At home with the ‘artist-gardener’: Gertrude Jekyll at Munstead Wood

Munstead Wood, home of the celebrated gardener Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), holds deep significance as the place where her ideal of the ‘artist-gardener’ achieved complete expression. Jekyll’s ideas on combining colours in the flower border and her innovative use of plant texture and form were highly influential in her lifetime and are still appreciated today. However, gardening was just one aspect of her artistry; Jekyll’s design and making encompassed several branches of the decorative arts as well as interior design schemes. Exploring these many and varied elements of her output provides an important context to her garden-making and builds a picture of Jekyll’s taste expressed in her interiors and furnishings at Munstead Wood, the purpose-built home where she lived for 35 years. By reconnecting Jekyll the gardener to Jekyll the artist, craftswoman and designer, this article seeks to articulate a more complete story of her artistic life and influences.