Ch. 3 - THE LIBERTY GARDEN
The return to nature
The Industrial Revolution invaded the world with mass production and marked the end of picturesque landscapes, typical of a world that was still agrarian. After the Revolution, the garden changed and nature became natural again.
And whilst gardeners and architects paint landscapes, painters sow fragrant flower beds and writers give sap to the debate.
Alexander Pope, poet and gardener, devised those principles which gave rise to the style of English gardens in the nineteenth century, subsequently copied in Italy.
Gardens were enriched with new plants, taking advantage of the great technical progress that had been made. The master gardeners began to work in collaboration with architects. The contemporary Anglo-Saxon experiments took on the role of guide and inspiration, influencing the evolution of the idea of the garden throughout Europe in the 19th century.
William Robinson, an English landscape artist, herald of the “natural” revolution of the garden at the end of the 19th century, embodies energy fired by a passionate desire for reform. This artist of the landscape, combined science and simplicity in his creations, principles which also animated his writing, as the famous “Notes on the Wild Garden,1870”. He, like many others, was influenced by the Arts & Crafts movement headed by John Ruskin and William Morris which had an ambitious aim: unifying the arts and restoring dignity to the craft heritage; a return to the old tradition, a reaction to the deplorable concept of mass-produced objects.
In the art of gardens, this movement led to the cult of the “cottage garden” and the return of flowers.
Very few gardens of the 20th century – in Europe or America – do not follow on.
If many university professors, artists and “enlightened” collectors were in favour of smaller and simpler houses with naturalistic gardens, the aristocracy and the new entrepreneurial classes wanted a grandiose style, in line with the best historical and cultural tradition.
At the turn of the new century, the idea of a naturalistic approach to the garden – enriched with lawns, woods, rocks and water – and the growing availability of new plants gave a considerable impulse to the fashion of large horticultural gardens. The authority of Robinson also favoured the diffusion of individual expression in the care of each garden, where refinement and ecological considerations are blended. The study of the interactions of plants, the particular attention paid to the juxtaposition of the large and the small, and the outstanding sensitivity for the pairing of shape and colour of leaves give rise to a new and subtle refinement which pre-announces the interest in ecology. These elements, although not influencing gardens in the following periods, mark a fundamental stage in the history of the garden.