Designer of countless gardens around the world, in his homeland Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Persia, Egypt, United States, Mexico and Chile, Page was a fine connoisseur of historical gardening, an innovator whose work resonated with the landscaping culture of William Morris, Gertrud Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens. Before undertaking his individual career, he was also friend and partner to notable British landscape gardener Geoffrey Jellicoe. Page is the author of The Education of a Gardener, a book that became a bible for generations of gardeners, architects and plant enthusiasts around the world, and that novelist Doris Lessing regarded as a splendid and surprising memoire. Page’s approach encompasses classical gardens and natural and informal landscape gardening. Water is a recurring feature, resonating with echoes of Islamic gardening tradition. The many plant species he employed in his projects reflect his international expertise stemming from his many travels to South America and Australia and his lifetime dialogues with gardeners and technicians. Most of the gardens he created were commissioned by his prestigious clientele. His first projects in Italy date to the 1950s in Piedmont where the Agnelli family invited him to renovate the garden of their Villar Perosa residence; in Moncalieri he worked at Villa Silvio Pellico and on the hills of Turin at Villa d’Agliè for the Giacosa family. In 1969 in Friuli he was engaged by Count Brandolini d’Adda in Vistorta. Other Russel Page gardens can be found in Lazio in San Liberato (19654-67) near Bracciano, property of Maria Odescalchi and Donato Sanminiatelli and in Tor San Lorenzo where for Lavinia Taverna he created the important Giardino della Landriana (from 1967) to which the owner gave a considerable contribution. At La Mortella, on the island of Ischia (where he worked from 1956) on the property of composer William Walton and his wife Susana, Page tried his hand at a Mediterranean garden interpreting it with exuberant tropical notes with a touch of zen.
Read also Susana Walton Look at the card of Giardino della Mortella Look at the card of Villa Silvio Pellico
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