DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16633#0345
CHAPTER XVI
TENDENCIES OF GARDEN ART IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
T no period was the art of gardening thrust forward so strongly into the
sphere of literary interests as when the style was revolutionised in the
L eighteenth century. This movement went far beyond the circle of the
L parties immediately concerned, i.e. garden artists and owners of gardens;
and one of the chief objects aimed at in the second half of the century
seemed to be to study the nature of art in general through the medium of gardening. It
was inevitable that a reaction should set in. The principles of picturesque art had never
won a decisive mastery, indeed, we see counter-influences rising up, first in one place
and then in another, sometimes on the theoretical side and sometimes on the practical.
They were so frequently and so openly discussed, that they penetrated into the conscious-
ness of the general public.
The subject took the tighter hold (in Germany perhaps even more than in England,
and certainly more than in France) because men's sight became somewhat blurred when
the picturesque style approached nearer and nearer to nature. There was no more
interest taken in the great contrast of style in the old formal gardens, nor even in
the romantic gardens which laid stress on buildings and sentiment. Little by little, people
forgot to look for art at all. The unavoidable consequence was that as far as the generality
of mankind was concerned there was an increasing lack of interest in the garden. Goethe
observed this apathy as early as 1825, when he expressed to Varnhagen von Ense his
surprise at the change of sentiment. "Park-sites, once the ambition of all Germany,
especially after Hirschfeld's book was widely circulated, are now quite out of fashion.
People neither hear nor read, as they used to, that somebody or other is still making
crooked paths, or planting weeping-willows, and it looks as though the fine gardens
we have will soon be broken up to make potato patches." Certainly there was no fear of
this, for destruction on a large scale is only the result of active revolution. But the develop-
ment hitherto helped forward by the general interest in art, had now become affected
by two other powerful influences: science and democracy, which modelled and even
controlled civilised life in the nineteenth century, and had a very marked effect on the
art of gardening.
When in its earliest stages, the picturesque style found an ally, helping to a final
victory, in the powerful impetus towards the knowledge of plants which occurred in
the eighteenth century. The cultivation of individual trees could not amount to much in
the stiff formality of the French style; and it was impossible to use groups of shrubs of
different kinds and colouring. Plants were not wanted unless they could be used for
architectural purposes, and foreign ones were only acceptable in so far as they accommodated
themselves to that kind of art. This applied also to flowers in the parterre. Attempts to
325
TENDENCIES OF GARDEN ART IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
T no period was the art of gardening thrust forward so strongly into the
sphere of literary interests as when the style was revolutionised in the
L eighteenth century. This movement went far beyond the circle of the
L parties immediately concerned, i.e. garden artists and owners of gardens;
and one of the chief objects aimed at in the second half of the century
seemed to be to study the nature of art in general through the medium of gardening. It
was inevitable that a reaction should set in. The principles of picturesque art had never
won a decisive mastery, indeed, we see counter-influences rising up, first in one place
and then in another, sometimes on the theoretical side and sometimes on the practical.
They were so frequently and so openly discussed, that they penetrated into the conscious-
ness of the general public.
The subject took the tighter hold (in Germany perhaps even more than in England,
and certainly more than in France) because men's sight became somewhat blurred when
the picturesque style approached nearer and nearer to nature. There was no more
interest taken in the great contrast of style in the old formal gardens, nor even in
the romantic gardens which laid stress on buildings and sentiment. Little by little, people
forgot to look for art at all. The unavoidable consequence was that as far as the generality
of mankind was concerned there was an increasing lack of interest in the garden. Goethe
observed this apathy as early as 1825, when he expressed to Varnhagen von Ense his
surprise at the change of sentiment. "Park-sites, once the ambition of all Germany,
especially after Hirschfeld's book was widely circulated, are now quite out of fashion.
People neither hear nor read, as they used to, that somebody or other is still making
crooked paths, or planting weeping-willows, and it looks as though the fine gardens
we have will soon be broken up to make potato patches." Certainly there was no fear of
this, for destruction on a large scale is only the result of active revolution. But the develop-
ment hitherto helped forward by the general interest in art, had now become affected
by two other powerful influences: science and democracy, which modelled and even
controlled civilised life in the nineteenth century, and had a very marked effect on the
art of gardening.
When in its earliest stages, the picturesque style found an ally, helping to a final
victory, in the powerful impetus towards the knowledge of plants which occurred in
the eighteenth century. The cultivation of individual trees could not amount to much in
the stiff formality of the French style; and it was impossible to use groups of shrubs of
different kinds and colouring. Plants were not wanted unless they could be used for
architectural purposes, and foreign ones were only acceptable in so far as they accommodated
themselves to that kind of art. This applied also to flowers in the parterre. Attempts to
325