Title : The Challenges of Garden Painters
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The Challenges of Garden Painters
Sitting in a garden painting a watercolor sounds like a pretty easy life, doesn't it?One might think so, but two artists, Ernest Arthur Rowe (1863-1922) and George S. Elgood (1851-1943), show the kind of challenges these garden specialists faced.
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| Ernest Arthur Rowe, Holme Lacy, Herefordshire, 1902 |
Both of them traveled around Britain painting detailed watercolor portraits of estate gardens for rich clients.
He also faced financial challenges, even though he was one of the leading garden painters of his day. When he started out, he had a hard time getting commissions, so he would arrange permission from the head gardener to do a rendering, and then sweet-talk the owner into buying it.
In 1890 he only made £30. He gradually improved his fortunes enough to marry and build a house.
All his life he suffered from poor health. The First World War devastated the world that supported his profession, but he was able to revive his career a bit before his death in 1922. After that, for 50 years, he was virtually forgotten.
George S. Elgood was probably the best known garden painter and a gardener himself. He illustrated books by the renowned designer Gertrude Jekyll, and he was inspired by the gardens of Italy.
His paintings achieve a remarkable botanical truthfulness without sacrificing the atmospheric quality and the tonal unity of the distant areas.
According to Christopher Wood, "as he grew older, Elgood grew increasingly crotchety, eccentric, and reclusive." His notes reveal "his great contempt for garden designers" and his disrespect for others in his profession. Apparently Elgood and Rowe didn't know each other and never spoke.
Elgood had a particular distaste for architects who designed gardens, and he wrote: "the architect who designed this porch ought to be whipped."
"In his own house," Wood continues, "Elgood resolutely eschewed all modern conveniences, refusing to install heating, electric light or even running water. He died a cantankerous, bearded old recluse, in 1943 at age 92, by which time the golden age of English gardens which he had so lovingly depicted, had long since passed away."
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| Ernest Arthur Rowe - Revesby Abbey, Lincolnshire, The Fountain 1898 |
Ernest Arthur Rowe often had to contend with bad weather. In 1892 in Suffolk, he "worked in the garden under an umbrella in the morning and for an hour in the afternoon, then gave it up as a bad job. Rained all day."
Later he said in his journal "a 24 x 20 drawing [was] blown into a fishpond."
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| Ernest Arthur Rowe - The Terrace, Gwydyr |
In 1890 he only made £30. He gradually improved his fortunes enough to marry and build a house.
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| Ernest Arthur Rowe, Rose Garden |
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| George Elgood |
His paintings achieve a remarkable botanical truthfulness without sacrificing the atmospheric quality and the tonal unity of the distant areas.
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| George Elgood, Italian Garden |
Elgood had a particular distaste for architects who designed gardens, and he wrote: "the architect who designed this porch ought to be whipped."
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| George Elgood |
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The quotes are from the art book Painted Gardens: English Watercolours, 1850-1914
by Christopher Wood
by Christopher WoodMore info online: Ernest Arthur Rowe: Painting the Old English Garden
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