Tonight at the Palais de l’Agriculture at 8 PM
A richly illustrated lecture by Fabrice Roy: “Impressionists: Painters in Their Gardens”
followed by a recital “I Went Down into My Garden” by Marie-Caroline Kfoury (Soprano), Fabrice Roy (Baritone), and Aurore Illien (Piano):
BERLIOZ: Villanelle, excerpt from “Les Nuits d’Été,” poem by Théophile Gautier
FAURE: Aurore, poem by Armand Silvestre
LILI BOULANGER: From an Old Garden / From a Bright Garden
FAURE: May, poem by Victor Hugo / The Butterfly and the Flower, poem by Victor Hugo
POULENC: Pastorale
CHAUSSON: The Time of Lilacs, excerpt from “The Poem of Love and the Sea” by Maurice Bouchor / The Hummingbird, poem by Leconte de Lisle
MESSAGER excerpt from “Véronique”: Swinging Duo
Discover and Book
*From 1860 to 1920, many painters were captivated by the trend of horticulture. Fabrice Roy intends to discuss this blooming of vivid paintings, particularly focusing on the Impressionists, true “painter-gardeners.”
Amidst the industrial revolution, the private garden, a preserved patch of nature, developed alongside public gardens in cities. It provided the rising bourgeoisie with a space for relaxation. One enthusiast of this botanical trend, always in search of new discoveries, like the water lilies admired at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1889, was Claude Monet, who crafted his garden in Giverny as his ultimate masterpiece. Many painters, from Cézanne to Bonnard, would come on pilgrimages during the master’s lifetime.
Monet was not the only Impressionist who indulged in the joys of horticulture. While Pissarro “stooped to paint cabbages and lettuces,” according to critic Théodore Duret, Renoir was enraptured by bundles of flowers sown in his enclosed garden in Montmartre. Caillebotte built modern greenhouses and painted Nasturtiums in very modern decorative flat colors, inspired by Japanese prints! With a touch as vibrant as grass tousled by the breeze, Berthe Morisot painted her daughter and nanny immersed in a meadow in Bougival. Monet outshone with a sumptuous sketch (private collection) of a “Young Woman Among the Flowers,” a lily of white muslin at the center of a purple and green bouquet.
