, Bonnard and Renoir

Roses in the Garden at Petit Gennevilliers 1856 Gustave Caillebotte

Gardens have provided immeasurable inspiration to a list of prominent artists beyond what are perhaps the most famous, the gardens of Claude Monet in Giverny. Among the French artists of the time, three who delighted in creating and painting gardens of their own were Gustave Caillebotte, Pierre Bonnard and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

The opening up of trade and travel in the late 1800s brought a surge of new plant species to Europe from around the world. Advances in hybridization and production led to availability of a greater variety of flowers at prices affordable to the individual gardener, not just larger public gardens. Iris and chrysanthemums were exotic new species to the European garden. Garden styles were becoming more naturalistic, steering away from the tight Victorian styles.

For some, the ability to manipulate nature by creating gardens for subjects of their paintings may have been a response to …