LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



LANDSEER 



parks, playground!?, cemeteries and expositions. 

 The landscape gardening at the World's Colum- 

 bian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 set a 

 standard for work on a large scale which has 

 never been surpassed. It was the work of 

 Frederick Law Olmsted, whose father is gen- 

 erally regarded as the founder of landscape 

 gardening in America. The work of Jules 

 Guerin, director of color and decoration at the 

 Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco 

 in 1915 was perhaps equally notable. The 

 modern garden cemeteries, which are so char- 

 arteris! ically a product of America, are other 

 examples of landscape gardening at its best. 

 In its largest field, landscape gardening' is 

 closely allied to. and is in fact a branch of, 

 city planning (which see). 



Landscape gardening to-da} r is divided into 

 two distinct styles, one formal, the other in- 



natural style is suitable both lor large and 

 small estates. The accompanying sketches 

 show very simple gardens, arranged on for- 

 mal and on informal lines. A.E.R. 



Consult Bailey's Garden Making; Parson's 

 Landscape Gardening Studies. 



LAND 'SEER, SIK EDWIN HENRY (1802- 

 1873), an English painter, who won high re- 

 nown for his pictures of animals. Dogs and 

 deer were his favorite subjects, and he painted 

 them with such skill and feeling that they 

 stand out from his canvases almost as if alive. 

 Landseer's artistic career falls into two periods, 

 one of which began in early youth. His father, 

 John Landseer, a London engraver and writer 

 on art, early discovered the lad's skill in draw- 

 ing animals, and trained him to sketch them 

 accurately from life. At the age of five the 

 boy drew fairly well, and before he was ten 



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formal. Formal landscape gardening attempts 

 to improve Nature's work by making it regu- 

 lar. In formal gardening geometric figures 

 are used as a basis, (iardens are laid out in 

 regular shapes, squares, circles, ovals and bal- 

 anced figures. The accompanying sketch shows 

 a typical estate laid out on formal lines. The 

 English or natural style, on the other hand. 

 i- informal. It, too, attempts to improve 

 Nature's work, but it uses no fixed patterns. 

 It- highest achievement is to make a land- 

 scape look natural. 



In the natural style, which has now almost 

 entirely supplanted the formal or artificial 

 method, straight lines, sharp angles or curves 

 and elaborate patterns are avoided. Walks 

 are irregular and winding, and groups of 

 trees, flowers and shrubs are placed at inter- 

 vals as if Nature herself had carelessly planted 

 them there. Formal gardening is best suited 

 to confined or small spaces, and is usually 

 out of keeping with the vast stretches of 

 private estates or public parks; but the 



OX FORMAT, LINES 



he proved himself an excellent draughtsman. 

 When thirteen years of age Landseer first ex- 

 hibited at the Royal Academy, and at fifteen 

 he was already famous and had more commis- 

 sions for work than he could possibly carry out. 

 The painting 

 which brought 

 him prominently 

 before the gen- 

 eral public was 

 his Fighting Dogs 

 Getting Wind, ex- 

 hibited in 1818. 

 This picture, gen- 

 erally regarded as 

 the masterpiece 

 of his boyhood, is 

 perfectly drawn, 

 and finished with 

 a minuteness which is almost photographic. 



Until about 1823 Landseer was satisfied to 

 draw animals as they were, merely reproducing 

 their natural expression and character. Dur- 



SIR EDWIN LANDSEER 



