Book competition

The prize in this week’s book competition is Public Parks, Private Gardens – Paris to Provence (Metropolitan Museum of Art). Click here for your chance to win.

The spectacular transformation of Paris during the 19th century into a city of tree- lined boulevards and public parks both redesigned the capital and inspired the era’s great Impressionist artists. Including masterworks by artists such as Bonnard, Cassatt, Cézanne, Corot, Daumier, Van Gogh, Manet, Matisse, Monet, and Seurat, Public Parks, Private Gardens examines how the transformed landscape affected life and art in the city. As the availability and variety of plants and flowers grew tremendously, so did public interest in them. A revival in floral still life easel painting brought the garden’s beauty indoors. Many artists were themselves avid gardeners, and they painted parks and gardens as the distinctive scenery of contemporary life. Writing from the perspective of both a distinguished art historian and a trained landscape designer, Colta Ives provides new insights not only into these essential works, but also into an extraordinarily fertile period in France’s history.

Answer the following question, by 9 a.m. on 4 May, to win a copy of Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Q: In which village in Normandy did Monet cultivate his famous gardens?

For our last competition prize we offered The Silver Caesars: A Renaissance Mystery by Julie Siemon (ed.), published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The question was:

Q: Which emperor, according to Suetonius, drank pearls dissolved in vinegar?

Answer: Caligula

Congratulations to the winner, Linda Macdonald