The Arts and Crafts Character, Form, and Contents of Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens Gardens

Julián Huertas

9 May 2015

Professor Musgrave

Garden Art in European History

Blog Post Nine:

Citing examples, define and describe the character, form and contents of the Arts and Crafts garden created by the Gertrude Jekyll & Edwin Lutyens partnership.

The Arts and Crafts Movement as whole began around the 1870s when the skill and fashion of traditional craftsmanship became widely appreciated. The movement was anti-industrial as people believed that the machine could not mass-produce an object as beautiful as an individual craftsman could. Due to its anti-industrial nature, the Arts and Crafts movement supported economic and social reform.  Within this movement, a gardener – Gertrude Jekyll – and architect – Edwin Lutyens – formed a partnership in 1889 that formed new ways of designing gardens.

Gertrude Jekyll was trained as an artist and became a gardener. She teamed up with Edwin Lutyens the architect, and the team together created a new form of garden design. As an artist, Jekyll is known for being the first to use painterly color theory when planting flowerbeds. When working together, Jekyll and Lutyens merged the house and garden with external surroundings.  In general, they are known for having geometrical patterns in the gardens along with outdoor rooms, hedges, vistas, pergolas, courts, flower-filled rills, water features such as pools and fountains, and circular steps. They incorporated the character of the space and its owners into the design.

An example of Jekyll and Lutyens’ work is Munstead House in Surrey.  Lutyens designed the house for Jekyll, which became her residence. They began their work in 1897, and this is where Jekyll first began using her painterly color theory for flowerbeds. She utilized irises and lupine flowers, which come in a variety of warm and cold colors. In addition to the color theory, Jekyll’s skill as a garden designer can be seen into how she calculated the plants for the garden in regard to flower time and plant form and height. This is not easy, yet Jekyll accommodated into the design of the garden.  Another example of the team’s work is at the garden of The Deanery in Sonning. They worked from 1899-1901. In a general sense, Lutyens did the house and garden framework as Jekyll did the beds and plants. Jekyll designed a spring garden, red garden, and rose garden within the house’s garden. The garden was ornate and each flower had its “correct neighbor” so that it would successfully grow in large compartments together and merge with the wild plants of the surrounding countryside.

Another distinct work is the garden at the Manor House in Upton Grey. The team worked from 1908-1909 and designed plans for four and a half acres of the garden on a sloping site. There is a wild garden, which has grass paths, wild flowers, different species of roses, and a small group of trees. There is also a formal garden, which has a rose garden with herbaceous borders and has no curved organic lines. She utilizes the painterly color theory as the flowers go from cool blues and whites to hot reds and oranges and back to cool colors again.

Although we are currently a little more than a century removed from the Arts and Crafts Movement, several features are still relevant to contemporary garden design in the UK. The garden designer John Brooks is working in Britain to combine interior and exterior surroundings to conform to the character of the site, just like Jekyll and Lutyens. He has studied gardens in warmer European climates and has adapted the features of these types of garden to be suitable for the UK climate and way of life. Additionally, Professor Musgrave discussed in class that in part of his PhD he analyzed why British gardens largely have not conformed to the modernist trend. On a basic sense, I got the impression that it is because there is too much of an interest, love, and fascination with non-modern plants and flowers in Britain. Modernist gardens do not incorporate these types of features.  In a similar manner to this, Jekyll had a love for these types of plants and flowers, and, thus, it appears that this type of concept in current UK gardens persists to this day.

Here is the website for the contemporary UK garden designer John Brookes. His portfolio is demonstrating how he is combining interior and exterior surroundings to conform to the character of the site, just like Jekyll and Lutyens.

The dynamic duo themselves, Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens. They met in 1889, when Jekyll was 46 and Lutyens was 22. Their personalities and characters clicked, and they formed a team that would change garden design in the Arts and Crafts Movement for the UK and the rest of Europe.

The garden of The Deanery in Sonning. In a general sense, Lutyens did the house and garden framework as Jekyll did the beds and plants. Jekyll designed a spring garden, red garden, and rose garden within the house’s garden. The garden was ornate and each flower had its “correct neighbor” so that it would successfully grow in large compartments together and merge with the wild plants of the surrounding countryside.

The garden of the Manor House at Upton Grey. There is a wild garden, which has grass paths, wild flowers, different species of roses, and a small group of trees. There is also a formal garden, which has a rose garden with herbaceous borders and has no curved organic lines. She utilizes the painterly color theory as the flowers go from cool blues and whites to hot reds and oranges and back to cool colors again.