Russell Page’s Brilliant Gardens Come to Life in a New Exhibition
dam-images-daily-2015-04-russell-page-russell-page-garden-museum-exhibition-01.jpg
Russell Page once described himself as “the most famous garden designer no one has ever heard of,” and while that was not really true during his lifetime (his admirers and clients included Oscar de la Renta and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor), it is most certainly not the case now. The British landscape designer’s work is widely studied and his surviving gardens carefully preserved. A new exhibition at London’s Garden Museum, “The Education of a Gardener: The Life & Work of Russell Page (1906–1985)” should further entrench him in the pantheon. Pictured here, the terraced gardens at Villa Silvio Pellico, near Moncalieri, Italy, which Page completed in the 1950s.
dam-images-daily-2015-04-russell-page-russell-page-garden-museum-exhibition-02.jpg
Born in Lincolnshire, England, Page studied in Paris and drew inspiration from historic English, European, and Arabian garden styles. He was a master plantsman who was also an expert at shaping the physical landscape. Here, a view of Page’s elegant terraces to Villa Silvio Pellico.
dam-images-daily-2015-04-russell-page-russell-page-garden-museum-exhibition-03.jpg
The exhibition—which includes photographs, sketches, and personal documents—is the result of a gift to the Garden Museum from the De Belder family of Belgium. One of Page’s first commissions was to refresh the grounds at the 16th-century English estate Longleat, pictured here.
dam-images-daily-2015-04-russell-page-russell-page-garden-museum-exhibition-04.jpg
Page designed gardens for a long list of famous clients, including Gianni and Marella Agnelli, Lady Bird Johnson, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. He also created public spaces and landscapes for corporations, including this 1970s garden at PepsiCo’s headquarters in Purchase, New York.
dam-images-daily-2015-04-russell-page-russell-page-garden-museum-exhibition-05.jpg
English composer Sir William Walton and his wife, Susana, hired Page in the 1950s to transform a former rock quarry at Giardini La Mortella, their estate in Ischia, Italy, into a garden. Here, an egg-shaped pond and fountain at the center of his design.
dam-images-daily-2015-04-russell-page-russell-page-garden-museum-exhibition-06.jpg
The exhibition features many of Page’s drawings, including this sketch for a garden at Battersea Park in London.
dam-images-daily-2015-04-russell-page-russell-page-garden-museum-exhibition-07.jpg
When he was in his fifties, Page wrote The Education of a Gardener, one of the 20th century’s most beloved books about plants and landscape design. The exhibition on Page’s life and work at London’s Garden Museum runs through June 21. Visit gardenmuseumrg.uk for more information.