Patrick Bowe looks at paintings of three Irish gardens, which favour effects of light and colour over botanical detail
The early 20th century saw a number of artists, especially watercolourists, turn to painting gardens. Among them was George Samuel Elgood (1851–1943). He travelled throughout Europe, mainly painting historic gardens in England, Italy, France and Spain. He also painted three gardens in Ireland. In 1904, these watercolours were published by Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932), the doyenne of English garden writers and designers of her time, in her book Classic English Gardens. Jekyll included accounts of the three Irish gardens, describing them as locations of ‘the sister isle’. Though the gardens no longer exist, these paintings are an invaluable record of them at their finest.
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