HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

Paintings of picture-perfect flora

towards the end of the 19th century, the trend for formal planting gave way to a wilder, more natural style of gardening, where yew hedges were replaced with herbaceous borders. It was a transformation that encouraged generations of artists to celebrate their beauty and is the subject of a new exhibition. Bringing together art from the Pre-raphaelites to the Bloomsbury Group, ‘The Enchanted Garden’ is an ode to English horticulture. As well as vibrant oil paintings by Lucien Pissarro and Vanessa Bell, there are magical images of Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies and vegetablepatch illustrations by Beatrix Potter. teresa fitzherbert ‘The Enchanted Garden’ is at the William Morris Gallery (www.wmgallery.org.uk) until 27 January 2019.

above and right: wallpaper designed by william morris. below: william stott’s ‘the widow’s acre’ from about 1900

below: lucien pissarro’s ‘the fairy’ (1894)