Translated by Bethszabee Garner
From Cap Ferret to Marrakech, and from Giverny to Milly-la-Forêt, certain artists have made their gardens much more than a place of rest; they have turned them into works of art. Sculpted, painted, and carefully designed, these landscapes become living works of art, reflecting an aesthetic, an intimate refuge, or a dialogue with the world. Here, nature is not decoration but material for creation. These gardens tell as much as paintings or words, extending the work in the silence of foliage or the light of morning.
Set sail for the imagination: the Villa-Paquebot Ephrussi
Located at the tip of Cap Ferrat, between the sea and the mountains, the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild seems ready to set sail. Its silhouette hugs the contours of the promontory like the bow of an ocean liner. Baroness Béatrice used this unique topography as the basis for a daring project: a villa and its garden, designed like a stationary ship, taking visitors on an aesthetic journey through different cultures. Heir to the Rothschild dynasty, Béatrice was born in Paris in 1864. Trained from childhood in taste by her art-loving father, she inherited an immense fortune and a keen sense of refinement in 1905.
Between 1906 and 1912, she had her home built in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, entrusting the project to three architects, including Jacques-Marcel Auburtin. The villa, inspired by Italian Renaissance palaces, became an orchestrated “folly,” both a place of collection and contemplation. But it is perhaps the garden that fascinates the most. A veritable plant gallery, it unfolds in nine sequences of varied inspiration: Spanish, Florentine, Japanese, Provençal, Mexican... At the tip, a rose garden; further on, a lapidary garden, and in the center, a French-style parterre crossed by a water staircase.
Each space reflects an eclectic taste, nourished by travel and a collector's eye for detail. As a member of the Société nationale d'horticulture, Béatrice closely monitored the acclimatization of species from all continents. She created a plant conservatory in a region with an exceptional microclimate. More than just a holiday home, the Villa Ephrussi reflects an identity: that of an independent, cultured, cosmopolitan woman. Behind the Belle Époque façade, we can glimpse a self-portrait, where nature dialogues with history, and each path extends the trajectory of a Mediterranean Rothschild.
Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
1 avenue Ephrussi de Rothschild, 06230 Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
Giverny, or the birth of a living masterpiece
For Claude Monet, the garden was a studio. Better still: a manifesto. When he moved to Giverny in 1883, the painter was not just looking for a place to live, he was composing a territory. Between the Norman Clos and the Water Garden, Monet created two unique landscapes, shaped by his eye for color and his love of vegetation. He did not plant, he staged. Each flowerbed became a palette, each path a frame, each bloom a call of light. This gesture, both botanical and pictorial, turned the garden at Giverny into a work of art. Everything blended together: you left the studio to enter the garden, and vice versa. Willows, water lilies, bamboo, rhododendrons, nasturtiums, roses... each species responded to a visual project. Monet diverted a branch of the Epte River, dug ponds, planted water lilies, and arranged colors according to the light rather than the season. He painted with living things.
From the top of the Japanese bridge, he judged the scene as if it were a canvas. This water garden became the silent theater of his great late compositions. The Water Lilies of the Orangerie are an extension of this. Giverny becomes a threshold between worlds, from the visible to the evanescent.
A painter's garden, but also a garden that paints: it generates itself in the changing cycle of blooms. “In every season, one believes one is entering paradise,” wrote Gustave Geffroy, friend and biographer of the artist. But a paradise of sensations: changing, unstable, vibrant. A sensory experience, where only light creates the picture. Giverny, it’s paint sprouting from the earth.
Fondation Monet, Giverny – 84 rue Claude Monet, 27620 Giverny
Jean Cocteau's green refuge in Milly-la-Forêt
In Milly-la-Forêt, on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, Jean Cocteau found a haven in 1947 where he could escape the hustle and bustle of Paris. He fell in love with an 18th-century house, known as the Maison du Bailli, which he spotted after filming Beauty and the Beast. It became his sanctuary, his ultimate theater. Behind a porch flanked by turrets lies an enclosed garden, bordered by moats and planted with irises, hydrangeas, and apple trees. Silence reigns here, broken only by the sound of water and cats. It was here, surrounded by Édouard Dermit, that he would write, draw, and live out his last seventeen years.
The house, classified and labeled “Maison des Illustres” (House of Illustrious People), preserves the spirit of the poet: a kitchen on a platform like a stage, hidden objects, and mental frescoes suspended everywhere. This garden, rebuilt in 2010 in the spirit of the original orchard, is a setting of peace. It extends the artist's hand into the earth. A few steps away, the Saint-Blaise des Simples chapel, decorated with his plant paintings, now houses his tomb. On the stone is a phrase: “I remain with you.” And the garden continues to watch over him.
Maison Jean Cocteau, Milly-la-Forêt – 15 rue du Lau, 91490 Milly-la-Forêt
The Majorelle Garden, or the art of cultivating the gaze
In Marrakech, the Majorelle Garden is not visited like an ordinary botanical garden. Created in 1924 by French painter Jacques Majorelle, it stands out as a place apart, somewhere between a work of art and a green haven. Inspired by the light of Morocco and the modernist movement, Majorelle imagined a complete garden, combining architectural lines and controlled luxuriance. The son of the famous cabinetmaker Louis Majorelle, Jacques was immersed in the world of art from childhood. Settling in Marrakech in 1919, he acquired a plot of land on the edge of the medina. Around his Moorish and Art Deco-style villa-studio, he composed a living landscape: cacti, bamboo, agaves, palm trees, and rare plants collected during his travels were gradually arranged in a rigorous setting, designed like a painting. In 1937, he covered his studio in a deep ultramarine blue, which became his signature: the famous “Majorelle blue.” ."
In 1947, the painter opened his garden to the public. But after his death in 1962, the site was gradually abandoned. In 1980, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, who had fallen under its spell, acquired it and undertook a meticulous restoration, enriching the plant collection and preserving the original spirit. The garden has become an iconic landmark in Marrakech. To mark its centenary in 2024, the Jardin Majorelle Foundation has inaugurated a temporary pavilion, a new addition to the visitor experience. This contemporary space offers a fresh perspective on the garden's botanical riches and extends its founder's original intention: to invite contemplation through a dialogue between nature, architecture, and memory.
Jardin Majorelle – Rue Yves Saint Laurent, 40090 Marrakech, Morocco
An artists' garden: the Maeght Foundation, a place of dialogue
A stone's throw from the village of Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a garden dialogues with the world. Here, the sculptures of Braque, Miró, Giacometti, and Calder converse. They respond to the pine trees, the light, and the white walls of Josep Lluís Sert. Since 1964, the Maeght Foundation has embodied a rare project: bringing art, nature, and architecture together in organic harmony. Nothing separates the interior from the exterior. Visitors walk through patios, pools, and shadows, like a series of sequences designed for the works and the gaze.
A ceramic by Léger, a stabile by Calder, a fountain by Bury, everything seems to have always been there. Born out of grief, the loss of their son Bernard, the foundation was for the Maeghts a gesture of reconstruction through art. Artists responded to their call. Miró imagined a phantasmagorical labyrinth. Braque designed a stained-glass window. Chagall donated a mosaic. Inspired by Le Corbusier, Sert conceived an open, welcoming architecture.
Each work was designed for the site. The sun modulates shadows and colors. The roofs collect rainwater for the ponds. Art takes root in the site. The museum becomes a landscape, a place where you can listen to what the works have to say. Sixty years after its inauguration, the Maeght Foundation remains a rare model: a museum on a human scale, designed for artists as much as for the public. A lived-in place, where the gaze circulates freely.
Maeght Foundation, Saint-Paul-de-Vence – 623 chemin des Gardettes, 06570 Saint-Paul-de-Vence
Article written by Désirée de Lamarzelle, featured in issue no. 12 of OniriQ magazine.
