The Fifth Annual
Bellefield
Design Lecture

Judith Tankard gave an illustrated talk entitled Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement. In the late 19th century, the Arts and Crafts Movement brought sweeping changes to the world of art and design in Britain and America. The movement's principles of simplicity, utility, and high standards of craftsmanship were celebrated in many imaginative gardens created during this era. Hedged enclosures, dazzling flower borders, and distinctive ornamental features were some of their hallmarks. Horticulturists also made an impact with a new philosophy of planting design, such as Gertrude Jekyll's innovative flower borders and William Robinson's naturalistic gardens. American designers, notably Beatrix Farrand, who had visited Jekyll's and Robinson's gardens as well as studied their books, quickly embraced these new concepts of garden design. Dumbarton Oaks and a number of Farrand's more intimate commissions admirably demonstrate this fresh approach to garden design. This lecture showed important examples of British Arts and Crafts gardens and how they were translated in American gardens during the golden era of estate building. Copies of Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement were available for purchase after the lecture. Also available were order forms for the fall release of her new book entitled Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens, Public Landscapes (The Monacelli Press, 2009), which features the garden at Bellefield. Ms. Tankard signed books and book plates for her new book. You can order her book now:

Judith B. Tankard is a landscape historian, author, and preservation consultant. She received an M.A. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and has taught at the Landscape Institute, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, since 1987. In 2000 she was awarded a Gold Medal by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for her role in the advancement of historic New England gardens. She is the author or co-author of seven other illustrated books on landscape history, including A Legacy in Bloom: Celebrating a Century of Gardens at the Cummer (2008) and Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement: Imagination and Reality (2004). Her book A Place of Beauty: The Artists and Gardens of the Cornish Colony (2000) won a Quill and Trowel Award from the Garden Writers Association in 2001. The Gardens of Ellen Biddle Shipman (1996) was a recipient of the 1998 book award from the American Horticultural Society. Other books include Gertrude Jekyll at Munstead Wood (1996) and Gertrude Jekyll: A Vision of Garden and Wood (1988) that accompanied an exhibition. Her books have been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and the Hubbard Educational Foundation.