W. R. Guilfoyle 1840-1912: The Master Of Landscaping
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In the golden age of colonial Melbourne, one man transformed raw antipodean earth into breathtaking landscapes that would endure for more than a century — William Robert Guilfoyle, the visionary director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, whose life and legacy R. T. M. Pescott meticulously chronicles in this authoritative biography. From his birth in 1840 to his death in 1912, the narrative traces Guilfoyle's remarkable journey from botanical artist and plant collector to the undisputed master of the gardenesque style in Australia, detailing how he reshaped the Melbourne Botanic Gardens into one of the most celebrated horticultural landscapes in the Southern Hemisphere. Pescott presents Guilfoyle not merely as a gardener, but as an artist of the land — a man whose aesthetic philosophy drew on international botanical traditions while remaining distinctly attuned to the Australian environment. The biography illuminates broader themes of colonial ambition, scientific inquiry, and the cultivation of a national identity through the natural world, situating Guilfoyle firmly within the intellectual and cultural currents of his era. Written with scholarly precision and a genuine reverence for its subject, this work leaves the reader wondering: how much of what we consider quintessentially Australian was, in fact, grown by one man's hand?
Author: R. T. M. Pescott
Format: Hardback
Published: 1974, Oxford University Press
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In the golden age of colonial Melbourne, one man transformed raw antipodean earth into breathtaking landscapes that would endure for more than a century — William Robert Guilfoyle, the visionary director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, whose life and legacy R. T. M. Pescott meticulously chronicles in this authoritative biography. From his birth in 1840 to his death in 1912, the narrative traces Guilfoyle's remarkable journey from botanical artist and plant collector to the undisputed master of the gardenesque style in Australia, detailing how he reshaped the Melbourne Botanic Gardens into one of the most celebrated horticultural landscapes in the Southern Hemisphere. Pescott presents Guilfoyle not merely as a gardener, but as an artist of the land — a man whose aesthetic philosophy drew on international botanical traditions while remaining distinctly attuned to the Australian environment. The biography illuminates broader themes of colonial ambition, scientific inquiry, and the cultivation of a national identity through the natural world, situating Guilfoyle firmly within the intellectual and cultural currents of his era. Written with scholarly precision and a genuine reverence for its subject, this work leaves the reader wondering: how much of what we consider quintessentially Australian was, in fact, grown by one man's hand?