Five Centuries of Women & Gardens

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful picture book.....
Review: My son gave me FIVE CENTURIES OF WOMEN AND GARDENS for Christmas last year. He purchased the book in London at the National Portrait Gallery where it is sold in the gift shop. This is a beautiful book, slick paper and lots of pretty pictures and text distilled from eons of research.

Enclosed with the book is a "guide" to portraits found in the "Escape to Eden" gallery trail in the Portrait Gallery. One can follow the Eden trail and view paintings of 11 or more women involved with gardening whose portrait hangs in the national gallery. The book is not limited to these 11 paintings, however. It includes many other paintings, photographs, and portraits associated with women and gardening in England. The gallery used the book as an organizing principle for viewing some of its exhibits.

Paintings include, 'Elizabeth I by Hilliard' depicted in this book as Diana the White Goddess or Goddess of the Moon, the holding the eglintine rose symbol of the Tudors. Other portraits include Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (Bess of Hardwicke shown in a separate photo); Anne of Denmark; Lucy Countess of Bedford; Henrietta Maria.

From the 18th-early 19th centuries--one of my favorites is included--Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales, the long suffering wife of George III and mother of George IV, depicted in the film THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE. George III built his home at Kew, and the grounds and gardens near Richmond have become the National Botanical Gardens.

The book continues into modern times with flower and nature paintings by Marianne North and a famous portrait of Gertrude Jekyll, a top garden designer of the late 19th and early 20th century who pioneered the perennial border. Shots include some of the gardens and grand houses she influenced.

The book ends with a portrait of Beatrix Potter and a photograph of Vita de Sackville West, garden columnist and friend of Virgina Wolfe, shown with her hoe in hand, lace-up garden boots, and very big dog sitting on stairs in one of the paths in her White Garden at Sissinghurst.

This is a lovely book, and one I have enjoyed as a gift from a son who knows how much I love England and gardens.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful picture book.....
Review: My son gave me FIVE CENTURIES OF WOMEN AND GARDENS for Christmas last year. He purchased the book in London at the National Portrait Gallery where it is sold in the gift shop. This is a beautiful book, slick paper and lots of pretty pictures and text distilled from eons of research.

Enclosed with the book is a "guide" to portraits found in the "Escape to Eden" gallery trail in the Portrait Gallery. One can follow the Eden trail and view paintings of 11 or more women involved with gardening whose portrait hangs in the national gallery. The book is not limited to these 11 paintings, however. It includes many other paintings, photographs, and portraits associated with women and gardening in England. The gallery used the book as an organizing principle for viewing some of its exhibits.

Paintings include, 'Elizabeth I by Hilliard' depicted in this book as Diana the White Goddess or Goddess of the Moon, the holding the eglintine rose symbol of the Tudors. Other portraits include Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (Bess of Hardwicke shown in a separate photo); Anne of Denmark; Lucy Countess of Bedford; Henrietta Maria.

From the 18th-early 19th centuries--one of my favorites is included--Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales, the long suffering wife of George III and mother of George IV, depicted in the film THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE. George III built his home at Kew, and the grounds and gardens near Richmond have become the National Botanical Gardens.

The book continues into modern times with flower and nature paintings by Marianne North and a famous portrait of Gertrude Jekyll, a top garden designer of the late 19th and early 20th century who pioneered the perennial border. Shots include some of the gardens and grand houses she influenced.

The book ends with a portrait of Beatrix Potter and a photograph of Vita de Sackville West, garden columnist and friend of Virgina Wolfe, shown with her hoe in hand, lace-up garden boots, and very big dog sitting on stairs in one of the paths in her White Garden at Sissinghurst.

This is a lovely book, and one I have enjoyed as a gift from a son who knows how much I love England and gardens.