Main entry:

Major, Judith K.

Title & Author:

To live in the New World : A.J. Downing and American landscape gardening / Judith K. Major.

Publication:

Cambridge, Mass : MIT Press, ©1997.

Description:

242 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-232) and index.
pt. I. Landscape gardening as a fine art: the treatise of 1841, 1844, and 1849. The treatise: aspirations and audience. The garden finely ; The love of home ; Who does not like the country? ; Country gentleman and large landed estates ; Amateurs and professionals ; A studied and polished mode -- Almost everything is yet before before us: the 1841 edition. The most exquisite beauty of natural forms ; Here, where nature has done so much ; General beauty and picturesque beauty ; Initiation in the fine arts and the beau ideal ; The superior beauty of expression -- On his native heather: the 1844 edition. The reading of the past ; Comparatively little having yet been done ; Expression: the master key ; The graceful and the picturesque -- Let the principles be preserved: the 1849 edition. American rural gems ; The beautiful and the picturesque ; The finest form of a fine type -- pt. II. Landscape gardening as a harmony between the real and the ideal: the 1846-52 Horticulturist editorials. The Horticulturist: aspirations and audience. Moderate establishments ; Republican simplicity ; The moral effects of the fine arts ; The spirit of emulation ; Citizens turning country-folk ; Novices, amateurs, and professionals ; Wisdom conveyed in pleasant and familiar words ; A theory and practice adapted. A national taste in gardening ; Economy in gardening ; The neglected American plants ; The type of all true art in landscape gardening -- After twenty years trial -- Appendix: Horticulturist editorials.
Current Copyright Fee: GBP15.00 0.
Dust jacket.

Summary:

"A. J. Downing (1815-1852) wrote the first American treatise on landscape gardening. As editor of the Horticulturalist and the country's leading practitioner and author, he promoted a national style of landscape gardening that broke away from European precedents and standards. Like other writers and artists, Downing responded to the intensifying demand in the nineteenth century for a recognizably American cultural expression." "To Live in the New World examines in detail Downing's growing conviction that landscape gardening must be adapted to the American people and the nation's indigenous landscapes. Despite significant changes in its three editions, Downing's A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening remained true to the original intent: to guide country gentlemen - with enough money, time, and taste - in the creation of ideal homes and pleasure grounds. While most historians and critics have focused on the treatise, Judith Major gives equal emphasis to Downing's spirited monthly editorials in the Horticulturist. In the journal, Downing "spoke American" and encouraged his countrymen and women to practice economy, to use America's rich natural resources wisely yet artfully, to be content with a little cottage and a few fine native trees."
"Although the book is not a biography, the people, events, and experiences that shaped Downing's thinking on landscape gardening are central to the story. Significantly, Downing spent his life in the spectacular natural setting of the Hudson River valley. Through his professional practice, travels, reading, and extensive correspondence, he gradually became aware of the individual and collective needs that he served. Landscape gardening, Downing came to feel, had to respect not only a client's desires and means, but also the nation's republican values of moderation, simplicity, and civic responsibility. Major takes a fresh look at the influence on Downing's theory and practice of British writers such as Archibald Alison, Uvedale Price, Humphry Repton, John Claudius Loudon, and John Ruskin, and analyzes for the first time his debt to the French academician A.C. Quatremere de Quincy's Essay on Imitation."--Jacket.

Resources:
Table of contents
Table of contents

ISBN:

0262133318 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
9780262133319 (hardcover ; alk. paper)

Subject:

Downing, A. J. (Andrew Jackson), 1815-1852.
Downing, A. J. (Andrew Jackson), 1815-1852. Treatise on the theory and practice of landscape gardening.
Downing, Andrew J. 1815-1852
Downing, Andrew Jackson, (1815-1852)
Downing, Andrew J.
Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer Bitterfeld
Treatise on the theory and practice of landscape gardening (Downing, A.J.)
Landscape architects United States Biography.
Landscape architecture United States History 19th century.
Landscape gardening United States History 19th century.
Architectes paysagistes États-Unis Biographies.
Architecture du paysage États-Unis Histoire 19e siècle.
Jardins Architecture États-Unis Histoire 19e siècle.
Landscape architects.
Landscape architecture.
Landscape gardening.
Gartenkunst
Landschaftsgarten
Landschapsarchitectuur.
Tuinarchitectuur.
Architectes paysagistes États-Unis 19e siècle.
Architecture des jardins États-Unis 19e siècle.
United States.
USA.
Landscaping.
Horticulture.

Form/genre:

Biography
Biographies.
History.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 134576
Call No.: ID NA44.D751; ID:97-B498
Status: Available