MR JOHNSTON(E)'S ALVA with Richard Aitken

The painting Alva attributed to Nasmyth in The Johnston Collection plunges us straight into the Scottish countryside of the mid-19th century, replete with Highland estates and wooded glens.

Yet there are Australian connections that even William Johnston cannot have known when he purchased this gem for Fairhall. This lecture provides an armchair tour of Scottish gardens suffused with the detective work of the art historian.

RICHARD AITKEN is a Melbourne-based architect, curator, and historian. He has prepared conservation plans for many of Australia’s most significant historic gardens. His books include Cultivating Modernism (2013), The Garden of Ideas (2010), Botanical Riches (2006), Seeds of Change (2006), Gardenesque (2004), and The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens (2002). He has recently retired as co-editor of Australian Garden History and is currently curating and exhibition for the State Library of NSW and writing a complementary book Planting Dreams, both scheduled for opening / launch in September 2016.