The drooping heads of the sunflowers in my own garden remind me of another garden painted long ago by Canadian Group of Seven artist J.E.H. MacDonald. The Tangled Garden was first exhibited in the 44th exhibition of the Ontario Society of Artists, which opened at the Public Reference Library in Toronto on March 11, 1916. Painted in the manner of the post-impressionists, The Tangled Garden and other paintings in the exhibition created quite a stir in staid Toronto, where viewers were scandalized by the brilliant colours and loose brushwork. One critic reported the painting was “an incoherent mass of color”. Nearly a century later, The Tangled Garden, which MacDonald based on his own backyard garden, is regarded as one of his greatest paintings.
Willow House Chronicles 