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- Conference
Les jardins de Ferdinand Bac (1859-1952) by Agnès du VACHAT – Château de Bénouville
The gardens of Ferdinand Bac (1859-1952)
This conference offers an opportunity to discover these gardens created by Ferdinand Bac (1859-1952) in the early 20th century on the Côte d’Azur. A great traveller and artist of many talents, Bac created gardens inspired by his Italian and Spanish memories, located in Grasse, Cap Ferrat, Cap Martin and Menton. The latter, near the Italian border, is home to his greatest masterpiece: the Les Colombières villa and garden. Based on archive images and recent photographs, we will present features of these gardens and the sources of inspiration that influenced Bac, who strove to exalt Mediterranean culture and civilisation.
Agnès du Vachat
Agnès du Vachat is a garden historian and philosophy lecturer, who acts as associate researcher at the National Graduate Landscaping School research laboratory in Versailles. She has taught garden and landscape history in the aforementioned school, where she also presented a thesis in Landscape and architectural science entitled “L’émergence du paysage espagnol à travers les récits des voyageurs français (1650-1936) (The emergence of Spanish landscape through tales of French travellers (1650-1936) for which she received a research grant at the Casa de Velasquez (Madrid). Her research focuses on the critical fortune of Arabo-Andalousian gardens in art, the literature and art of gardens and on the work of Ferdinand Bac (Michel Baridon grant awarded by the Comité des Parcs et Jardins de France).