The Museum Garden

The garden of the Musée Eugène Delacroix, reached by crossing the painter's last dwelling, forms one of the integral parts of the museum, as do the rooms of the apartment or the studio. 

History

 When Delacroix decided to give up his large studio on Rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, in the heart of the then fashionable Nouvelle-Athènes district, his choice of the Rue Furstenberg was largely due to the existence of a small garden for his exclusive use with the possibility of building a studio there. He would therefore be able to evolve in an oasis of greenery and calm set amid a lively district. The artist thus had his studio built in this garden of around 400 m², hidden from the road. Just after moving in, he wrote in his Journal (December 28, 1857):

"My apartment is decidedly charming. I felt slightly melancholic after dinner to find myself uprooted once more. I gradually became reconciled with the idea and went to bed delighted. Woke up the next day to see the most gracious sun on the houses opposite my window. The view of my little garden and the cheerful appearance of my studio always make me happy."

Delacroix was a nature lover. His Journal and Correspondence recount his numerous sojourns in the countryside (including Champrosay, Augerville, Nohant, and Croze) or by the sea (Fécamp and Dieppe). The pull of nature is also borne out in his work. Indeed, from 1845 onward, the artist took up the study of nature for its own worth. George Sand, who witnessed his initial attempts, recalled an anecdote dating from one of the first times the master stayed in Nohant, in 1845:

"I saw Delacroix's first attempts at painting flowers. He had studied botany in his youth, and as he was endowed with a remarkable memory he still remembered this (...). I stumbled upon him enraptured before a yellow lily whose handsome structure he had just grasped." (George Sand, Nouvelles lettres d'un voyageur, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1877. Our translation.)

It was probably during one of these first trips to the novelist's house, between 1848 and 1850, that Delacroix painted the Bouquet of Flowers (Paris, Musée du Louvre,), on loan to the Musée Eugène Delacroix. The museum also possesses a Study of Flowers, representing a poppy, a pansy, and an anemone, executed during the same period. It was also in February 1849 that Delacroix met the botanist Adrien de Jussieu (1797-1853), recording their conversation in his Journal. At this time, the artist's writings revealed a virtually naturalistic curiosity with all natural things. Delacroix also worked on five floral compositions that he hoped to present to the 1849 Salon; in the end, he would exhibit only two of them, Basket of Flowers Overturned in a Park (New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Basket of Fruit in a Flower Garden (Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art), rectangular in format, in part more in keeping with the genre tradition, yet highly original.

Renovating the garden 

 To perpetuate the artist's memory and restore a site so dear to him, in 1999 the Musée Eugène Delacroix embarked upon a program to renovate and beautify the garden while respecting its particular atmosphere. The only document then in the museum's possession was the "gardening memorandum for the account of Mr Delacroix," dating from November 26, 1857. It was among the documents held by the artist's sole legatee, Achille Piron, most of which were purchased by the Archives des Musées Nationaux during a sale at Caen on December 6, 1997. This invoice lists the successive operations: firstly, the restoration of the soil; the pruning and cutting back of existing clumps of plants and vines; the creation of beds of flowers bordered by thyme; and the planting of a large number of different rosebushes, currant and raspberry bushes, as well as various trees. The garden must have enjoyed a dense and highly varied plant life. Yet although this document highlights Delacroix's interest in the restoration of the garden, it provides virtually no specific indication of the garden's layout when the painter moved there or of the planting carried out. Likewise, references gleaned from Delacroix's letters are extremely vague and there is no-even cursory-sketch of the garden. It was therefore impossible to provide a historical reconstitution. Furthermore, the museum had to take into account the constraints of a site that would receive over forty thousand visitors each year.

 This is why, in line with advice from landscape architect Jacqueline Osty, the museum opted for a restoration. Despite their lack of precision, Delacroix's writings tell of his delight in the rampant richness or even disorder of a country garden; his floral compositions, in particular, offer a glimpse of the flowers he liked. These various sources (books and articles that appeared when the studio was inaugurated in 1832), as well as old photographs from the early twentieth century, have made it possible to recreate a haven of peace close to that of Delacroix's and thus to provide visitors with a delight similar to that experienced by the artist.

The new layout includes a central area so as to provide the necessary distance to step back and admire the studio's façade. The lighting and garden furniture are both subtle and pleasant. Plant species and shrubs were selected based on Delacroix's drawings and paintings, and include hydrangea, roses, and lilies. Others were chosen in keeping with his tastes and for their long-lasting blossoming: wisteria, fig trees, hazel trees, and boxwood.