Masters of their Craft

A masterful work of biography and art history, telling the story of the eminent Victorian designers William Andrews Nesfield and William Eden Nesfield, the development of their styles, and their legacy for British architecture and design.

In this informative volume, Dr Shirley Rose Evans explores the lives of two of the most prominent designers of the nineteenth century, designers who have left their distinctive mark on buildings and gardens throughout the British Isles. William Andrews Nesfield and William Eden Nesfield, father and son, were inspired by the beauty and romance of the past, and both played important roles in the nineteeth-century revivals of the Jacobean, Renaissance and Gothic styles. The Nesfields produced horticultural and architectural designs for wealthy and influential landowners, winning important public commissions at Kew Gardens and the Prince Consort’s Kensington museum complex. Shirley Rose Evans covers the education of both men and the evolution of their aesthetic sensibilities in detail. William Andrews Nesfield’s early life in Durham, his military training and his travels in Canada and Europe fed his fascination with Renaissance proportion and the pre-Revolutionary French parterre-de-broderie, a design of intricate and highly artificial bedding that was to become his signature. His son flourished in the artistic milieu in which he was raised, but his main passion was for Gothic detailing. Both were highly accomplished painters, and Nesfield Senior’s watercolours were lauded by John Ruskin. This illustrated volume will be of great interest to enthusiasts of the remarkable work of the Nesfields in particular, or of Victorian design in general.

• By (author) Shirley Rose Evans

At last we have a definitive study of the most influential landscape gardener of the Victorian period. Shirley Evans's brilliant monograph combines meticulous scholarship with analytical site investigation to establish Nesfield as a practitioner of rare innovation.Professor Timothy Mowl FSA, Professorial Research Fellow in History of Architecture & Designed Landscapes, Humanities Research Institute, University of Buckingham Shirley Rose Evans' long-awaited study of the Nesfields launches them into the limelight at last; her warm-hearted and colourful family saga of war and peace, of dutiful soldiering unleashed into passions for watercolours, decorative gardening and architecture reveals the humanity of these Victorian taste-makers.Jane Brown, author of 'The Pursuit of Paradise, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown 1716-83: The Omnipotent Magician' and 'A history of the Garden at Buckingham Palace'"[...] this is a significant study of the Nesfields. It is an informative, well-illustrated volume with ... family trees, list of commissions, an excellent bibliography and a glossary of words and terms used in the book."Clare Greener, Devon Gardens Trust Newsletter, No.94, (2014)"...the beautiful drawings and watercolours, and the detailed planting lists, contribute hugely to making this an invaluable contribution to any study of mid-nineteenth century l andscaping and to an understanding of the contemporary reasons for the decline in popularity of Lancelot Brown."Judith Christie, Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust Newsletter, No. 37, October 2014"William Andrews (W.A.) and William Eden Nesfield (W.E.), landscape architect and architect, have waited a long time for a monograph, but now Shirley Rose Evans has done them justice in a book that not only details their artistic accomplishments, but is full of insights into their age".Clive Aslet, in "Country Life", January 28, 2015Nesfield's relationship with other designers and theorists in the early 19th century is succinctly discussed, together with the Aesthetics that under pinned the painting of his parterres with gravels as well as plants. ... Nesfield's two sons make many appearances in the book and usefully, William Eden Nesfield's architectural commisions are listed.David Whitehead, Hereford and Worcester Gardens Trust Newsletter, January 2015This book is a serious read and a historical account of the changes going on in public parks and private estates and it is also a very handy reference work about the many scores of stately homes and country estates that the Nesfields added to in many ways.RW, Follies: The International Magazine, vol 24 issue 1, Spring 2015"This study provides a wonderful portrait of these Victorian gentlemen, products of their age ... This book is a welcome addition to studies of prominent landscape designers. It will inform greater understanding of the Nesfields' work and contribution to architectural and garden design, and encourage readers to search out their surviving creations." -- Barbara Moth, Context: The Journal of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation, Issue 139, May 2015"Dr Evans has devoted many years to unravelling the Nesfield family (including two of his sons and the architect Anthony Salvin who was William's brother-in-law) and where they worked, and she bookends this monograph with family trees and lists of commissions."-Ivor James, Historic Gardens Review, Issue 32, July 2015
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