GARDEN PORTRAITS 
By Margarkt Greenleaf 
that the portraiture of gardens in England 
has become the fashion, the possessors of 
beautiful gardens in this country are adopting this 
admirable idea of perpetuating some favored corner 
of a rose garden or a Wistaria hung pergola of their 
country places. The work of Miss Mary Helen 
Carlisle has been largely the medium through which 
this has been brought about, for she has made por¬ 
traits of portions of very many of the more celebrated 
gardens in England. Miss Carlisle is now in Amer¬ 
ica for a short stay and has in the past few months 
painted some miniatures of children of well-known 
people here. In her treatment of miniatures, larger 
canvasses and pastel pictures of gardens and interiors, 
the handling is so widely different that it is difficult 
to recognize the same hand, save in the strength and 
accuracy of the drawing. While a comparative 
stranger in the United States, IVliss Carlisle is well 
known abroad and she has received many medals at 
the Paris Salon. In her miniature work she has 
been somewhat disposed to specialize on the full 
length figures of children. She was, however, 
equally successful in pleasing the late Queen of 
England in the miniature of herself (which was the 
last portrait for which she sat) and, in the miniature 
she has made of the little future king. Of all the 
portraits made of Cecil Rhodes, Miss Carlisle’s 
full length miniature pleased him best. 
Some photographic reproductions of this artist’s 
work in gardens are used to illustrate this article. 
In asking Miss Carlisle about her garden work, 
it was difficult for her to remember its beginning. 
She thought, however, that the first sketch she made 
was at Sutton Place, near Guildford. “ I was stay- 
THE ROSE-GARDEN AT SUTTON PLACE, NEAR GUILDFORD 
35 
