Tapestry inspired by Frances Burney’s novel, The Secret Garden. A top-down view of an old stone wall featuring a burgundy door, behind which a fantastical garden rises in tiers. The path beyond the door leads to a blooming tree, and a robin sits on the stone next to a key. The subdued gray wall and vibrant garden are constructed on six Jacquard threads.
Stills from the film «The Secret Garden»
Concept
The tapestry speaks to the moment before discovery: we stand before an old wall and gaze upon a garden that has long been hidden. The image is drawn from the novel «The Secret Garden,» where a neglected garden behind a locked door reawakens the characters isolated from the world. This is the classic motif of the hortus conclusus: the wall as boundary, the door as threshold, and the garden as that which becomes accessible only to those who hold the key.
Color and material adhere to the same narrative. The wall is rendered in restrained neutral tones, while all the saturation is reserved for the garden: green, yellow, pink, and blue. The burgundy door and the red bodice of the rosebush echo each other, holding the composition together. The image is built upon broad silhouettes and fields of color, featuring three planes of depth and soft transitions, which the jacquard weaving naturally conveys. Fine lines and minute details are eliminated; the texture of the stone is captured through closely related hues and thick, dark stitching.
This tapestry is designed for an interior space where it functions as a window—in a dining area against a concrete wall, it becomes a portal into another world above the table. The selected size is 204 × 146 cm.
Idea
Show the garden at the moment before it opens. The cold stone wall below and the blooming garden above are connected by a single axis of sight: from the door to the tree, from closed to alive.
Visualization
