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A masterful work of biography and garden and art history, describing the styles and legacy of the eminent Victorian designers the Nesfields.
In this informative volume, Dr Shirley Rose Evans explores the lives of two of the most prominent designers of the nineteenth century, designers who have left their distinctive mark on buildings and gardens throughout the British Isles. William Andrews Nesfield and William Eden Nesfield, father and son, were inspired by the beauty and romance of the past, and both played important roles in the nineteeth-century revivals of the Jacobean, Renaissance and Gothic styles. The Nesfields produced horticultural and architectural designs for wealthy and influential landowners, winning important public commissions at Kew Gardens and the Prince Consort's Kensington museum complex. Shirley Rose Evans covers the education of both men and the evolution of their aesthetic sensibilities in detail. William Andrews Nesfield's early life in Durham, his military training and his travels in Canada and Europe fed his fascination with Renaissance proportion and the pre-Revolutionary French parterre-de-broderie, a design of intricate and highly artificial bedding that was to become his signature. His son flourished in the artistic milieu in which he was raised, but his main passion was for Gothic detailing. Both were highly accomplished painters, and Nesfield Senior's watercolours were lauded by John Ruskin. This illustrated volume will be of great interest to enthusiasts of the remarkable work of the Nesfields in particular, or of Victorian design in general.
In this informative volume, Dr Shirley Rose Evans explores the lives of two of the most prominent designers of the nineteenth century, designers who have left their distinctive mark on buildings and gardens throughout the British Isles. William Andrews Nesfield and William Eden Nesfield, father and son, were inspired by the beauty and romance of the past, and both played important roles in the nineteeth-century revivals of the Jacobean, Renaissance and Gothic styles. The Nesfields produced horticultural and architectural designs for wealthy and influential landowners, winning important public commissions at Kew Gardens and the Prince Consort's Kensington museum complex. Shirley Rose Evans covers the education of both men and the evolution of their aesthetic sensibilities in detail. William Andrews Nesfield's early life in Durham, his military training and his travels in Canada and Europe fed his fascination with Renaissance proportion and the pre-Revolutionary French parterre-de-broderie, a design of intricate and highly artificial bedding that was to become his signature. His son flourished in the artistic milieu in which he was raised, but his main passion was for Gothic detailing. Both were highly accomplished painters, and Nesfield Senior's watercolours were lauded by John Ruskin. This illustrated volume will be of great interest to enthusiasts of the remarkable work of the Nesfields in particular, or of Victorian design in general.
Price: $50.00
Pages: 228
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: Lutterworth Press
Publication Date:
31 July 2014
Trim Size: 9.69 X 7.44 in
ISBN: 9780718893231
Format: Paperback
At last we have a definitive study of the most influential landscape gardener of the Victorian period. Shirley Evans's brilliant monograph combines meticulous scholarship with analytical site investigation to establish Nesfield as a practitioner of rare innovation.
— Professor Timothy Mowl FSA, Professorial Research Fellow in History of Architecture & Designed Landscapes, Humanities Research Institute, University of Buckingham
Shirley Rose Evans' long-awaited study of the Nesfields launches them into the limelight at last; her warm-hearted and colourful family saga of war and peace, of dutiful soldiering unleashed into passions for watercolours, decorative gardening and architecture reveals the humanity of these Victorian taste-makers.
— Jane Brown, author of 'The Pursuit of Paradise, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown 1716-83: The Omnipotent Magician' and 'A history of the Garden at Buckingham Palace'
[...] this is a significant study of the Nesfields. It is an informative, well-illustrated volume with ... family trees, list of commissions, an excellent bibliography and a glossary of words and terms used in the book.
— Clare Greener
...the beautiful drawings and watercolours, and the detailed planting lists, contribute hugely to making this an invaluable contribution to any study of mid-nineteenth century l andscaping and to an understanding of the contemporary reasons for the decline in popularity of Lancelot Brown.
— Judith Christie
— Professor Timothy Mowl FSA, Professorial Research Fellow in History of Architecture & Designed Landscapes, Humanities Research Institute, University of Buckingham
Shirley Rose Evans' long-awaited study of the Nesfields launches them into the limelight at last; her warm-hearted and colourful family saga of war and peace, of dutiful soldiering unleashed into passions for watercolours, decorative gardening and architecture reveals the humanity of these Victorian taste-makers.
— Jane Brown, author of 'The Pursuit of Paradise, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown 1716-83: The Omnipotent Magician' and 'A history of the Garden at Buckingham Palace'
[...] this is a significant study of the Nesfields. It is an informative, well-illustrated volume with ... family trees, list of commissions, an excellent bibliography and a glossary of words and terms used in the book.
— Clare Greener
...the beautiful drawings and watercolours, and the detailed planting lists, contribute hugely to making this an invaluable contribution to any study of mid-nineteenth century l andscaping and to an understanding of the contemporary reasons for the decline in popularity of Lancelot Brown.
— Judith Christie
1. Early Days
2. Into the Army
3. Medieval Influences
4. Planting the Picturesque
5. Marriage and a Start in Landscape Gardening
6. Concerning the Landscape
7.The Return to Formality
8. The Parterre-de-Broderie
9. Painted Gardens
10. Two Public Commissions
11. Enter William Eden
12. Breaking Free
13. A Few More Commissions
14. 30 Argyll Street
15. Two More Public Commissions
16. The End of an Era
2. Into the Army
3. Medieval Influences
4. Planting the Picturesque
5. Marriage and a Start in Landscape Gardening
6. Concerning the Landscape
7.The Return to Formality
8. The Parterre-de-Broderie
9. Painted Gardens
10. Two Public Commissions
11. Enter William Eden
12. Breaking Free
13. A Few More Commissions
14. 30 Argyll Street
15. Two More Public Commissions
16. The End of an Era