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Here we've the got the Rose Pavillion, Gerberoy
by Henri La Sidander.
La Sidaner developed his much admired garden
near Beauvais
in the medieval village of Gerberoy in Northern France,
from the very beginning of the 20th century creating dedicated areas
for different colours and types of plants.
Soon after the garden became an artistic laboratory for
mysterious twilight effects and a nuance of floral colours.
In his rose garden area
La Sidaner grew only pink and red varieties
and in this picture their profusion allows only a glimpse
of the red roofed pavilion he had built as a summer studio.
The effect has been compared to that of mille-fleurs tapestry
or a thousand flowers tapestry popular in the middle ages
which backgrounds used to be made of thousands of woven flowers.
In the painting the astonishing explosion of flowers cascades over
what once used to be the original ramparts of the village
from battles with the English in medieval times.
La Sidaner himself introduced his rose garden,
explaining to his visitors,
that fourteen centuries of history sleep under his roses.
The Rose Pavilion, Gerberoy with its motif of geometric architecture
overlaid by freely growing roses
is a perfect example of the ideal harmony
between the formal and the natural of which La Sidaner willingly spoke.
After the twilight motifs which dominate his early work
and reflect La Sidaner's symbolist affinities
this picture marks a return to more traditionally impressionist sunlit effects
combined with a keen sense of the decorative.
Moreover the picture contributes to the ideal of unity between
house and garden, promoted by La Sidander's contemporaries.
This garden at Beauvais was started in 1902 so
the garden was well established by the time the painting was done.
He planned his garden in colour blocks
and also in types of plants
and in this amazing painting La Sidaner uses only the pink and red roses
that he'd planted against the wall of his new red roofed pavilion,
which he used as his summer studio.
The roses are so rampant one sees little of the red roof.
You can feel the bright light in this picture
and one very much hopes that these are scented roses too.
They'll be the older types of roses
many petalled as in some Redoute paintings
and the library at the Botanics has some very special copies of Redoute paintings
amongst its big collection of botanical works.