Editing Gertrude Jekyll

{{Short description|British garden designer and writer}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gertrude Jekyll
| image = Gertrude Jekyll portrait.jpg
| alt = painting of an old woman with glasses and grey hair in a chair, by lamplight
| caption = Portrait of Jekyll by [[William Nicholson (artist)|William Nicholson]], painted October 1920; commissioned by [[Edwin Lutyens]], donated to the [[Tate Gallery]] in 1921.
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 29 November 1843
| birth_place = Mayfair, London, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1932|12|08|1843|11|29}}
| death_place = [[Munstead Wood]], Busbridge, Surrey, England
| known_for =
| occupation = {{hlist|[[Horticulture|Horticulturist]]|[[garden design]]er|photographer| writer and artist}}
}}

'''Gertrude Jekyll''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|VMH}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|dʒ|iː|k|əl}} {{respell|JEE|kəl}}; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British [[Horticulture|horticulturist]], [[garden design]]er, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist.<ref name="ChicagoTribune">{{cite news | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/02/26/in-bloom-again/ | title=In Bloom Again: Gertrude Jekyll's Cult Status Is In Full Flower | newspaper=Chicago Tribune | date=26 February 1989 | access-date=3 June 2012 | author=Van Matre, Lynn}}</ref>  She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrote over 1000 articles<ref name="ChicagoTribune" /> for magazines such as [[Country Life (magazine)|''Country Life'']] and [[William Robinson (gardener)|William Robinson]]'s ''The Garden''.<ref>Bisgrove, Richard. ''The Gardens of Gertrude Jekyll.''London: Frances Lincoln, 2006.</ref> Jekyll has been described as "a premier influence in garden design" by British and American gardening enthusiasts.<ref name="ChicagoTribune" />

== Early life ==
Jekyll was born at 2 Grafton Street, [[Mayfair]], London, the fifth of the seven children of Captain Edward Joseph Hill Jekyll, [[Esquire]], an officer in the [[Grenadier Guards]], and his wife Julia, ''née'' [[Hamersley family|Hammersley]]. In 1848 her family left London and moved to [[Bramley, Surrey|Bramley House]] in [[Surrey]].<ref name=Times_obit>{{cite newspaper The Times |title= Miss Gertrude Jekyll |date= 10 December 1932 |issue= 46313 |page= 12 }}</ref> She never married and had no children.

Her younger brother, [[Walter Jekyll]] (an Anglican priest; sometime [[Canon (priest)|Minor Canon]] of [[Worcester Cathedral]] and [[St Paul's Pro-Cathedral|Chaplain of Malta]]), was a friend of [[Robert Louis Stevenson]], who borrowed the family name for his 1886 novella ''[[Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sinclair |first1=Jill |title=Queen of the mixed border |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jun/17/featuresreviews.guardianreview7 |work=The Guardian |date=16 June 2006 }}</ref>

== Themes ==
Jekyll was one half of one of the most influential and historical partnerships of the [[Arts and Crafts movement]], thanks to her association with the English architect [[Edwin Lutyens]], for whose projects she created numerous landscapes and who designed her home [[Munstead Wood]], near [[Godalming]] in Surrey.<ref>Tankard, Judith B. and Martin A. Wood. Gertrude Jekyll at Munstead Wood. Bramley Books, 1998.</ref> (In 1900, Lutyens and Jekyll's brother Herbert designed the British Pavilion for the [[Exposition Universelle (1900)|Paris Exposition]].)

Jekyll is remembered for her outstanding designs and subtle, painterly approach to the arrangement of the gardens she created, particularly her "hardy flower borders".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Gardens of Gertrude Jekyll|first=Richard|last=Bisgrove|date=15 October 1992|publisher=Frances Lincoln|isbn=0711207461}}</ref> Her work is known for its radiant colour and the brush-like strokes of her plantings; it is suggested by some that the Impressionistic-style schemes may have been due to Jekyll's deteriorating eyesight, which largely put an end to her career as a painter and watercolourist.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rutherford|first=Sarah|title=The Arts and Crafts Garden|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|year=2013|isbn=9780747813446|pages=62}}</ref> Her artistic ability had been evident when she was a child and she had trained as an artist,<ref name="Guildford-sketchbook1856">{{cite web |title=Gertrude Jekyll's sketch book |url=https://www.guildford.gov.uk/museumcollection/socialhistory/gertrudejekyllsketchbook |website=Guildford Museum |publisher=Guildford Borough Council |access-date=21 November 2018 |archive-date=21 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121204054/https://www.guildford.gov.uk/museumcollection/socialhistory/gertrudejekyllsketchbook |url-status=dead }}</ref> and she also collaborated with [[Minnie Walters Anson]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Ladell |first=Alwyn |title=Priory Mansions Hotel, 23 Bath Road, East Cliff, Bournemouth, Dorset |date=2014-11-10 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/alwyn_ladell/15761443332 |access-date=2025-03-28}}</ref>

[[File:Gertrude Jekyll, Colour in the Flower Garden, fold-out border plan.jpg|thumb|600px|center|Jekyll's plan of the main flower-border at Munstead]]
She was one of the first of her profession to take into account the colour, texture, and experience of gardens as aspects of her designs. Jekyll's theory of how to design with colour was influenced by painter [[J. M. W. Turner]] and by [[Impressionism]], and by the theoretical [[colour wheel]]. Her focus on gardening began at [[South Kensington School of Art]],<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.gertrudejekyllgarden.co.uk/jekylldesign.htm
 |title=About Gertrude Jekyll
 |access-date=19 December 2007
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071027151347/http://www.gertrudejekyllgarden.co.uk/jekylldesign.htm
 |archive-date=27 October 2007
 |url-status=dead
 |df=dmy
}}</ref>
where she became interested in the creative art of planting, and more specifically, gardening. In 1904, Jekyll returned to her childhood home in the village of Bramley to design a garden for  Millmead House in Snowdenham Lane.<ref>{{cite news |last= Elwes |first= Annunciata |date= 17 June 2022 |title= A sensational country home built by Edwin Lutyens with gardens designed by Gertrude Jekyll — now for sale for the first time in 50 years |work= Country Life |url= https://www.countrylife.co.uk/property/a-sensational-country-home-built-by-lutyens-with-gardens-designed-by-gertrude-jekyll-now-for-sale-for-the-first-time-in-50-years-244157 |access-date= 12 January 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{NHLE |num= 1378321 |desc= Millmead House |grade= II |fewer-links= yes }}</ref>

Not wanting to limit her influence to teaching the practice of gardening, Jekyll incorporated in her work the theory of gardening and an understanding of the plants themselves.<ref>Wood, Martin. ''The Unknown Gertrude Jekyll.''London: Frances Lincoln, 2006.</ref> Her writing was influenced by her friend [[Theresa Earle]] who had published her "Pot-pourri" books.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=Earle [née Villiers], (Maria) Theresa [known as Mrs C. W. Earle] (1836–1925), horticulturist|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-48832|access-date=2020-10-04|year = 2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/48832}}</ref> In works like ''Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden'' (reprinted 1988) she put her imprint on modern uses of "warm" and "cool" flower colours in gardens. Her concern that plants should be displayed to best effect even when cut for the house, led her to design her own range of glass flower vases.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/8143714/Gertrude-Jekyll-vase-designs-set-to-sparkle-again.html | title=Gertrude Jekyll vase designs set to sparkle again | newspaper=The Telegraph | date=24 November 2010 | access-date=3 June 2012 | author=Swengley, Nicole}}</ref>

Later in life, Jekyll collected and contributed a vast array of plants solely for the purpose of preservation to numerous institutions across Britain. At the time of her death, she had designed over 400 gardens in Britain, Europe and a few in North America. Jekyll was also known for her prolific writing. She wrote fourteen books,<ref name=dnb/> ranging from ''Wood and Garden'' and her most famous book, ''Colour in the Flower Garden,'' to memoirs of her youth.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

She was also interested in traditional cottage furnishings and rural crafts, and concerned that they were disappearing. Her book ''Old West Surrey'' (1904) records many aspects of 19th-century country life, with over 300 photographs taken by Jekyll.

== Gardens ==
[[File:Durmast House and Gardens.png|thumb|208x208px|Durmast House and Gardens]]
From 1881, when she laid out the gardens for Munstead House, built for her mother by [[John James Stevenson]], Jekyll provided designs or planned planting for some four hundred gardens. More than half were directly commissioned, but many were created in collaboration with architects such as Lutyens and [[Robert Lorimer]].<ref name=dnb/> Most of her gardens are lost. A small number have been restored, including her own garden at [[Munstead Wood]], the gardens of [[Hestercombe House]] and The Croft in [[Brook, Surrey]], and those of [[Woolverstone#Listed buildings|Woolverstone House]] and the Manor House in [[Upton Grey]] that she designed for the magazine editor [[Charles Holme]].<ref name=dnb/><ref name=mass>Betty Massingham (2006 [1975]). [https://books.google.com/books?id=lWgAMGRxungC&pg=PA44 ''Gertrude Jekyll: An Illustrated Life of Gertrude Jekyll, 1843–1932'']. Princes Risborough: Shire Press. p.&nbsp;44.</ref> Miss Jekyll designed the plans at Durmast House and Gardens and has recently been restored, including a Summer House designed by her long standing friend, Sir Edwin Lutyens.

<gallery mode=packed heights=180px style="text-align:left; font-size=small">
File:West_Rill_at_Hestercombe.jpg| The West Rill at Hestercombe Gardens, 1904
Image:Jekyll Manor House Border.jpg|Jekyll's restored long border at [[Upton Grey]] Manor House, Hampshire
File:Hestercombe; Lutyens designed bench.jpg| Hestercombe Gardens, the Lutyens-designed bench
File:Lindisfarne Castle and its Jekyll Garden - geograph.org.uk - 334038.jpg|[[Lindisfarne Castle]]
File:Hestercombe06.jpg|Hestercombe Gardens, [[borrowed scenery]]

</gallery>

== Awards ==
Jekyll was awarded the [[Victoria Medal of Honour]] of the [[Royal Horticultural Society]] in 1897 and the [[Veitch Memorial Medal]] of the society in 1929. Also in 1929, she was given the George Robert White Medal of Honor of the [[Massachusetts Horticultural Society]].<ref name=dnb>Michael Tooley (2004). [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37597 Jekyll, Gertrude (1843–1932)]. ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press. {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/37597}}</ref><ref name="CL">{{cite web | url=http://www.countrylife.co.uk/news/article/439437/Great-British-garden-makers-Gertrude-Jekyll.html | title=Great British Garden-Makers: Gertrude Jekyll | work=Country Life Magazine | date=23 January 2010 | access-date=3 June 2012 | author=Desmond, Steven}}</ref>

== Death and burial ==
[[File:Jekyll family memorial in St John the Baptist's church, Busbridge.jpg|thumb|The [[Jekyll Memorial, Busbridge|Jekyll Memorial]] in [[Busbridge Church|Busbridge churchyard]]]]
Jekyll died on 8 December 1932 at her home, Munstead Wood, in Surrey.<ref name=Times_obit/> She was buried in the churchyard of [[Busbridge Church|St John the Baptist, Busbridge]], Godalming, next to her brother, Herbert Jekyll, and his wife, the artist, writer and philanthropist Dame [[Agnes Jekyll]]. The [[Jekyll Memorial, Busbridge|Jekyll family memorial]] was designed by [[Edwin Lutyens]].<ref name="Historic England - Busbridge War Memorial">{{NHLE |num= 1044531|desc= Busbridge War Memorial| access-date= 13 December 2015 }}</ref>

==Legacy==
In 1907, Jekyll donated her collection of traditional household items and objects relating to "Old Surrey" to the [[Surrey Archaeological Society]]. Much of this donation is still on display at [[Guildford Museum]]. In 1911, the Corporation of Guildford built an extension to the museum to house the collection.<ref name="Guildford-sketchbook1856" /> Some artefacts associated with her life and work are also housed there.

On 29 November 2017, a [[Google Doodle]] was released honouring Jekyll on what would have been her 174th birthday.<ref>{{cite web |last= Sheridan |first= Wade |date= 29 November 2017 |title= Google honors garden designer Gertrude Jekyll with new Doodle |publisher= UPI  |url=https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2017/11/29/Google-honors-garden-designer-Gertrude-Jekyll-with-new-Doodle/3051511953784/ }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= White |first= Jeremy B. |date= 29 November 2017 |title= Gertrude Jekyll: Who was the horticulturist who made the world a more beautiful place? |work= The Independent |url= https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/gertrude-jekyll-birthday-who-was-she-google-doodle-horticulture-life-career-a8081376.html |access-date= 12 January 2024 }}</ref>

In 2023, the [[National Trust]] bought her home Munstead Wood through a private sale.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pioneering garden designer Gertrude Jekyll's home acquired by National Trust |url=https://www.gardensillustrated.com/news/gertrude-jekyll-national-trust-munstead/ |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=Gardens Illustrated |language=en}}</ref>

== Books ==

* ''[https://archive.org/details/woodandgardenno03jekygoog Wood and Garden]'' (Longmans, Green and Co., 1899).
* ''[https://archive.org/details/homegardennotest00jeky Home and Garden]'' (Longmans, Green and Co., 1900).
* (with E. Mawley) ''[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/52828 Roses for English Gardens]'' (London: Country Life, 1902).
* ''[https://archive.org/details/wallwatergardens00jeky Wall and Water Gardens]'' (London: Country Life, 1902).
* ''[https://archive.org/details/cu31924002845935 Lilies for English Gardens]'' (London: Country Life, 1903).
* (with illustrations by [[George S. Elgood]]) ''[https://archive.org/details/someenglishgarde00jeky Some English Gardens]'' (Longmans, Green & Co., 1904)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/oldwestsurrey00jeky Old West Surrey]'' (Longmans, Green, and Co., 1904).
* ''[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/109826 Colour in the Flower Garden]'' (London: Country Life, 1908).
* ''[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/118707 Annuals & Biennials]'' (London: Country Life, 1916)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/childrengardens00jeky Children and Gardens]'' (London: Country Life, 1908).
* (with Lawrence Weaver) ''[https://archive.org/details/gardensforsmallc00jekyrich Gardens for Small Country Houses]'' (London: Country Life, 1914).
* ''[https://archive.org/details/cu31924002831117 Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden]'' (London: Country Life, 1919).

== See also ==

{{botanist|Jekyll|Jekyll, Gertrude}}
{{portal|Biography|Gardening}}
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* The [[Bois des Moutiers]] (she designed some gardens of the Bois des Moutiers)
* [[Garden design]]
* [[Ralph Hancock (landscape gardener)]]
* [[Hascombe Court]] (designed by Jekyll)
* [[History of gardening]]
* [[Planting design]]
* [[Garden of Eden (Venice)|Garden of Eden]], Venice, the garden of Jekyll's sister Caroline
* [[Hestercombe Gardens]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Bisgrove |first=Richard |year=2000 |title=The Gardens of Gertrude Jekyll |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-22620-8 }}
* {{cite web |last=Desmond |first= Steven |title=Great British Garden-Makers: Gertrude Jekyll |work=Country Life Magazine | url=http://www.countrylife.co.uk/news/article/439437/Great-British-garden-makers-Gertrude-Jekyll.html | date=23 January 2010 |access-date=3 June 2012 }}
* {{cite book |last= Eberle |first= Iwona |title= Eve with a Spade: Women, Gardens, and Literature in the Nineteenth Century |location= Munich |publisher= Grin |date = 2011 |isbn= 978-3-640843-55-8}}
* {{cite book |last= Tankard |first= Judith B. |title= Gardens of the Arts & Craft Movement |location= Portland, Oregon |publisher= Timber Press |date= 2018 |type= Hardback |isbn= 978-1-604698-20-6}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{commons category|Gertrude Jekyll}}
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [http://www.gertrudejekyll.co.uk/ The Gertrude Jekyll Estate]
* [http://www.the-secretgardens.co.uk/ Restored Jekyll garden in Sandwich, Kent]
* [http://www.gertrudejekyllgarden.co.uk/ Restored Jekyll garden at Upton Grey]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120121085622/http://www.emilycompost.com/gertrude_jekyll.htm Short biography of Jekyll from Emily Compost]
* [http://www.gardenvisit.com/book/colour_schemes_for_the_flower_garden Online text of Gertrude Jekyll's ''Colour schemes for the flower garden'' (1921)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120122045030/http://www.durmasthouse.co.uk/ Restored Jekyll garden at Durmast House, Burley, Hampshire, UK]
* [http://www.theglebehouse.org/ Jekyll garden in Woodbury CT, USA]
* [http://www.wardsbookofdays.com/29november.htm Gertrude Jekyll's garden designs @ ''Ward's Book of Days'']
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070929033802/http://www.archerfamily.org.uk/obituary/jekyll_g.html ''The Times'' Obituary]
* [http://www.boisdesmoutiers.com/ A Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens garden in France (1898)]
* [http://www.archerfamily.org.uk/ Detailed family history]
* [http://www.peerage.org/genealogy/tree.pdf Connection between Jekyll, Eden, Baring, Hammersley and Poulett-Thomson families] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200202163634/http://www.peerage.org/genealogy/tree.pdf |date=2 February 2020 }}
* [https://calisphere.org/collections/11134/ Jekyll (Gertrude) Collection, 1877–1931]{{UK National Archives ID}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=38184| name=Gertrude Jekyll}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Gertrude Jekyll}}
* {{Librivox author |id=3166}}
{{div col end}}
* [https://collections.rhs.org.uk/collection/24 Works by Gertrude Jekyll on the RHS Digital Collections website]

{{Authority control|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jekyll, Gertrude}}
[[Category:1843 births]]
[[Category:1932 deaths]]
[[Category:Arts and Crafts movement artists]]
[[Category:English garden writers]]
[[Category:English landscape and garden designers]]
[[Category:English gardeners]]
[[Category:English rose horticulturists]]
[[Category:English horticulturists]]
[[Category:Gardens by Gertrude Jekyll| ]]
[[Category:People from the Borough of Waverley]]
[[Category:People from Mayfair]]
[[Category:Veitch Memorial Medal recipients]]
[[Category:Victoria Medal of Honour recipients]]
[[Category:Women of the Victorian era]]
[[Category:Gardens in Hampshire]]
[[Category:Robert Louis Stevenson]]
[[Category:19th-century English women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English people]]
[[Category:Country Life (magazine) people]]