Vincent van Gogh never owned a garden, but throughout his career he
painted and drew outdoor spaces and natural objects frequently, both
fascinated and stimulated by each location's unique character.
In this book Ralph Skea surveys the gardens that were most dear to Van
Gogh--from the domestic havens of parsonage gardens in the Netherlands
to the romance of Parisian city parks, from the blazing flower beds of
Provence to the asylum gardens that provided the artist with seclusion
and calm in his final months.
Whether joyous paintings of plants in bloom or the intensely beautiful
studies of lilacs, roses, irises, and pine trees that he produced in the
asylum at Saint-Rémy, all the oils and sketches included here are
monuments to the artist's originality and poetic sensibility.