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Artist in Residence: Shapers of the American Landscape

Another CLF project now in development is Artist in Residence: Shapers of the American Landscape. Although architect’s studios and residences have attracted a great deal of scholarly attention through exhibitions and publications, landscape architects and their personal gardens have rarely received the same thought and exploration. When people think of artists and their gardens, Claude Monet and Giverny frequently come to mind. Five hundred thousand people visit Giverny each year, a testament to the interest and pleasure people take in this landscape. The U.S. also has a rich collection of extant gardens belonging to some of our most cherished landscape practitioners. Designers’ personal spaces reveal their design philosophy and the essence of their work better, in many respects, than the landscapes produced for their clients.

TCLF has carefully selected practitioners whose work spans three centuries and captures the various movements in landscape architecture. For each site, scholars, historians, preservationists, and landscape architects from across the country have been chosen to write the text for their area of expertise that would serve as a chapter for an accompanying book.

The six subject areas proposed for the exhibition are:

The Origins of the American Preservation Movement Begin at Home, 1800-1860 features Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia and William Bartram's House and Garden in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Home Grown: American Nurserymen as Tastemakers 1840-1890 includes the Parsons Family Residence in Queens, New York and the Mount Hope Nurseries in Rochester, New York.

The Picturesque in Miniature, 1880-1940 focuses on Frederick Law Olmsted's Fairsted in Brookline, Massachusetts and "The Clearing," home and studio of Jens Jensen in Wisconsin.

Colonial Revival Meets Arts and Crafts 1910-1930 features Arthur A. Shurcliff's garden in Ipswich, Massachusetts and "Brook Place," Ellen Biddle and Louis Augustus Shipman's residence in Cornish, New Hampshire.

Modernism in the City, Suburbs, and the Country, 1950 looks at Thomas Church's residence in San Francisco, California, the James Rose residence in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and J.B. Jackson's La Cienega, New Mexico residence.

Continuing the Tradition Today will conclude with the presentation of two or three residential designs, from the humble to the grand, by living, modern masters.