Best in show | The Garden of Eden with the Temptation in the Background, c.1600

“Gazing out across Capability Brown-designed parkland from a window in Compton Verney art gallery is like looking at a magnificent landscape painting.

It’s an ideal place, therefore, for an exhibition of great pictures that record and reflect on our ever-changing relationship with the countryside, from the painter JMW Turner to Scottish poet and gardener Ian Hamilton Findlay, from Nicolas Poussin’s classical landscapes to abstract land art.

Jan Brueghel the Elder’s work is the opening picture in the show, the jumping-off point set in the first garden to be painted – certainly in the Judeo-Christian tradition – and it’s a slightly bonkers but brilliant piece of work.

Nature takes centre stage in this portrayal of the Garden of Eden. Pairs of wild animals mix in complete harmony – it looks like a couple of cheetahs and two guinea pigs are near neighbours on the right, for example – while parrots take up residence in superbly painted rose bushes, a cat sits in a tree resplendent with an array of colourful birds, and a penguin emerges from the pool.

Everything in the garden is so rosy and fruitful, in fact, that it’s easy to miss Adam and Eve in the distance at the moment of temptation. They are bit players, compared with the abundance of nature on display.

It’s a playful image but it has a serious side, too, and asks a lot of our imagination. The picture is a bit like Compton Verney itself, as there are lots of very different colourful things you wouldn’t ordinarily expect to see in the same space.

We have six separate collections that don’t really belong together in a gallery but combine to create a many-layered experience.

This is an important year for us because it’s our 20th anniversary – people assume we’re much older because of the setting of the house and gardens.

We have ambitious plans to celebrate and build on the remarkable legacy of the Peter Moores Foundation, which was crucial in getting the gallery up and running.

One of the new developments is our sculpture park. A lot of visitors come purely to enjoy the gardens without seeing the art indoors, so we are extending into the grounds with artwork designed to help people think about how the landscape has evolved over time.

What we have been experiencing weather-wise recently makes us believe we should encourage people to start thinking about the landscape afresh. 

Our relationship with the outdoors has changed since the pandemic. As a visitor when lockdown eased, it was a joy to be able to walk in the open air in this corner of Warwickshire and to become more aware and appreciative of the sound of birdsong and the wind in the trees.

This exhibition is about the house and grounds complementing each other and encouraging visitors to learn about the outside from the paintings inside and vice versa.”

Interview by John Holt. Landscape and Imagination: From Gardens to Land Art is at Compton Verney until 16 June