3 January 2006 -
France
Good
afternoon, We own a house, the garden of which was designed by
Russell Page (in the 1950’s I think). I would love to find some
original designs, projects or any other documents related to our
property. Do you know if someone took care of his archives when he
died ? I do not know if you can help, but any lead would be highly
appreciated. Best regards, and happy new year.
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4 January 2006 -
England ( response to France )
Cannot find anything but why
not contact Lady Walton on the Island of Ischia (Italy)
where he
spent a lot of time helping with the design of the La
Mortella Garden.
Good luck. Let me know how you get on.
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| 9 January 2006 -
Italy ( reply received from Superintendent of Gardens - La
Mortella)
In
1998
I organized an exhibition about Russell Page with the American
Academy in Rome. On that occasion I reviewed his archive, which
was then kept in a very precarious and unofficial
arrangement at the Kalmthout Arboretum, Belgium.
Russell Page left all his papers to the Family De Beldeers,
who were personal friends of him; I do
not know what the arrangements were at the time between M.me
Helena De Beldeer, who legally owned the archive, and the
new management of the Arboretum; what I know is that I found the
papers kept in open boxes, in a sort of a garage,
without any proper archival device to preserve them against pests,
humidity etc.
The person in charge of the archive at the time was an
architect, Mr. Benoit Fondue, who claimed that he had
almost finished a catalogue raisonée of the archive, but
this catalogue actually never came out. However Mr. Fondue
had made several lists of the papers, and I would suppose that
since M.me De Beldeers has died the collection
must have been passed over to the Arboretum. I would think
he is still in charge; I hope the drawings and other
papers have not passed into private hands and have received the
attention they deserve.
I suggested at the time that the whole bulk be passed to a
serious archival institution that would give the documents the
proper care, and a place where researchers and scholars
could have easier access and facility, but to no end.
I would suggest then that now the person to
contact is the general director of the Arboretum, and I am
copying this message to their email address.
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12 January
2006 -
England ( email to Kew Gardens London - home to some of the most
important Garden Archives in the world)
I spoke to you recently
regarding archives for Russell Page.
We were recently asked for help in finding an archive for a garden
in France designed by Russell Page. Following a trail we have
recently received an email from - Superintendent of the Gardens at
La Mortella.
She has suggested that the archives should be kept at a
serious archival institution and I think Kew would be an ideal
place.
It would be such a loss if these papers were lost to future
generations and I am wondering if you would like to pursue this.
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13 January
2006 -
Belgium - Email from Kalmthout Arboretum
Dear all,
The archives of Russell Page still belong to the de Belder Family.
They are now archived in the estate Hemelrijk in Essen, nearby the
Arboretum Kalmthout in Belgium.
After Mr. Fondu has been working on this archive there has been
done a lot of work. Nowadays the condition of storage is a lot
better than the situation you describe. Now it is also structured.
If you would like to have some information about the archive you
should contact Daniel De Belder
Since Mrs Jelena de Belder died, he is now the person to contact
about Russell Page's
archive and the library of de Belder.
Hopefully this information will help you to find the information
needed/wanted.
Many greetings.
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13 January
2006 -
England to French Garden Owner-
This
is really exciting news and with a bit of luck your archives may
be there. In any event you may have contributed to ensuring his
papers exist for future generations. Look forward to further news
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February 6
2006 -
Belgium Garden Writer to England -
I
came upon your quest perchance. It so happens I have just
published a book about the De Belders titled Jelena and Robert De
Belder, Generous as Nature herself. (see www.debelderbook.be).
Quite
a few Pages are devoted to the extraordinary friendship between
Page and Robert De Belder. Russell Page did indeed leave his
archive to Robert when he died. Robert suffered a
stroke soon after and therefore nothing was done about
finding a suitable place for these archives. If you need any help
getting in touch with the family just let me know.
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February 7 2006 - England to Belgium Writer -
Many thanks for taking the time to contact me. The book you have
written sounds really interesting. Russell Page must have been
very close to the De Belders for him to leave his archives to
them.
It seems that Russell Page may have had more friends in
Europe
than the
UK
as
it seems he spent most of his time abroad. I think he is now
recognised as one of the leading garden designers of the 20th
century.
I know that
Kew
Gardens
in
London
would
be interested in maintaining the archives for future generations
in a safe environment but I also recognise that they were
trusted to the De Belder family. If you have the opportunity
perhaps you could ask that they might consider this.
If you have any information on how many documents and plans
are held, I would be very interested. By the way can you tell me
where Russell Page was laid to rest after his death?
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February
8 2006 - Belgium Garden Writer to England
-
Page was indeed not a prophet in his own country. As a homosexual,
he had fallen out with his family and was an extremely solitary
person. At the De Belders, he found a family who loved and
understood him for his qualities, a garden where he could
experiment freely and a tremendous source of energy and
inspiration.
When studying in
France, he was helped
and encouraged by André de Vilmorin, a descendant of a remarkable
family, devoted to plants for generations.
He had a good friend and admirer in Gabrielle Van Zuylen (lives in
Paris), who wrote a
book about his gardens. The
archives are sorted and kept in an attic in good conditions. I
believe all his plans and sketches are there, except things
previous to WWII, which all burnt when the building they were kept
in was bombed. It must not be forgotten that R. Page had
offered his archive to the RHS and the
Victoria
and Albert
Museum, who turned down
the offer! There had also been contacts, after his death, with
Dumbarton Oaks, Washington
D.C.
As to the
place he was laid to rest, I quote a text on Page, written by
Jelena De Belder, in my book : "The burial was simple
and intimate. The Duke and Duchess of Beaufort offered a sheltered
spot under an oak tree in their park, which he knew well."
It is always a pleasure to discuss remarkable people and ensure
the interest in them remains alive.
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February
9 2006 - England to Belgium Garden Writer-
Thanks for the additional information. It paints rather a sad
picture of his experiences with his family and own country.
I am surprised that the RHS and
V&A
Museum
turned down the archives but then again perhaps at the time they
did not realise the impact that his work would have on people all
around the world. The De Belders will be happy to know that if at
any time in the future they want to find a home for the Archives
then
Kew
Gardens
will be interested.
I understand from the Duke of Beaufort that Russell Page was
buried in an unmarked grave at Little Badminton Churchyard.
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November
7 2006 - France
We acquired the Domaine St jacques du Couloubrier in Grasse (Alpes
Maritimes) 5 years ago . It was derelict, the house had not been
lived in for 16 years and all was left to abandon. It was only
some months later that we discovered that the water garden was a
Russell Page creation from the 1950's.
We have spent the last 5 years restoring the house and the
gardens. We followed a similar trail and got what was available
from the De Beldeers archives but also from his book the education
of a gardener where the water garden is well featured both in
photographs and descriptive text.
We would be enormously happy to share our experience with this
other proud owner.
William Waterfield of The clos du Peyronet in Menton has done a
survey of many Russell page Gardens in the south of France. We
were also fortunate to be given some photographs taken in the late
60's. Every little helped. This has been and is the most
enormously rewarding and challenging project.
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November
21 2006 - United Kingdom
I met Benoit Fondu back in 1989 when we were both attending the
Architectural Association’s course on garden conservation in
London. He told me of the Russell Page archive of drawings and in
1991. I started working on a book using them with Page’s own
writings and photographs made of the gardens in Page’s day. I
worked on this project for 10 years with the help of Mme de Belder
and Page’s secretary Helen Hogan. After many trips and
interviews I learned that Page had left a quantity of his own
photographs of the gardens with control of his copyright to his
niece Vanessa Corbally Stourton. Use of them with Mme de
Belder’s drawings would have made a fantastic but scholarly
book. Unfortunately working with Miss Stourton and the last
publisher proved to be so difficult that I have gladly given the
book up, thinking that Page would prefer to have his own book The
Education of a Gardener as his legacy. In 2003 the Stourton
photos could be seen in the RHS Lindley Library, London.
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1
July 2007 - Belgium -
I read about your
interest regarding the late Russell Page archives quite
recently.
As I had the chance to archive what he donated to the de Belders
(formerly Arboretum Kalmthout) I was also very involved in
research on his work. In 1998, it was with the help of the late
Jelena de Belder and me, that some Italian projects were exhibited
in
Rome
at the
American
Academy
.I
t is also true that we were hoping storing these archives at the
VA or the Albertine library in Brussels (the 3 places he choose in
his will to have his archives) and had no reply from Dumbarton
Oaks as Jelena thought it would be right place to store them
properly.
It is true that, at the time, we were still cataloguing the
archives he selected himself for a second book and we were still
hoping to find the papers and projects he was working on just
before he died.
Most strangely, his notebooks, address book, and drawings (as for
Pepsico for instance) were never found; even his secretary could
not trace them back.
Last month I read in a French art magazine that a now quite famous
landscape designer had some archives in his possession ……..
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| September
27 2007- Columbus Museum USA.
Have
just read the interesting email correspondence on the above
website with regard to Russell Page, his gardens, and his archive.
As a matter of information, the Columbus Museum of Art, in the
person of its then director, Budd Harris Bishop, commissioned a
garden for the Museum in 1978, a little after the time that Page
was working on the garden for the Frick Collection in NYC and
about the same time he was working on the garden for Mr. and Mrs.
Thomas Vail in Cleveland. The Garden opened here in 1979, and for
a couple of years was home to the collection of sculptures from
the garden of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. MoMA was undergoing
extensive expansion and renovation at the time, so the sculptures
at Mr. Bishop’s request came here.
The
Columbus Museum has an active Garden Club, formed in 1994, to
support restoration and ongoing maintenance of our Russell Page
Garden.
Recently
one of the members of the Garden Club wrote to Mr. Fondue to ask
about any drawings or plans for our garden that he might be able
to share with us, as we have only some correspondence and the
drawings made to Page’s specifications by a local landscape
architect. Mr. Fondue very obligingly and quickly photocopied the
drawings for our garden from the archive and sent them to us. In
return, we sent him a set of the plans drawn up by the local
landscape architect.
I
hope this may be of interest. I have also written a brief paper
about our garden and its history. With best wishes.
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February
25 2008 United Kingdom -
I don't want to be responsible for being the ultimate authority on
Russell Page. I never met the man but know he was very dignified
and would not appreciate gossip, but I can help explain some
things.
Page spent a great deal of time with the Beauforts and had known
the late Duchess since her childhood. Page is buried in the old
Badminton church yard, not near the house where Duchess now lies.
She showed me the site two months before her death, and had put a
straggly outline of
stones on the spot under a tree. There is a picture of it in the
van Zuylen book. When I went to see it months later the whole side
of the graveyard was red taped off limits, perhaps subsidence? I
don't think the family wants people going there, it's a quiet spot
far from the house. I would respect their wishes. David Beaufort
knew him very well.
Page was quite a mystic and never spoke of such things to anyone
outside that circle of his friends. One of the reasons I gave up
my book was that The Education of a Gardener is a much better
memorial to him than a biography. His literary heir, his niece,
who holds his copyrights was uncooperative with me, however she
has placed his own photographs at the RHS library where they may
be seen but not published. The drawings at Hemelrijk are
spectacularly beautiful and
would be a great help to anyone trying to restore the gardens.
Very few of those gardens remain true to his vision now.
My book idea was to use the drawings and the photos (with his
writing and direct interviews) together, using as little of my own
conjecture as possible but one publisher wanted new pictures which
were impossible and it all got too difficult. It's a lovely idea
but I don't recommend
the project to anyone. Rest in peace!
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