International studio (33.1907/1908(1908))

Prof. Lauger s Gardens at Mannheim

perforce to demonstrate their aims andpowers at exhi-
bitions, to which they were only grudgingly admitted,
for no opportunities for practical work were open
to them. It is the same with the garden architect
who pursues the new aims. In order to demon-
strate his ideas he has to rely on exhibitions. But
all exhibition gardens, such as those we have
seen at Dresden, Diisseldorf, Oldenburg, Darm-
stadt, and quite recently on a large scale at
Mannheim, have their weak side. What they lack
is the house, and with it the possibility of proving
in the most convincing way that house and garden
together form an organic unity, which is the point
of chief significance. The artists who undertake
the laying-out of exhibition gardens must therefore
at the outset confine themselves to showing what
the possibilities are of so blending the architectural
features with the botanical and plastic decorations
as to make a properly co-ordinated, harmonious
whole, and to giving suggestions and hints.
Thus it was with Prof. Max Lauger at the recent
Horticultural Exhibition at Mannheim. In a series
of fifteen gardens, each independent of the others, he
proved anew that the fantasy of the creative artist
may disclose numberless possibilities undreamt of

by the professional gardener with all his wisdom.
These fifteen separate gardens enabled him to
create a series of pictures capable of multitudinous
variations and to effectively carry out a diversity of
ideas. Thus, in one case (page 302), certain kinds
of trees, such as birches, silver poplars and maple-
trees, were disposed in groups on grassy plots in
such a way as to emphasize their characteristic
growth and coloration; in another he selected a
single colour for the entire garden, achieving a
harmonious gradation of tone by a shrewd selec-
tion of flowers; in yet another, animation was
imparted to broad stretches of grass by beds of
gaily-coloured flowers ; but in all cases he studi-
ously avoided everything trivial and fantastic, and
aimed to produce the quiet, restful effects incidental
to broad expanses. Thus he divided the garden
where the huge bronze figure of an elk forms the
crowning feature, into two equal-sized grass plots
embracing a flower-carpet of varied hues. Rows
of maples were planted leading to the figure, while
encircling it was a line of shrubs or flowering under-
shrubs, the whole being surrounded by a massive
wall, interrupted only by the trellis intended for
climbing plants. What could be simpler ?


BATH-HOUSE, MANNHEIM EXHIBITION

DESIGNED BY PROF. MAX LAUGER

299