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