196 
The Garden Magazine, December, 1920 
in the sense that a work of sculpture is a representation, but 
imitations pure and simple, and, as such, intended to supply in 
these artificial sylvan scenes the lack of the actual animal. 
In the course of time, and while the Romantic revival was still 
at its height, the devotees of the gentle art of gardening were 
vouchsafed a new prophet. It was Humphrey Repton, the 
sanest of all landscape builders, who in a sensible, practical 
way worked to bring an end to these childish excesses and set 
our forefathers on the middle, more reasonable, course, which, 
after nearly a century, is bringing us here in America to what 
promises to be an era of distinctive and beautiful gardens. 
And now the gods are coming into their own again, for in 
this modern type of garden there is a distinct place for sculpture. 
Indeed, in many cases the best taste among us considers the 
statue in its proper setting the diadem of the garden. Of 
course in speaking of the old gods I must not be taken too 
literally. Though the ancient statue in a modern garden is 
likely to appear somewhat remote and far-away, not quite in 
sympathy with the temper of the times perhaps, yet if it seems 
best to open our garden gate to it, there is no valid reason for not 
doing so. Are not the latest garden statues after all of the 
same race as the ancient gods, and but a newer and, for the 
moment, a more easily understood rendering of the same old 
thoughts and fancies? 
I N TIMES past, as now, statuary has, in a general way, always 
been considered more appropriate in connection with a some- 
what formal type of garden, although its use has by no means 
been strictly limited to the formal garden; and it is not unusual 
to find a statue in an informal, more naturalistic setting. The 
naturalistic setting, however, makes the selection and placing of 
a piece of sculpture an especially difficult undertaking. 
I can imagine the haunting effect of the exquisitely comic Pan 
of Paul Darde placed in a leafy bower by the side of a woodland 
path. At the forest’s edge on a high eastern hill which 1 have 
in mind, I can fancy how a statue of the Great Spirit, or a Sun 
Worshipper with uplifted face and outstretched arms, might 
help to point the scene for the unpoetic mind and heighten the 
effect for the more responsive observer. But, unless, as in these 
cases, the statue is strictly in keeping with the scene or possesses 
a strong emotional appeal, placing it in the open will hopelessly 
dwarf and enfeeble it. Its only chance of seeming other than 
trivial and ineffectual lies in its power to impart this emotional 
climactic effect. 
In the more restricted, more intimate areas (with which the 
greater number of us have to deal) just the contrary is desirable. 
There is no fear that any sculptural work of man will be able to 
dominate the extended view over a broad countryside, but in a 
small garden, on the other hand, this might easily happen. 
Rodin’s Thinker, for instance, with the heart-breaking, terrify- 
ing qualities it possesses to some minds, should be admitted into 
a garden only under very special circumstances. In a semicir- 
cular garden facing a wide sea view, it might seem appropriate. 
And yet the effect would, I imagine, be far removed from what 
most of us consider congenial or in keeping with the idea of a 
garden. 
If it seems best to display this or similar works in a garden 
at all, 1 should say a special type of garden should be constructed 
for them. This might well be a sort of open-air art gallery, 
where we should find broad stone walks, marble balustrades, 
Bay trees in tubs, clipped hedges, trees that naturally grow, or 
are trained, in formal shapes; in short, such accessories as we 
associate with stately terraces and the immediate settings of 
great mansions, or public buildings of classic style. 
In other words, for most of us the garden itself and the grow- 
ing, flowering plants in it are the important things. 
N 
VIO 
OT only statuary with a strong emotional appeal but, ex- 
cept in very special circumstances, all statuary depicting 
ent physical effort or in any way suggesting either physical or 
mental discomfort or pain I should exclude. The Charging 
Elephant, the Panther with the Lamb, the Dying Gaul placed 
on the table or mantel of my library might not disturb me at all 
— might even have a rather pleasing romantic or literary sugges- 
tiveness — but I should never think of setting them up in my gar- 
den. Here I come seeking beauty and joy — beauty of line and 
mass and color, and the joy of life and growth. If it seem 
desirable that a garden statue should set me thinking at all, 
pray let it be along pleasant ways, with a quaint and whimsical 
contemplativeness or a quiet bookish flavor, but nothing that 
smacks of suffering, or decay, or change. Mortuary urns and 
Death’s heads are far too solemn for a garden ! 
The modern tendency is to run all to children. Though it be 
recorded against me and belike lose me the freedom of Green- 
wich Village, I must confess that I have had a surfeit of water 
babies. This, however, I am willing to have set down as a 
purely personal idiosyncrasy, sharing as I do Charles Lamb’s 
objection to having the little dears put upon a body on all sides 
— “what is one man’s meat,” etc., applies with equal justness 
to our enjoyment of the arts. 
If we are agreed that the modern type of garden at its best 
is the proper place for sculpture of some sort, we shall no doubt 
further agree that the ideal is reached when the garden, its 
statuary, and other accessories in some intangible way, though 
none the less actually, reflect the taste and character, even the 
personality of its owner. Then let us each, bearing in mind 
the logical restrictions good taste imposes in such an event, 
choose the statue, or statues, that seem best suited to our own 
particular case. 
These restrictions, briefly stated, are something as follows: 
1 . Let the statue express the spirit of the particular garden. 
2. Let it be a thing of as great beauty and preciousness as 
possible, always of course, within proper limits. 
3. Avoid representations of mental or physical violence or 
suffering. 
4. Choose a statue in a scale and of a material suiting the 
garden. (A life size statue representing a grown man or 
woman would by its very size be out of place except in 
a garden of considerable extent.) 
U NDER the climatic conditions prevailing throughout much 
of the United States bronze seems the most appropriate 
material. A marble statue of any value, especially in a scale 
suitable for a garden, really needs some protection from the ele- 
ments, and usually must be removed or covered with ugly 
wrappings at the approach of winter. Under the more brilliant 
skies of California and in other warm sections of the country 
this objection does not hold to the same extent, of course. Arti- 
ficial stone, pottery, and lead are also used as materials for gar- 
den sculpture. For many reasons, however, bronze, if it is 
available, will prove most satisfactory. It not only has in the 
various patines, or finishes, a beautiful and wide color range, 
but owing to its inherent qualities may be used to express a 
greater grace and delicacy. 
There are those who contend that in every case where statuary 
is to be employed either the garden setting should be planned 
for the particular statue or a special statue designed for each 
particular setting. Although this may be the desirable pro- 
cedure, it seems to me not always absolutely necessary. Where 
a garden has been constructed along unusual lines, or even if it 
possesses, as the best gardens do, some measure of individuality, 
a statue designed especially for it should be more in keeping than 
one chosen at random. However, at almost any of the exhibi- 
tions devoted especially to sculpture for out-door use, decorative 
sculpture, as it is sometimes called, examples may usually be 
found that will fit in any one of several gardens with very nearly 
equal appropriateness. There is, of course, a sort of proprietary 
interest in a work for which one has given a commission, gone 
into consultation over, and seen grow to be the statue for one’s 
own garden, just as the ownership of the garden itself seems 
more real if one has actually entered into the planning and 
perhaps the constructive work of building it. 
