 Analogies
between art and gardening are manifold; a gardener's
sense of colour, arrangement and symmetry are artistic
qualities before they are technical or scientific. When
a gardener looks at a pat of annuals as if they were
a palette of paint, or at a muddy spade as if a dripping
paintbrush, they are stepping onto the path of Gertrude
Jekyll, one of the best-loved gardeners of English landscape
history. It was Gertrude Jekyll, perhaps more than any
other English landscape artist of the 19th Century,
who highlighted gardening's close alignment with art
and design. It was Gertrude Jekyll who brought accessibility
and play to the fine art of horticulture.
Gertrude
was born in London, in November of 1843, to a wealthy
and distinguished family. Her brother Walter was friends
with author Robert Louis Stevenson, and was the inspiration
for his classic, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde. When Gertrude was a young girl, her family
left the big city for Bramley House in the district
of Surrey. This new home was possibly where her interest
in gardening first began to take root. At 18 years old,
Gertrude's parents did a most unusual thing for the
time: they sent her to art school. Often in the Victorian
times, young women who were not quickly married off
were kept at home to care for their aging parents. The
Jekyll's had the foresight and generosity to send their
talented daughter to Henry Coles's School of Art at
South Kensington in London. It was here where Gertrude
slipped easily and comfortably into the exciting world
of arts and crafts, design and architecture; here where
she found her true element. She made many friends, and
focused her study on aspects of gardening not yet fully
explored in England. Through such extensive training
in the arts, Gertrude developed a keen eye for colour
and proportion, highlighting experience, smell, and
texture as important components of the artistry that
is gardening. In spite of degenerating eyesight later
in life, her artistic eye proved so reliable that she
could design a space without actually seeing the physical
site. The architectural plans she consulted were exploded
by her imagination, and she was able to transfer her
vision into actuality with little effort.
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It
is perhaps Jekyll's friendship with English architect Sir
Edwin Lutyens that caused her rise in popularity and renown.
She met the young Lutyens at the age of 46, when he was only
20 years old. This somewhat unlikely friendship led to one of
the most memorable partnerships of the Arts and Crafts movement
of the 19th Century. Together they worked on over 100 gardens,
one of their most well-known being Hestercombe in Somerset.
But Gertrude's individual accomplishments should not be overshadowed
by this partnership. Over her lifetime, Jekyll was the consultant
for over four hundred gardens, both in the UK and abroad. Though
many of her gardens have not survived—being lost to urbanization,
changes in ownership, or war—some have been lovingly and
successfully restored. For example, the Glebe House in Woodbury,
Connecticut was restored only ten years ago. Hester Combe in
Somerset and Upton in Hampshire, and Munstead Wood in Surrey,
have both been brought to their former glory as well. The University
of California is home to many of her original drawings, sketches
and garden plans. In England, you can view microfiches of her
designs at the Surrey History Centre. These plans have made
authentic restoration possible.
Among
all of these, however, it is the Upton
Grey Manor House in Hampshire, UK, that has been
called a "living museum" of Jekyll design.
At the age of 65, Charles Holme asked Jekyll to design
his garden there, and because he was one of the most
prominent figures of the Arts and Crafts movement, and
founder of Studio magazine (the most widely-read and
popular magazine of its kind at the time), this proved
to be an important project. It also shows the breadth
of Gertrude's ability, for, in addition to succeeding
with projects of this magnitude, she also designed miniature
flowers for Queen Mary's dollhouse, with her faithful
friend Lutyens in charge of the landscaping plans! Jekyll's
abilities were varied; she could achieve similar results
in the magnanimous and the minute, bringing beauty to
acres and inches alike.
Gertrude's
talent did not end at the herbaceous borders she was
so recognized for. In fact, it is often said that she
is best remembered for the dissemination of gardening
education her books brought to the gardening world.
In addition to the hundreds of articles she wrote for
The Garden and Country Life, she began, at
the age of 50, a flourishing career as an author. Jekyll
wrote fourteen influential books, and co-wrote many
more. Her writing is memorable for not only its practical
advice, but also for its almost poetic introduction
of the enjoyment of gardening, as if it were a spiritual
practice and not just manual labour. This close alignment
of work, beauty and meaning was in fact one of the principles
of the Arts and Crafts movement, of which Jekyll was
a central figure. The movement's best ideas are carried
forth by adherents like Jekyll, for a significant amount
of her books have been carried through into subsequent
editions, and inspired numerous anthologies and biographies
of her colourful life.
Nicknamed
"Aunt Bumps" by Lutyen's own children, Jekyll
was like an eccentric old grandmother, her head full
of stories and her pockets full of knickknacks. She
died at the age of 89, leaving behind many friendships
and memories of the authentic and quirky quality to
gardening that only an artist could bring. She was revered
among gardeners for her loyalty to colour over the sweeping
trends of the early 20th Century, including angular
modern garden designs. Gertrude simply would not let
the great gardens of her home country be taken over
by continental designs and cease to be the places of
wonder that she had known so intimately as a child.
She is remembered for seeing things in gardening that
others could not see, and for her beautiful gardens
and her beautiful words: "A garden is a grand teacher.
It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches
industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust."
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Notable
Publications:
Wood
and Garden, 1899.
Home and Garden, 1900
Wall, Water, and Woodland Garden, 1901
Lilies for English Gardens, 1901
Roses for English Gardens, 1902
Old West Surrey, 1904
Some English Gardens, 1904 |
Flower
Decoration in the House, 1907
Children and Gardens, 1908
Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden, 1908
Gardens for Small Country Houses, 1912
Annuals and Biennials, 1916
Garden Ornament, 1918
A Gardener's Testament, 1937 |
Please
also visit Old London Maps
on the web as many of the maps
and views available there have plans and depictions of gardens
from
the medieval period through to the late nineteenth century.
Copyright
© Sara Douglass Enterprises Pty Ltd 2006
No material may be reproduced without permission
unless
specifically stated otherwise
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