Forest of Angels

A heavenly landscape for this day of angels...Charles Voysey's "Angelic Forest", c. 1927. 

Merry Christmas to all!

Archives of American Gardens at Flickr

Impossibly lovely images from the Archives of American Gardens.  A small selection of their 8000 images, including these historic glass lantern slides from the 1920s and 1930s, is now online at flickr.  The collection also forms the basis of  the book The Golden Age of American Gardens: Proud Owners * Private Estates 1890-1940 by Mac Griswold and Eleanor Weller. 

The second image is of Arcady, formerly in Santa Barbara but now lost to garden history, and my namesake.

The WaterLandscape of Rouen in 1525

Most of us (most of us reading this blog, anyway) live in a time and place where the flow of clean water on demand--for washing, drinking, sewage--is taken for granted.  It's hard to imagine access to water being limited to stale cisterns and brackish wells (with no provision for sewage at all), but it explains why the first flow of acqueductal water into a sixteenth century city was greeted with processions of dignitaries, banners, blessings, and prayers of thanksgiving.  And why, in 1525, Jacques Le Lieur felt compelled to record the entire course of that water through the city of Rouen in a seventeen foot long panoramic watercolor.

It ran past cathedrals and gardens, through mills and fountains, and Le Lieur drafted them all, creating a compelling record not just of the watercourse but of the city surrounding it, including its landscape, in his Livre des Fontaines, images of most of which are online at the library of Rouen. 

Le Lieur's 'book' is the only record of its kind from the period, in France or elsewhere, and is still studied as an early example of urban planning and public hydraulics.  You can buy a copy of Livre des Fontaines (in French) here.

For the Garden Historian who has Almost Everything

And if like me your favorite garden historian doesn't have quite everything (but is rich, rich in friends!), then perhaps something south in price from the lovely Porter telescope is appropriate. (Disclaimer:  I have no connection to any of these purveyors, so nothing to gain)

Sundial made from recycled cups from the UK's Save-a-Cup scheme, at the gardenboutique (garden clock also available)

Handcrafted modernist birdhouses by the Austrian firm raumhochrosen, representing twentieth century buildings in their home state of Vorarlberg

Garden spheres from Los Angeles nursery Pot-ted

 

c. 1890 French terracotta edging tiles from thethompsonstudio

1820s oak garden gate, just £140 at salvo uk

Beautiful copper trowel (personalizable!) at implementations (also uk, but shippable)

silver spoon garden markers by buttermilkhollow at etsy (or DIY!)

c. 1715Vitruvius Britannicus garden plans from leggeprints.  This is Belton, Lincolnshire, listed at $400.


And don't forget to include a membership in the Garden History Society or the Folly Fellowship or a subscription to Historic Gardens Review...

For the Garden Historian who has everything...

...the Porter Garden Telescope.  Russell Porter was an artist, engineer, and amateur astronomer/telescope maker, and in the 1920s in Springfield, Vermont he made some number (at least 53, according to the highest serial number found, but the exact count is unknown) of what must surely be the most beautiful telescope ever manufactured, designed specifically for the garden.  Only 14 are known to survive, one in the Smithsonian museum.

Porter combined all he knew of art and science in an art nouveau style masterpiece made like an unfurling flower with a mirror at its heart.  The bronze housing was designed to remain outside, mounted on a plinth like a traditional garden sundial (if oriented correctly it could in fact operate as one) and the optical components were removable, to be used for viewing biplanes and other heavenly apparitions if the weather was fair and kept safely inside if not.   

An original Porter sold for $18,000 at auction in 2007.  It was an absolute steal...the reproduction being manufactured by Telescopes of Vermont according to specifications in Porter's original patent,  sells for $59,000. 

[Period images are from  stellafane, the home of Springfield Vermont Astronomy, which owns several of the original Porters.  They are seeking the watercolor (second image above), which was stolen from their collection. Modern photos are from  Edmund optics, who provide the optical components for the reproduction telescope.    Images of one of the original garden telescopes can be seen at a fansite here]

Landscapes of George Tanaka

George Tanaka (1912-1982), born in Vancouver to Japanese parents, was largely self-taught.  He apprenticed with a Nisei gardener, and then studied architecture and landscape architecture on his own, reading books and periodicals in the public library, and eventually developing a unique blend of his oriental heritage with the raw naturalism of the Canadian landscape. In a speech to students and faculty of Humber College, Toronto in 1981, Tanaka said: "the materials of Nature - the rocks, the stones, the trees, the plants, the water and the earth itself - are used as the 'Design-Tools' by which the landscape-forms take shape. The use of Tension in design as between diverse elements: the hard element against the soft; the rugged rock against the flowing curve of a pathway, for example, gives the design a spirit of tension and an aesthetic quality. Whatever the qualification of the design problem, the results are to find a happy Balance and Harmony in all of the elements. Nothing is left to casual chance or to irresponsible placement."

"All of the hopes and dreams, and even the fears, that played a part in my total experience, has influenced me."

from the special collections at the University of Guelph; repository of the archives of Canadian landscape architects.

Garden History Quote of the Week - Georgia O'Keefe on Flowers

"Everyone has many associations with a flower--the idea of flowers. You put out your hand to touch the flower--lean forward to smell it--maybe touch it with your lips almost without thinking--or give it to someone to please them. Still--in a way--nobody sees a flower--really--it is so small--we haven't time--and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small.

So I said to myself--I'll paint what I see--what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it--I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers."

Patrick Dougherty's Stickworks

Landscape artist Patrick Dougherty has a new photographic catalogue of his extraordinary creations, available on his website. I was going to put this on my Christmas list, but I just couldn't wait so I've already ordered it...

One of his latest installations is the "Summer Palace", above, at the Morris Aboretum of the University of Pennsylvania. They blogged the process of its creation, documenting the growth of the 25 foot high structure from thousands of sticks.

"Dougherty arrives at the site of each new installation with no preconceptions as to what he will create. Instead, using locally gathered natural materials, he draws inspiration from the surrounding environment to design a large-scale structure that when completed, may remind visitors of a nest, cocoon or even a fairy tale dwelling. Each of his sculptures is designed and executed without the use of nails or other supportive hardware, and the result is a creation that may resemble something artful that was shaped by a powerful wind that swept across the landscape."

Garden History Image of the Week

found at the blog takebigbites

Garden History Image of the Week: Jardin Botanico, Asuncion, Paraguay

Found while flea-marketing with my sister...this c. 1920s image of the rose garden at the Botanical garden of Asuncion. On the back it reads, "This is the real beauty spot of Paraguay. Our schoolchildren often go here for pictures. The garden is in the care of a German scientist."

According to a biography at the website of the Ibero-American Institute, Dr. C. Fiebrig (1869-1951) was offered two botanical jobs in 1910, "a proposal to work in the German Colonial Office for Eastern Africa and the offer of a chair in Paraguay at the National College and School of Medicine. Fiebrig, who already lived since 1907 in San Bernardino, Paraguay, decided to accept the post offered him the Paraguayan government [because] this offer also included the proposal of then President, Dr. Manuel Franco, to create a botanical garden."

Created from over 600 ha of the former estate of dictator Francisco Solano Lopez on the outskirts of Asuncion , the garden opened in 1914 and Fiebrig remained its director until xenophobic fears forced him out of the country in 1936. "The Botanical Garden not only had a port near the Paraná River, but also had its own train station with a network of 60 km of well maintained roads and a large swimming pool. Gradually Fiebrig also created a zoo, a herbarium, a Botanical Museum, and finally, the Cotton Institute. The latter contributed essentially to finance the entire complex."

45 plant species and 18 animal species bear the eponym 'fiebrigii' in honor of the botanist, but his masterwork, a 2700-page manuscript on the botanical ecology of the South American continent, languishes unpublished in his native Germany, at Berlin's Ibero-American Institute. You can still see his garden, though.

(above is the most recognizable of the species that bear his name, the cactus Rebutia fiebrigii)

I Could Do This! Copper Pavers and Silver Orbs in the Pond

Inspired by two other installations at the Chatsworth exhibit/sale for the uber rich...

Copper pavers: I couldn't afford solid copper but I'm thinking a piece of copper sheeting over standard concrete pavers? Stainless steel or Cor-ten would also be nice; the liquid adhesives designed for concrete should work well to make the attachment. Great for the paths in the newly installed (but still unfinished!) potager.

Silver orbs in the pond: these are hand-polished stainless steel (hollow, obviously). Given that similar orbs (machine-polished) are readily available from on-line purveyors (google 'silver garden globes'), I wonder at bit at its inclusion in the auction...I suppose the placement of the orbs counts as the art? Still, lovely for a party and I think I can rely on my own artistry to place them in the garden pond-that-used-to-be-a-buffalo-wallow, now brim-full with early fall rains.

The original works are 'Narcissus Garden' by Yayoi Kusama and 'Cuprux' by Carl Andre.

UPDATE: Reader Jamie has sent a helpful comment to this post, which I've added below...the information on the aural and interactive qualities of the installation is especially enlightening. Thanks, Jamie!

"Yayoi Kusama did an installation of thousands of those silvery balls floating on the good-sized indoor lake within the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia a few years ago.

As well as being lovely to look at, they made the most pleasant, deepish-hollow sound as they gently knocked together. And, best of all, all the children visiting had wonderful fun pushing the balls around. The Queensland gallery tries very hard to make itself as child-friendly as possible and allows kids the chance to touch things when it won't do any harm. It was a delightful scene.

We bought one of the balls while at the gallery and it sits in a stainless steel bowl filled with water in our garden, still in very good condition after all these years. Every time I see our little silver ball I think of that charming installation."

Garden History Image of the Week: New view of Chatsworth

Joseph Paxton's 1844 'Emperor' Fountain at Chatsworth as seen by '225.5º ARC X 5' by Bernar Venet. Part of "Beyond Limits", a Sotheby's selling exhibition of modern and contemporary sculpture currently installed on the grounds. Get your bid in by November 15, if you're so inclined.

The Emperor fountain, with a maximum height of 296 feet, is entirely ego-powered, having been commissioned by the Duke of Devonshire in 1843 to surpass the fountains of Peterhof in anticipation of the impending visit of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. The work, including digging an eight-acre reservoir 110 meters above the house to supply the water under gravity-pressure, proceeded even at night under the light of flares and the project was completed in just six months. Alas, the Tsar never came.

But the water pressure was used to provide Chatsworth's electricity from 1893 to 1936, and after the installation of a new turbine in 1988 currently produces about a third of house's daily requirements; a thoroughly modern use of what was once just a garden fancy. I'm wondering if any other gardens have put their historic hydraulics to such a use...if you know of one, get in touch!

Arne Quinze's Cityscape, Brussels, 2008

Thanks to reader p.Ol Ghekiere for pointing out that the pavilion previously featured in the posting on nests was not in fact in Berlin, but in Brussels; a work by the Belgian artist Arne Quinze.

The temporary installation, entitled Cityscape, stood for a year (2008) in Brussels' luxury district, before it was dismantled and the wood recycled.

According to the artist, Arne Quinze: 'CITYSCAPE resembles a frozen movement; speed caught in time...If you look at it from a distance, pure movement seems to keep the volatile structure in the air. Sunrays play with the wooden beams; a game of light and shade creates ever-changing patterns. Its immense size - 40 meter long and 25 meter wide - absorbs you. "

Fascinating views of the nest-like construction process are from the artists' website.

Garden History Image of the Week...Le Jardin Japonais

To add to the previously posted history of Japanese dish gardens, this lovely image by Icart published in the French magazine L'Illustration in 1932.

El Jardin Borda, Cuernavaca, Mexico, c. 1908

An excerpt from Viva Mexico!, by Charles Macomb Flandrau, 1908:

"Early in the eighteenth century there went to Mexico from France a boy of sixteen named Joseph de la Borde. By his fortunate mining venture at Tlalpujahua, Tasco, and Zacatecas...he made a fortune of forty million pesos. One of these millions he spent in building a church at Tasco, and another he spent in building a garden at Cuernavaca."

"It lies on a steep hillside behind Cuernavaca, and even it it were not one of the most beautiful of tangled, neglected, ruined old gardens anywhere, it would be lovable for the manner in which it tried so hard to be a French garden and failed. Joseph, it is clear, had the French passion for formalizing the landscape--for putting Nature into a pretty strait-jacket; but although he spent much time and a million pesos in trying to do this at Cuernavaca, he rather wonderfully did not succeed."

"The situation, the flora...the walls, the fountains, the summerhouses, the cascades, and the ponds...all combine to give the place an individuality, sometimes Spanish, sometimes Mexican, but French only in a...remote manner..."

"It hangs precipitously on the side of a ravine when it should have been level (one is so glad it is not), and the dense, southern trees--mangoes and sapotes and Indian laurel--with which it was planted, have long since outgrown the scale of the place, interlaced and roofed out the sky overhead with an opaque and somber canopy...In its impermeable shade there are long, islanded tanks in which many numerous families of ducks and geese live a strangely secluded, dignified, aristocratic existence--arbors of roses and jasmine, and heavy, broken old fountains that no longer play and splash."

"In seventy-five or a hundred years there will be many fine old formal gardens in the United States--finer than the Borda ever was. Under the pergolas of some of them there is much tea and pleasant conversation and one greatly admires their marble furniture imported from Italy--their careful riot of flowers. But at present it is difficult to forget that their prevailing color is wealth, and to forget it will take at least another century. If they have everything that Joseph's garden lacks, they all lack the thing it has. For in its twilit arbors and all along its sad and silent terraces there is at any hour the same poetic mystery...[of the] Borghese garden in Rome. The Borghese is extensive and the Borda is tiny, but history has strolled in them both and they both seem to have beautiful, secret sorrows."

El Jardin Borda, used by the Emporer Maximilian as a summer home during his short and ridiculous reign in the 1860s, once hosted Austrian, French, and Mexican nobility who went rowing in the moonlight on its artificial lake.

Now taken over by the state and used as an outdoor theatre and market, a 1987 renovation seems to have vanquished the overgrown atmosphere that captivated Charles Macomb Flandrau.

Flandrau was a wealthy and well-traveled eldest son of fine family, an acquaintance of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and a celebrity already by age 26 for his Harvard Episodes (detailing the escapades of privileged young men such as himself within the ivied walls) before he went south to visit his brother's coffee plantation and write Viva Mexico. His mention of American formal gardens having the 'color of wealth' is undoubtedly a reference to the Italianate landscapes being created up and down the East Coast by the noveau riche of the American Country House era, with whom he was well acquainted.

A series of 1904 photographs by C.B. Waite in the Rene D`Harnoncourt Photograph Collection at the University of Texas captures the Mexico Flandrau writes of, though unfortunately at low resolution, including the two small photos of the Borda garden as was, below.