George Elgood, from George Samuel Elgood by Eve Eckstein
This post is about George Elgood. Unless you have pored over old arthouse auction catalogues or spent time looking at watercolours on provincial gallery walls he’s someone you’ve probably never heard of. He might look a typically mildly eccentric Victorian gent but a century ago he was the leading garden painter in Britain. He illustrated books too including one written by his friend Gertrude Jekyll. A keen gardener himself he also knew Edwin Lutyens, Dean Hole, William Robinson and Ellen Terry. Elgood was a master at capturing in watercolour what is often described as the golden age of English gardening: the decades just before 1914.
The Terrace Steps at Penshurst, from Some English Gardens, 1904
Roy Strong says that one can “go for a stroll” in Elgood’s pictures “sauntering past immemorial yew hedges to linger over a herbaceous border, before ascending ancient stone steps leading through an iron gate to who knows where… this is enchantment of the highest order.” Read on to take a look and see for yourself…
The Garden History Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.