I enjoy looking at old garden books and early garden photographs. I think it is fun to try and identify the plants and imagine what the gardener was trying to accomplish. I say “trying to accomplish” because I have found that gardeners are rarely satisfied with their gardens – there is always something new to try or some reason that a plant or combination just didn’t work out as you thought it should have. I think that this itch to accomplish more is part of the pleasure of gardening.
I have thought a lot about Mr. du Pont’s lifelong connection to Winterthur and how he coped with this pleasing dissatisfaction. Our archives offer a glimpse into that world. The images below are a selection of early color photographs or “autochromes” from 1913. I enjoy the intensity of these garden scenes and the vibrancy of the plantings. I think the photos reveal a playful experimentation with color that later became the hallmark of the Winterthur garden.
