This wonderful scene depicts a victorian garden growing with vitality and abundance. Featuring multiple tall flower stems and delicately painted shrubs this outdoor space offers a specific type of solace as the onlooker is invited to take a walk through the garden.

Deep greens and reds are used by the artist to fill the majority of the canvas, with only a few traces of grey in the background to hint at the house behind. The result of this is an idyllic escape that is bursting with life, evoking the simplicity and calmness that can be found in a garden on a quiet sunny, summer afternoon.

This garden is heavily populated with one type of flower – poppies. Poppies have always featured in artist’s work across the ages but were an especially popular subject for Victorian painters. They were often embraced by Victorian artists most commonly as a symbol for death and mortality but also occasionally as an embodiment of respect and remembrance.