Monday, May 11, 2015

Jekyll and Lutyens-- masterminds behind the 'Arts and Crafts Garden'

The Arts and Crafts Garden came out of an anti-industrial movement that was a reaction against mass production, all born out of the the intention to revive traditional values. It was an encouragement of locality and personal design, with the resurgence of the appeal in the medieval era as inspiration. It stood for traditional craftsmanship, with simple forms and design. With the origins of the arts and crafts garden rooted in hardy, old-fashioned design, with country-cottage plants, the gardens advocated a resurgence of economic and social reform. Gardener Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) and architect Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) were behind the culmination of this movement. After meeting one day at tea, the two became compatible ‘kindred spirits’ that complimented each other in together creating some of the best, most beautiful, and well known arts and crafts gardens of their time. 
(Gertrude Jekyll)
(Edwin Lutyens)

As a duo, Jekyll and Lutyens created something magical. As told in the National Trust Book of the English Garden, together the two collaborated their simplistic view-- "Lutyens designed “the ‘hard landscape’- the pools, paths, steps, terraces and buildings-- while Miss Jekyll filled in the plant names.” Jekyll was the first person to apply painterly color theory to the planting of flower beds. Being very artistically minded-- a master of both embroidery and blowing glass-- Jekyll could literally paint with flowers and was able to artistically make a flower bed into a work of art; she also re-invented the subtlety of the herbaceous border.
(Munstead Wood-- Jekyll's residence, and an example of a 'Arts and Crafts Garden')

Together they emphasized the usage of local material being crafted in local and innovative ways, filled with disciplined, but whimsical and colorful planting, in combination with outdoor rooms, enclosed with majestic hedges, long vistas, and grand pergolas. 
(The Deannery--architecture by Lutyens)

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