Azalea Garden : May 1956
- Artist: Patrick Heron
- Date: 1956
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 1524 x 1276 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Azalea Garden : May 1956” by Patrick Heron. Painted in oil on canvas, about 1524 × 1276 mm, it was created at Eagles Nest after Heron had moved into his Cornish garden. In a letter he explains that he called the series “garden paintings”, because the colors of azaleas and camellias were erupting all over the yard in May.
Heron began as a critic; by 1956 he was already an established painter. The work shows how he was transitioning from representational to abstract art, yet still keeping formal qualities—broad brush strokes, intense color fields—as essential. The canvas is inscribed “Azalea Garden: May 1956”, and the style recalls his early Tachist period while still rooted in a real landscape.
The painting first appeared at the Redfern Gallery in June 1956, then later in a retrospective at Richard Demarco Gallery in 1967, and was eventually acquired by Tate in 1980. It is now on display in Living Gardens (Room 39). The scene feels like a snapshot of the Cornish light—bright, almost white—and Heron’s loose strokes give a feeling of the garden’s vivacity. The piece balances subject matter with gestural formalism, illustrating the artist’s claim that “formal qualities … are paramount, but subject still matters.”
See it in person
Azalea Garden : May 1956 is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
