Beatrix Farrand - by Judith B Tankard (Hardcover)

About the Book

Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens, Public Landscapes presents the life and work of one of the foremost landscape designers of the early 1900s. Born into a prominent New York family (she was the niece of Edith Wharton), Farrand eschewed the traditional social life of the Gilded Age to pursue her passion for landscape and plants. Many of her clients were members of the highest echelon of society with estates in Newport, the Berkshires, and Maine, but Farrand ultimately became a consultant for university campuses, including Yale and Princeton, and for public gardens, including the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and the Rose Garden at The New York Botanical Garden. Perhaps her best-known work is the extensive garden at Dumbarton Oaks, originally a private residence and now a research institute of Harvard University. Deeply influenced by the English landscape designer Gertrude Jekyll, Farrand was known for broad expanses of lawn with deep swaths of borders planted in a subtle palette of foliage and flowers. Her gardens have been photographed at their peak especially for this book, and these lush illustrations are complemented by beautiful watercolor wash renderings of her designs, now preserved at the library of the University of California at Berkeley.

Book Synopsis

Named a Best Book of 2022 by the American Society of Landscape Architects

Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens, Public Landscapes presents the life and work of one of the foremost landscape designers of the early 1900s. Born into a prominent New York family (she was the niece of Edith Wharton), Farrand eschewed the traditional social life of the Gilded Age to pursue her passion for landscape and plants.

Many of her clients were members of the highest echelon of society with estates in Newport, the Berkshires, and Maine, but Farrand ultimately became a consultant for university campuses, including Yale and Princeton, and for public gardens, including the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and the Rose Garden at The New York Botanical Garden.

Perhaps her best-known work is the extensive garden at Dumbarton Oaks, originally a private residence and now a research institute of Harvard University. Deeply influenced by the English landscape designer Gertrude Jekyll, Farrand was known for broad expanses of lawn with deep swaths of borders planted in a subtle palette of foliage and flowers.

Her gardens have been photographed at their peak especially for this book, and these lush illustrations are complemented by beautiful watercolor wash renderings of her designs, now preserved at the library of the University of California at Berkeley.

Review Quotes

Named a Best Book of 2022 by the American Society of Landscape Architects

'With copious illustrations and a handy listing of all Farrand's known work, Tankard's book will serve as the definitive survey of this most remarkable designer, whose gardens provided both private estates and public spaces with elegant, naturalistic plantings and routings.' - The New Criterion

'Well-researched, well-photographed, and beautifully produced volume on the life and career of a real garden artist and hero.' - The New York Botanical Garden

'This well written and deeply researched book . . . will surely remain the standard work on Beatrix Farrand for years to come.' - Gardens Illustrated

'This book brings to life the gardens of a nascent and grand American landscape style, influenced by European gardens, modified for the nouveaux riches . . . For English majors, this book does double duty as a companion to Aunt Edith [Wharton's] novels.' - The New York Times Sunday Book Review

'[Farrand] gets her due in this lovely coffee-table book filled with her meticulous plans, archival photographs and lovely illustrations.' - The Chicago Tribune

'[An] authoritative biography . . . the writing is well researched [and] refreshingly spare.' - Landscape Architecture

'[This book] is thoughtfully presented by a scholar who is both rigorous and intuitive . . . and it's beautiful.' - Old-House Interiors

'You certainly won't be disappointed with the new book by Judith Tankard. It's a welcome addition to the genre, written in an easy to read style, and it covers all the important facts and facets in the life of a most fascinating woman.' - Garden Design Online

'The definitive biography of Farrand, filled with gorgeous photography.' - The Dirt

About the Author

Judith B. Tankard is a landscape historian, preservation consultant, and the author or co-author of ten books on historic gardens and garden designers, most recently Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Other books include Ellen Shipman and the American Garden (winner of the J. B. Jackson Book Prize) and three works on Gertrude Jekyll. Tankard taught at the Landscape Institute of Harvard University for more than twenty years and served as a board member of the Beatrix Farrand Society. She is a frequent lecturer on landscape history and a contributor to the British journal Hortus.