DIS European Garden Art Spring 2014: April 2014

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Arts and Crafts Movement

The last quarter of the 19^th century was classified as the arts and crafts movement in England. This was a movement in direct response to industrialization and the mass production of products. Industrialization was a wonderfully modernizing movement and allowed for a strong middle class to emerge. However, since products were being mas produced there was a lack of individuality and craftsmanship. Thus the emergence of the arts and crafts movement in which people believed that art should be handmade and carefully fashioned. For garden styles, the arts and crafts movement vehemently rejected the Victorian bedding garden, but where was garden style to go from there? There were two different minds of thought: one, the garden is simply a part of the house and therefore should be designed by the architect, or two, since the gardener manages the garden he should be the one to design it.

Each of these minds of thought had a prominent leader: the lead architect was Sir Reginald Blomfield. He believed that the garden should flow directly from the house and that the role of the gardener should be simply maintenance. The arts and crafts movement promoted the idea of

Sir Reginald Blomfield

rectangular enclosed gardens and country houses. In other words, formal gardens ringing back to the English Renaissance and there would be no mistaking the garden for a work of nature, but instead emphasizing art accomplished by human hands. Blomfield believed that formal gardens were the best was to connect the garden to the house. Another person who was a little before Blomfield but shared similar gardening values was John Sedding. He believed that the garden should have clear cut designs, emphasizing the divide between the craftsmanship of the gardens and nature.

The second school of mind was led by William Robinson, who believed that the garden should be designed separately from the house and by those who maintained it: the gardener. He thought that the gardens needed to be informal and naturalistic and that the plants used in the garden should be hardy perennials. He thought that plants should be in groupings of three or more and

A Devonshire Cottage Garden

believed that indigenous plants as well as exotic could be used in a garden. He greatly disliked the Victorian style garden and wanted to replace it with a more wild and natural garden form.

Despite the fact that the two were always at each other’s throats, in the end, the ideas of Blomfield and Robinson both became popular. The two people who succeeded in combining these two seemingly incoherent ideas were Jeklly and Lutyens. They first met in 1895 and started to collaborate on garden and housing designs. They worked together to deisgn a garden that was connected and worked well with the house, but Jekyll’s style of planting was much closer to that of Sedding than Blomfield. She became well known for her use of color theory in her flower boarders. As said by Christopher Hussey, "Mis Jekyll's plantings wedded Lutyens' geometry in a balanced union of both principles."

Jekyll and Lutyen's design

Jekyll style garden

She and Lutyens designed over 120 gardens and homes together and were featured in Country Life for many years.

Sources:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Lindisfarne_Castle_and_its_Jekyll_Garden_-_geograph.org.uk_-_334038.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Blomfield-1921.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/84/Robinsoncottagegarden.jpg

http://www.thecultureconcept.com/circle/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/The-Salutation-in-Kent.jpg

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Greenspaces, the heart of Copenhagen

Copenhagen Map 1850

The urban greenspaces created in the 19^th century in Copenhagen are wonderful because they really meld with the city scape itself. They are not completely removed or something that you have to go out of your way to enjoy. You almost stumble into them as you walk around the city; they are unavoidable. These greenspaces, or parks, used to be part of a massive defensive fortification that surrounded the city of Copenhagen starting in the 17^th, 18^th, and first half of the 19^th century. However as the city’s population grew and times became more peaceful there was less need for such protection and a greater need for expansion. So in 1868 the fortification ring was decommissioned and the land was given to the City. Some of the space was used for the expansion of the city, but some of it was set aside to be used for parkland. This was a great decision but there was no action until 1872 when the City Council approved a plan to redevelop some of the area into 3 parks. The two that remain today are used by all. Every day you can see children playing on the play grounds, people running through and around them; others are just talking a lunch break stroll, or simply sitting down and enjoying the view. The greenspaces of Copenhagen have expanded and each space has its own character. Each is a little escape from the rush and noise of the city and each in their own way. Some, like Orsetdsparken, are small, intimate enclosures that center the paths, trees, and plants on the water and have a recreational purpose. Others are much more expansive and have a greater spread of botanic variety used for educational purposes such as the Botanical Gardens. The Botanical gardens also house an impressive green house in which plants from around the world can flourish. Some parks like Ostre Anlaeg are meant to be walked through and experienced, not just seen. The people are supposed to walked along its sinuous curves and see the water flow, the playground, the park benches, the BBQs, and the small side rose garden. One thing that all of the parks have in common is their ability to provide exposure to nature in the middle of the city, a way for people to “fill up” on their need for green leaves and blue water in the middle of a lot of gray stone and red brick; fresh air in the middle of cigarette smoke and car exhaust.

Orstedsparken

Botanical Gardens of Copenhagen

Ostre Anlaeg

An interesting site to explore if you are interested in these greenspaces:
http://biophiliccities.org/pocket-parks-research-small-public-urban-green-spaces-spugs-in-copenhagen-denmark/

Sources:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Koebenhavn_Oerstedsparken_2009_ubt.JPG
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/48/58/1e/48581e35a43e5ddf49788d9549a3a149.jpg
http://www.mappery.com/maps/Copenhagen-1850-Map.mediumthumb.jpg
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/33/90/0b/ostre-anlaeg.jpg

Saturday, April 5, 2014

The English Landscapers of the 18th Century

Charles Bridgeman

The first appearance of Charles Bridgeman was in 1709 when his signature appears on a plan for the Blenheim gardens. Bridgeman was apprenticed to Henry Wise who was appointed the head gardener at Brompton Park Nursery by Queen Anne. When Wise was assigned Blenheim, Bridgeman followed and most likely worked as a surveyor/draughtsman and eventually became responsible for laying out the general lines of the garden. In 1713 Bridgeman began to work on Stowe, and when the garden was enlarged in 1720 he made the Rotunda the focal point, pulling together the scattered parts of the old garden (see plan in figure). This lead to the appearance of a deemphasized central axis and made for a larger focus on the complex walks and vistas that “laced” the garden together. In 1721 Bridgeman made his plans for Rousham which made apparent his ability to see the “genius loci” or “the genius of the place” a concept created by Alex Pope (a poet in the 18^th century). In other words Bridgeman had the ability to see what the landscape could truly look like. Although this concept can be applied to all of the English Landscape designers, Bridgeman was one of the first people to embody this idea. Bridgeman embraced the natural curves, hills, rivers/streams, and roads of the landscape and only improved upon them. In this way Bridgeman began to free the English landscape from the ridged geometry inherited from the French Baroque in alignment with the anti-French sentiment of the time. One of the main themes of the baroque gardens was rigid enclosure. In an effort to break down those barriers and open up the garden Bridgeman invented the Ha-Ha, an extraordinary name for a brilliant invention. The idea was to define the boundaries of the property and keep out the animals without obstructing the view. Thus began the notion of the borrowed landscape because the garden and landscape beyond appeared to be one. (As we will discuss later it was Bridgeman’s successor, Kent, who went beyond the boundaries of the property and began to tinker with the landscape/view beyond). Bridgeman was the beginning of the English landscape design he was really a transitional character for he still had a few straight walkways and clipped hedges. However, he was still the first to include the wilderness, fields, and forest.

Rousham

Since Bridgeman was one of the first landscape artists, his work was usually “enhanced” by his successors; William Kent was the most notable. Kent was born in England but took several tours to Rome to be trained and compete as a painter. Kent was taught by Guiseppe Chiari and did a great deal of copying his master’s classically inspired work and in 1718 he painted the ceiling of a Catholic Church in Rome. Once he returned to London he began to design the exterior and interior or buildings. However, what he is most well-known for are his advances in the English Landscape design. Kent achieved this by furthering the work of Bridgeman. Bridgeman laid the framework and Kent loosened it. It has been said that Kent “leaped the fence and saw that all nature was a garden. He felt the delicious contrast of hill and valley changing imperceptibly into each other, tasted the beauty of the gentle swell or concave scoop, and remarked how loose groves crowned an easy eminence with happy ornament”. Kent made his landscapes like

William Kent

the paintings he saw in Rome, therefore making his gardens “picturesque”. If we take another look at Rousham we can see the Birdgman’s groundwork and then Kent’s alterations. Kent never intended the garden to be seen in one glance. It was very intentionally interactive, it was made to be walked through, to be experienced. If you stand on the top terrace and you look out into the landscape he calls in country by putting garden buildings into the lanscape to make it look as if the whole of your lanscape is a garden. Some of the notable sculptures put in the landscape were the dying gladiator a very apasite the Horse being attacked by the Lion has two interpretations: tamed nature being consumed by untamed nature (very appropriate for the freedom of the English landscape taking over controlled baroque style) or England, the lion, consuming France, the horse. Kent brings in his knowledge of classical architecture which he tucks into his landscape, the meaning of which educated people of the time would have understood immediately, whereas today the meaning is either completely lost or must be looked up.

Lancelot "Capability" Brown

Lancelot “Capability” Brown was the next, and perhaps the last, brilliant landscape designer. Much like Kent, he came in after and improved upon the landscaping that he predecessors had done. The most notable work is the gardens at Stowe. The garden was first given its basic form and outline by Bridgeman and then Kent came in and loosened it quite a bit more. Kent also worked with the owner Cobham to riddle the gardens with insurmountable political symbolism. Brown, however, kept the inspiration of Kent in the landscape and Bridgeman’s outline and, other than that, totally redid the garden. The idea was to make the garden identical to nature, only better: using the idea of improving nature. Brown made the lines of his gardens invisible by using trees. Unlike Kent, Brown’s inspiration came from England and the land itself, rather than Rome and the classics. Brown also incorporated a lot of lakes in his designs, not only because they reflected the vast sky but also because being able to construct a lake meant that you had a lot of money and, therefore, influence. He considered himself to be a place-maker, not a landscape designer. He simply made the place what it should have been all along.