Gertrude Jekyll’s Photographic Album

She carefully selected and printed images from those she had taken over a two year period to assemble this album editing and curating its contents. The superiority of the platinum prints in this album illustrate her skill as a photographer and her grasp of the technical craft of exposing and developing fine art photographic prints. This album dates from between 1885 and 1886 and is exceptionally important as it is a unique collection of those photographs which Jekyll considered her best work.

In 'Cluster Rose on Mrs Sweetapple’s Cottage Entrance, Eashing', the brickwork and local tiles that Jekyll so admired as a local feature of Surrey architecture, compliment beautifully the abundance of climbing and rambling plants.

In 'Climbing White Roses on a Cottage Porch, Crownpit', she captures the successes a cottager has had in intertwining roses and honeysuckle over his porch. Jekyll absorbed the planting schemes developed by her neighbours and used them to inform her arranging of climbing roses outside the Hut, the temporary home she resided in whilst Lutyens constructed her main abode. Her knowledge of climbing plants was also of importance when she developed her planting schemes for the pergola, garden walls and interconnecting gateways at Munstead.

In 'Ancient Holly Trees in an Old Hedge-Row', she captures the trunks of these old hollies which she describes a shaving ‘smooth pale grey bark, and sometimes a slight twist, that makes it look like the gigantic bone of some old-world monster’. Having long since abandoned the rigid structure of a managed hedgerow, these holly trees provide a strong vertical which draws the viewer in. Jekyll was particularly fond of holly trees because as she describes, ‘in early winter, even without berries [they are] always a cheering sight.’

In 'Ivy-Entwined Beech Tree Trunk, Unstead Lane', Jekyll utilises a low angle to explore a beech tree on a steep embankment that’s typical of the country lanes near Munstead.

In this photo she captures the ivy creeping up the base of the trunk in a most picturesque manner. Jekyll’s intimate knowledge of the lanes and woodlands around her home provided her with endless specimens to explore.

She uses the same low angle in 'Beech Tree Roots Overhanging a Steep Embankment, Busbridge Lane'. In this image the sandy bank has been eroded, leaving the root formation exposed and its twisting structure creates a dramatic sculptural form providing a striking subject.

In the image of 'Bridge at Eashing, Surrey', the road splits in half with the lower section leading the viewer down to the water where the bridge and its arches are reflected on the surface, whilst the upper road leads the viewer up to explore the bridge’s stonework and the wooden railings which cross the bridge.

Sometimes Jekyll would bring potted flowers into her studio and photograph them as with 'Stalks of Solomon’s Seal in Moss'.

Jekyll considered the vessels in which flowers were displayed to be of central importance to the overall visual effect of an arrangement and the longevity of its display.

Finding that the decorative vases produced by most manufactures held little water and that their tapered designs were impractical for holding large numbers of blooms, she designed her own range. In 1884 James Powell & Sons started manufacturing the bold and elegant range of Munstead Flower Vases which Jekyll promoted saying, ‘they are cheap and strong, they hold plenty of water, and are in a number of useful sizes.’ An Arrangement of White Pansies and An Arrangement of Rose Branches illustrate two of the forty design options that were available and illustrate the versatility of the range as being appropriate for small displays of delicate single specimens as well as more complex arrangements.

These vases were immensely popular with the public and were even selected by the great flower painter Henri Fantin-Latour, who favoured them in later life for arranging his floral compositions.

As well as exploring local architectural features in her photographs, Jekyll was also interested in recording the local way of life.

Many of the photographs she took at this time were later to feature in her book 'Old West Surrey'. The publication was extensively reviewed with her photographs receiving a great deal of attention.

'Two Straw Bee Skeps in a Cottage Garden' illustrates traditional straw hives covered with sacking, weighted down with the broken halves of a washing pan. The preference for wooden bee hives was to see these straw types soon disappear. When this image appeared in Old West Surrey it was more closely cropped allowing the reader to understand the construction of the hive. However, in this wider shot Jekyll creates an image which extolls the ornamental qualities of the setting, as well as the attractiveness of traditional bee keeping.