ARTISTS
Christian Pletenburg-Brechneff: Hill-Stead's Secret Gardens
This exhibition invites visitors to rediscover Hill-Stead鈥檚 remarkable garden legacy, both celebrated and nearly forgotten.
At its heart are the gardens of Hill-Stead: the beloved Beatrix Farrand鈥揹esigned Sunken Garden, and its lesser-known counterpart, the Wild Walking Garden, originally created by Hill-Stead鈥檚 founder Theodate Pope Riddle.
Between 1901 and 1946, the Wild Walking Garden was a living landscape of meandering paths, water features, and plantings that offered a more untamed counterpoint to the formal Sunken Garden. After the estate became a museum in 1947, this garden slowly fell into disrepair, surviving only in photographs, plans, and memory.
Today, Hill-Stead is embarking on the ambitious work of reviving this hidden treasure. With the guidance of renowned landscape Shavaun Towers of Towers Golde, who led Hill-Stead鈥檚 restoration of the Beatrix Farrand Sunken Garden in the 1980s, and the support of passionate donors, the Museum is carefully studying its archival plans while navigating modern-day environmental realities to bring back the spirit of the original Wild Walking Garden.
In Hill-Stead鈥檚 Secret Gardens, artist Christian Peltenburg-Brechneff captures this duality of past and present. His luminous works feature views of the Sunken Garden as it exists today, alongside imaginative visions of the Wild Walking Garden, reinterpreted through paint before it is reborn in the landscape. The exhibition also includes a selection of Peltenburg-Brechneff鈥檚 celebrated garden paintings from the Jardins de Quatre-Vents in La Malbaie, Quebec, one of North America鈥檚 most extraordinary private gardens.
Through art and history, the exhibition offers a glimpse of what was, what is, and what is yet to come, showcasing a poetic journey into Hill-Stead鈥檚 secret gardens.
This exhibition invites visitors to rediscover Hill-Stead鈥檚 remarkable garden legacy, both celebrated and nearly forgotten.
At its heart are the gardens of Hill-Stead: the beloved Beatrix Farrand鈥揹esigned Sunken Garden, and its lesser-known counterpart, the Wild Walking Garden, originally created by Hill-Stead鈥檚 founder Theodate Pope Riddle.
Between 1901 and 1946, the Wild Walking Garden was a living landscape of meandering paths, water features, and plantings that offered a more untamed counterpoint to the formal Sunken Garden. After the estate became a museum in 1947, this garden slowly fell into disrepair, surviving only in photographs, plans, and memory.
Today, Hill-Stead is embarking on the ambitious work of reviving this hidden treasure. With the guidance of renowned landscape Shavaun Towers of Towers Golde, who led Hill-Stead鈥檚 restoration of the Beatrix Farrand Sunken Garden in the 1980s, and the support of passionate donors, the Museum is carefully studying its archival plans while navigating modern-day environmental realities to bring back the spirit of the original Wild Walking Garden.
In Hill-Stead鈥檚 Secret Gardens, artist Christian Peltenburg-Brechneff captures this duality of past and present. His luminous works feature views of the Sunken Garden as it exists today, alongside imaginative visions of the Wild Walking Garden, reinterpreted through paint before it is reborn in the landscape. The exhibition also includes a selection of Peltenburg-Brechneff鈥檚 celebrated garden paintings from the Jardins de Quatre-Vents in La Malbaie, Quebec, one of North America鈥檚 most extraordinary private gardens.
Through art and history, the exhibition offers a glimpse of what was, what is, and what is yet to come, showcasing a poetic journey into Hill-Stead鈥檚 secret gardens.
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