Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Posed in a front garden, this gardener stands as stiffly upright as the standard rose tree behind her.  Dressed in a dark skirt and crisply laundered white shirt, her garden seems to reflect a similar preference for order and neatness, with its straight edged lawn and borders of roses and chrysanthemum, underplanted with regularly spaced clumps of the popular bedding plant, alyssum.   This gardener’s love of flowers is further indicated by hanging containers adorning the pebble dashed wall of the house and a ceramic bowl of flowers placed in the centre of the living room window.

Gardeners (1978-79) is a series of forty black and white photographs by the conceptual artist Keith Arnatt (1930 – 2008), taken close to where he lived in Tintern, Monmouthshire.   Arnatt’s odyssey in search of the vernacular garden records ordinary people in their gardens, ranging from rural plots and allotments to post war housing developments.  As part of this process Arnatt also examines the connection between gardens and their owners, their relationship to the wider landscape, and what the domestic garden represents in our culture.

Trained at the Oxford School of Art and the Royal Academy, Arnatt’s performance based work was exhibited internationally in the 1960s.  Characterised by wit and humour, his work included Self Burial (1969), where a sequence of photographs shows the artist gradually disappearing into the ground and Trouser – Word Piece (1972) where the artist is photographed with a sign hung from his neck, bearing the words ‘I’m a real artist’.

Arnatt began teaching at Newport College of Art in 1969, and from the mid-1970s he completed several photographic projects documenting people engaged in everyday activities.  These included tourists visiting places of interest The Visitors (1974-76), taking their dogs for a walk, Walking the Dog (1976-79), and gardening Gardeners (1978-79).

Suburban gardens exist within a framework of uniformity, where rows of identical houses might typically have a square of ground at the front, and a rectangular plot at the back.  Some of the gardens recorded by Arnatt sit comfortably within this convention, with their clipped hedges dividing each plot from those of the neighbours, furnished with lawns, flower beds and ornaments.  Pictured with their owners, these well -tended gardens seem to echo the cottage gardens so admired by Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville West.

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Arnatt also examines those who depart from these conventions, like the man pictured with a pond made out of an old bath tub, its rim decorated with plastic storks and pot plants.  Ornaments of animals and birds seem to interest Arnatt, perhaps a reminder that domestic gardens have replaced the natural landscape and displaced nature.  He also seems to enjoy their incongruity.  In one photograph, a woman poses in her garden holding a tiny dog, standing close to an outsize model of a frog placed on a tree stump and plastic ducks placed underneath the canopy of a diminutive tree.

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Semi-rural gardens allow Arnatt to explore their relationship with the wider landscape.  The boundaries between the rather wild looking garden of an older man and the woodland beyond are completely blurred, with no visible barrier between his roses and chrysanthemums, and the distant trees.  However, at the very top of the frame, Arnatt has included washing hanging up to dry, a reminder we are viewing a cultivated space.

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

A tiny garden, dominated by a homemade rockery, is bordered by a wire fence to keep out sheep and rabbits from the adjoining field.  Here, the fence represents a battle line, and gardener’s foot, planted firmly on the rockery, seems to indicate both pride in his collection of alpine plants, and a sense of victory over the forces that would attack his garden.

By way of contrast, a large garden, its lawn stretching out towards a field, seems adrift in the landscape.  The hard edge of the patio and woman’s slightly awkward posture seems to amplify the sense of dislocation.

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Some of Arnatt’s photographs reveal gardens with a more harmonious relationship with nature. By filling the frame with flowers, the man posed next to an expanse of daffodils is transported into a world that is almost bucolic.

A woman posed next to an open garden gate has repeated the planting of roses and other flowers on both sides of the stone wall, creating a pleasing sense of unity and flow between the cultivated space and the landscape beyond.

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Perhaps it’s on the allotment where Arnatt’s gardeners seem most relaxed, preparing for the growing season, digging over the soil, or tending a bonfire.  These gardeners are wearing clothes appropriate for gardening, but others in the series appear to have dressed up smartly for the occasion.

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

Gardeners 1978-9 Keith Arnatt 1930-2008 Tate Gallery © Keith Arnatt Estate

The success of Gardeners hinges on the people selected by Arnatt.  Carefully placed in their gardens by the photographer, they anchor each composition and their presence creates a sense of substance and cohesion across the series.  By their very nature, gardens are impermanent places, so forty five years after Gardeners was produced, these photographs also provide an important cultural record of ordinary gardens, and the people who made them, that could so easily have been lost and forgotten.

Further reading:

Keith Arnatt estate here

Keith Arnatt’s work at the Tate Gallery here

Trade card for James Gordon, seedsman c. 1770. Gordon was based at the Sign of the Thistle & Crown, near Philpot Lane, No.25, Fenchurch Street, London  All images from the Sir Ambrose Heal collection at the British Museum  © The Trustees of the British Museum

The contribution of individuals like James Maxfield, Samuel Smith and Arabella Morris to the horticultural landscape of 18^th century England might have been entirely forgotten, but for the survival of their trade cards.  Preserved over the years by collectors, these beautifully designed cards indicate each owner’s business at a particular moment in its history – their location, the services they provided, the goods they sold, and how they were positioned in the horticultural market of the day.

The British Museum houses a collection of over 9,000 trade cards amassed by Sir Ambrose Heal  (1872-1959), chairman of Heal’s furniture shop on Tottenham Court Road, London.  As well as being a successful businessman, Heal was an authority on London trades and shops, and his collection of trade cards, bills of sale, and other related ephemera was bequeathed to the British Museum in the 1960s.

This selection of highly decorative cards and bills of sale from businesses in and around the capital reveals a wide range of horticultural traders, from those providing landscaping services to those selling seeds and flower bulbs to ordinary Londoners.  They include some of my favourites, including the traders mentioned above.

My thanks to the British Museum for making these trade cards available to everyone via their digital collections – links to the Sir Ambrose Heal collection below:

Trade card of Robert Robinson, land surveyor, landscape gardener, designer and architect c. 1760

Robert Robinson’s trade card outlines his skills, both in surveying estates, and laying them out in ‘a Picturesque Manner’.  With its cartouche design and classical imagery, Robinson’s card is aimed to attract wealthy landowners, keen to develop their gardens in the fashionable landscape style.  The British Museum records that Robert Robinson (1734 – 1794) was born in Durham and ‘employed in his youth by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown to execute many of his designs.’  Robinson ‘came perilously close to bankruptcy in 1780 and was forced to realise all his assets to meet the demands of his creditors. Although a relatively young man, he never seems to have worked again.’ 

Trade card of Thomas Greening, gardener in Esher, Surrey; view of the garden of a house seen in the distance at left, a greenhouse to right, a lake and the end of a bridge to left, a lettered block of ruined stone at centre, overgrown with picturesque foliage, a flowerpot growing a pineapple in front. c.1777

Based in Esher, Surrey, Thomas Greening’s trade card advertises his skills in designing ‘parks, paddocks, pleasure grounds and gardens, laid out in the newest and most elegant taste.’  Behind the central cartouche, a greenhouse has been constructed against a wall and a pathway leads invitingly to an orangery, or perhaps a summerhouse?  Amongst the choice plants is a pineapple, one of the most fashionable plants in the 18^th century.

Trade card for Weeks, an expert in horticultural buildings from greenhouses to pavillions and temples c. 1790

Based close to St Pancras Church, Mr Weeks advertises his expertise in the construction of garden buildings and trellis work.

James Maxfield Gardener c. 1800

There’s something rather enigmatic about James Maxfield’s trade card.  Describing himself simply as a gardener, Maxfield does not elaborate on the nature of the services he provided, but the image of the smartly dressed archers at the top of his card might suggest he was positioning himself towards the type of clients with the means to enjoy this pastime?  His address is recorded very precisely as No.18, Lambs Conduit Passage, Red Lion Square, London.

Trade card of James Scott, horticulturist. 1754

As well as supplying seeds and flower roots from this garden in Turnham Green, James Scott, appears to have been a specialist in the cultivation of the ‘plants and fruit of ananas or Pine Apple’.  Scott also offers a service in the construction of ‘stoves, walls and frames’ to house these fashionable tender plants.

Henry John and Co Seed and Root Warehouse, Islington c. 1790

John Turner & Co, Seedsmen and Florists c. 1810

Sam Smith, Nurseryman & Florist at Dalston, near Hackney c. 1775

Nurseryman and florist Samuel Smith sold plants and bulbs both at his nursery in Dalston, Hackney and at his shop in Covent Garden.  According to Sir Ambrose Heal’s research, Smith went into partnership with Warren Luker, another nurseryman, in 1760.  A card (from the Lady Dorothea Banks Collection) also advertises Smith & Co’s shop in Covent Garden.

Trade card of Smith & Company, horticulturalists, c.1780 from the Lady Dorothea Banks Collection

Bill-head of George Mitchell, horticulturist 1790

Grimwood and Hudson, Nursery-men, Seeds-men & Net-makers 1783

Wilson and Sanders, Seedsmen c. 1760

Arabella Morris, selleth all sorts of Garden Seeds, Flower Seeds and Flower Roots; 1748

I was delighted to find this trade card for Arabella Morris, a female horticulturalist trading in Covent Garden in the mid 18^th century.  Her card describes the goods she sold in great detail which included garden tools as well as seeds, bulbs, and plants.  ‘Arabella Morris… Selleth all Sorts of Garden Seeds, Flower Seeds, and Flower Roots, Fruit Trees, Flowering Shrubs, Evergreens, and Forest Trees. Also Shears, Rakes, Reels, Hoes, Spades, Scythes, Budding and Pruning Knives, Watering Pots, Matts [sic], Sieves, and all Sorts of Materials proper for Gardening. Also Riga, Dantzick and Ditch Flax Seed, and all Sorts of Grass Seeds. N.B. The true Durham, and common Flower of Mustard Seed.’ 

In the biographical notes for Morris, the British Museum has included a note supplied by Amy Erickson (via email in 2022) who records that ‘Arabella Morris previously traded as Arabella Fuller at the same address, the widow then of Edward Fuller’.

H Potter, herbalist, seedsman and importer of leeches c. 1800

These three cards demonstrate the crossover between herbal medicine and horticulture during this period, with traders selling seeds as well as remedies.  H Potter’s company based at New Fleet Market describes the owner as a ‘herbalist, seedsman and importer of leeches’, while Thomas Bailey in Covent Garden sells ‘all sorts of physical herbs, roots and seeds’.  His ‘scorbutic juices’ would have been a treatment for scurvy.

Thomas Bailey’s trade card shows the close association between horticulture and herbal medicine. c, 1780

James Dickson, Herb Shop 1775

Further reading:

Sir Ambrose Heal’s Trade Card Collection at the British Museum here

As the days lengthen, and spring approaches, I’m starting to plan some garden visits.  The two journeys I’m going to discuss today remind me, however, that these highly anticipated excursions do not always proceed as smoothly as we’d like them to, and perhaps never more so than when a group of people travel together.

The account of a solitary traveller is often seductive.  The reader is invited to travel as a companion to the author, and enjoys privileged access to locations that would be impossible to see without them.  But the reader’s relationship with a travelling group can be less comfortable.  The reader is now plunged into a situation where the complexities of the group dynamic make the outcome of the journey much less certain.

These two entertaining stories for children from the early 19th century involve trips to Kew and Vauxhall Gardens, both popular visitor attractions at that time.  I love the illustrations for the details they reveal about London life of two hundred years ago.  London is so much smaller, and the countryside so much closer than it is today.  We glimpse cobbled streets, lamp posts, signage and even a pot plant growing on somebody’s windowsill.  The Thames is as full of passenger boats as London’s streets are with taxis today.

The Dandy’s Perambulations (1819), written and illustrated by Isaac Robert Cruikshank (1789 – 1856), the elder brother of celebrated artist George Cruikshank, is a gently satirical account of a visit to Kew Gardens undertaken by two fashionable London dandies.  After a late start and various mishaps along the way, they never reach their destination.

One morning, after getting dressed Mr Pink leaves his home in Southwark to visit MacCarey in a basement flat, (from which he appears to have a business selling potatoes).  Deciding to visit Kew Gardens, the dandies hire velocipedes (an early version of the bicycle without pedals).  Some distance out of London they are attacked by geese, fall into a pond and are rescued by one Peter Parrot:
‘The only Dandy that was seen,
Or known to live, at Turnham Green.’

After losing one of the velocipedes and another unfortunate encounter, this time with a sow and piglets, they admit defeat and decide to come home agreeing;
.. no more to roam
Beyond the eastern town of Bow,
Or farther west than Rotten Row;

The second book has a long title –  A Second Holiday for John Gilpin, or A Voyage to Vauxhall; where, Though he had better Luck than Before, he was far from being contented. (1808).  In this tale, the Gilpin family visit the famous Vauxhall Gardens in south London and although they do reach their destination, the accident prone and reluctant traveller John Gilpin is appalled at the expense of the outing.  The character of John Gilpin would have been well known to readers after the success of William Cowper’s poem The Diverting History of John Gilpin (1782) where Gilpin rides further than he intended on a runaway horse.

Travelling to Vauxhall by boat Gilpin manages to lose his hat in the water, and on arriving at the gardens is ‘vex’d to find that he Four Shillings had to pay.’  An illustration shows the boat landing outside Lambeth Palace and the church St Mary-at-Lambeth (which now houses the Garden Museum).  After listening to some music they have dinner with wine, but John Gilpin thinks, ‘he’d rather had A pot of Trueman’s beer.’  Eventually a coach is called to take them home at yet more expense and Gilpin vows ‘he ne’er would have Another Holiday’.

The message from both these accounts seems to be – choose your garden travelling companions carefully!  Links to the full versions of both texts below:

Lambeth Palace and the church of St Mary-at-Lambeth

Dining at Vauxhall Gardens

Further reading:

The Dandy’s Perambulations  from the Children’s Library, The Internet Archive

A Second Holiday for John Gilpin  from the Children’s Library, The Internet Archive

Robert Cruikshank  Wikipedia