Renoir and French Gardens

When we think of French gardens, two extremes generally spring to mind. First, the formal classical masterpieces of such 17th century garden monuments as Versailles, where hedges, trees and lawns were snipped and clipped and whipped into shape for purposes more political than aesthetic. At the opposite pole is the overflowing floral extravaganza created by the Impressionist painter Monet at Giverny. Even tourists who give nary a hoot about plants regularly trek out from Paris on day trips to both of these famous sites.

Far fewer tourists, however, go on pilgrimage to Les Collettes, the garden of Monet’s contemporary and friend Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Located in the south of France with a view of the Mediterranean, Les Collettes was purchased by Renoir in 1907, and he lived there, producing what some critics consider his best work, until his death in 1919. The nine-acre estate, which is open to the public, has been made the subject of Renoir’s Garden, the latest book by author and photographer Derek Fell (Simon & Schuster, $30).

The plantings on Renoir’s property ran the gamut from wildflower meadow to formal rose garden, but it is the centuries-old olive grove that is its most distinguishing feature. Indeed, it was to save the grove from destruction by development that Renoir purchased the land. Many of the trees date back to the 16th century (some are as old as 1,000 years), and Renoir thought they were the most beautiful trees he had ever seen. For Americans who rarely gaze on buildings this old, the mere idea of such age in a tree is almost inconceivable. Fortunately, Fell includes several photographs to convince us.

But just because Renoir wanted to keep his olive grove from being razed and turned into a carnation nursery for the floral industry doesn’t mean he regarded it as a pristine preserve removed from human involvement. In fact, Les Collettes was a working farm where the family grew its own food, produced its own olive oil, and harvested orange blossoms for sale to perfume factories. As such, it epitomized for Renoir his vision of an earthly paradise in which man actively participated in nature, and the needs of both were met.

In his art, too, Renoir preferred landscapes with people.

Renoir’s attitude toward gardening differed markedly from Monet’s. The garden at Giverny gives the impression of casual abandon, but everything was carefully plotted, with plants spaced and groomed to create the compositions the artist had already decided he wished to paint. Monet even had one gardener whose main job was to keep the pond clean and separate the water lilies so that sky and trees could be reflected in the water.

Renoir was more laissez-faire: He also grew specific flowers so he could paint them - roses, dahlias and poppies were his favorites - but he was not obsessively tidy. When a gardener once asked permission to weed a path, Renoir brusquely responded, “What weeds?”

Renoir’s Garden is a portrait of the place rather than of the man, but it does convey a sense of the artist whose declining years were happy and productive, despite advancing age and a crippling rheumatism that made it difficult even to hold a paintbrush. When he could no longer walk, Renoir still went into the garden to paint. And when he could no longer pick up the brush, it would be bandaged to his hand. He continued working in this fashion until shortly before his death. His last word was “flowers.”