The Gardens Of Russell Page

Marina Schinz & Gabrielle van Zuylen

Editions

Review

During a career which spanned most of the 20th century, Russell Page designed a huge array of gardens and the list of clients and commissions reads like an international A-Z: Agnelli, Brandolini, Chester Beatty, Ditchley… right through to Zobel.

In his 1962 autobiography, The Education Of A Gardener pbk £14.99, he modestly calls himself a gardener, but in fact he was more a landscape architect with a great knowledge of and feel for plants.

Often before (and always after) he accepted a commission he would spend long periods absorbing the surroundings, the geography and the people.  What resulted was a body of work marked by its sensitivity and unrivalled scope.

Gardens, however, alter in many ways; simply by maturing, in change of ownership, or with the vagaries of current taste.  So this book is an indispensable record, beautifully photographed by Marina Schinz, of the subtle elegant, varied and always contextual work of one of the masters of this fleeting art form. - review by Stewart Grimshaw