American, 1868-1952

Oil on canvas board

1924

Signed 'H van der Weyden' and dated '1924' lower right

29 x 39 cm (11½ x 15¼ in)

La Mortola, Hanbury Botanic Gardens, Ventimiglia, Liguria, Italy.
 
Whilst holidaying on the Côte d'Azur in the 1850s, Sir Thomas Hanbury was struck by the beauty of Cape Mortola, near Ventimiglia. He began to purchase parcels of land and eventually acquired 18 hectares.

With the help of his brother Daniel, a scholar of medicinal plants, several highly knowledgeable German and English botanists, and some highly-skilled gardeners, he collected some 6,000 types of plant from every country in the world.

He opened the Hanbury Botanical Gardens in 1867. Its purpose was to monitor how these plants would acclimatise or otherwise once removed from their natural environments but given the advantages of the local climate and its protected location – bounded as it is on three sides by mountains, and thus protected from the wind.

The path portrayed originally led from Mortola Superiore right down to the sea but it was cut through when the lower road from Menton to Latte and Ventimiglia was built. However, the lower portion of the path still remains and the rough steps portrayed in this painting can still be found today, leading down to the rocks by the seashore.