The garden observed - Paul Liss

The golden age of garden painting will be celebrated in this new selling exhibition presented in partnership with Liss Llewellyn. Sanctuary: Artist-Gardeners 1919-1939 will show over 20 artists including Charles Mahoney, Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious, Evelyn Dunbar, John Nash, Nancy Nicholson, Kenneth Rowntree and Winifred Knights. Between the two world wars there were an exceptional number of artists who gardened, taking their activities as plantsmen and plantswomen as seriously as they took their art. Charles Mahoney shared his unbridled enthusiasm for plants with Edward Bawden, Geoffrey Rhoades, John Nash and Evelyn Dunbar who swapped cuttings with each other by post. Dunbar, along with Mahoney and Nash, even produced books on the subject, while Harry Bush's oeuvre evolved around painting and repainting his garden in the south west London suburbs. This selling exhibition is in support of the Garden Museum's education programmes.