Romantic French Gardens

Who? The Musée de la Vie romantique, which stands at the foot of Paris' Montmarte hill, is hosting a major exhibition comprising over 100 paintings, watercolours, drawings and objets d'art, which relate to the most emblematic creations that have marked the history of the French garden.

What? During the Enlightenment, the idea of a sensitive garden which 'spoke to the soul', inspired by the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, was born in England around 1720 and soon spread to France. Estates and gardens were scattered with grottos, temples and monuments in a pre-romantic scenery. After the Revolution, French aristocrats, who had emigrated to Britain and discovered modern English agriculture, started, on their return to their homeland, to restore their parks in the Brownian style – after Capability Brown, England's greatest gardener. Under Napoleon, Empress Josephine who was a keen collector of exotic plants she received from Africa and Australia, commissioned a modern park at La Malmaison, open to nature and had her roses painted by Redouté. Two decades later, during the restoration of the French Royal Monarchy, Botany became more than ever a new way of life and gardens enthused a rising Bourgeois Café society.

Why? With the official start of Spring only weeks away, the exhibition reminds us that a well-tended garden can be one of life's greatest pleasures. And what better way to follow a succession of flora and fauna-inspired collections from the recent round of shows – including floral prints at Jil Sander and jewellery at Lanvin, and a topiary lined catwalk at YSL – than to experience some of the most remarkable gardens in French history?

Romantic French Gardens (1770-1840) From Enlightenment to the Romantics at the Musée de la Vie romantique runs until 17 July.

Text by Laura Bradley