Capturing Beautlj: a Historlj of Dhotographlj at Lotusland
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\ Nl:WSLETTCR FOR MEMBl:RS • VOLUME 5 NO. 3 ~ AUTUMN 1996 CapturingBeautlJ: A HistorlJof DhotographlJat Lotusland PHOTOGRAPHYOF THE GARDEN has provided striking images of arc for dis play and remembrance and continues to provide important documentation of the evolution of Madame Walska's garden. The Lotusland photographic archives house this information and make available to researchers images from past eras up to the present. Like Ganna Walska herself, the garden has beckoned to those who would cap ture enchanting, dramatic, and highly -photogenic beauty on film. Con fronted by such beauty, many have been inspired to great photography. EarllJPhotographers Since the time the property was the great estate CuestaLinda owned by the Gavit family, photographers have recorded its existence on film both to document and promote its grand home and gardens. A. Sturte vant, an early commercial photogra pher in Santa Barbara who specialized Nelumbo nucifera, the sacredIndian lotus, captured in full bloomby Wm. B. Dewey. in "groups and interiors" and who is known to have captured images of IN THIS ISSUE the new Potter Hotel, later photo graphed the earliest known record of CapturingBeaulLJ: A HistorLJof CeramistMin-Yi Lin Creates II PhotographlJat Lotusland Ornamentfor RestoredFountain Cuesta Linda. The newly built resi dence of Mr. and Mrs. E. Palmer LotuslandCelebrates: 5 Perimeter Wall Restoration II lhe Marriageof Figaro Gavit, completed in 1920, rises up NeptuneFountain Restored 12 from a sweeping lawn in these early AnacapaString Quartet at Lotusland 6 Penthouseof the Gods 12 photos . Soft Mediterranean land Holidall Book Signing for Members 6 Wm. B. DeweLJPhotographLJ Workshop 12 scaping with junipers and olive trees Ari in Full Bloom 3 MembershipBrochure Lauded 12 can be seen planted at the front of New to the Collections 9 ( ;he house while neat rows of rose Volunteersin the Garden 13 - gardens appear behind the house. InternationalPaleobotanists 9 SantaBarbara Foundation Funds 13 Fauldings Photography, located in the CtJCadGarden GroundsU tilitLJVehicle on State Street and active from 1905, Mike Souza:Summer Intern 9 1997 ReservationReminders 15 PHOTOGRAPHYcontinued on page2 HorticulturalHappen ings 10 Calendarof Fall Events 16 The PavilionPatio, 1929. PHOTOGRAPHYcontinued from page 1 of the finest in the Lotusland photos capture the grandeur of the witnessed the estate a few years later archives . A pioneer female news Gavit estate and have been instru when George Washington Smith, photographer born in Canada, but mental in recent restorations of the Peter Riedel, and Paul Theine were working on the East Coast, Beals pavilion patio, parterre, and Neptune developing the formal gardens be came to Southern California from fountain at Lotusland. ) hind the main house. One can see her home in New York in 1928 to the newly planted parterre, lemon photograph estates, gardens, and Lotuslandin Black arbor, olive allee, and the water stairs well-known people before returning & White and Color flanked by ivy behind what is now in 1930. Her well-composed black The earliest image of the estate the Japanese garden pond . and -white images of Southern Cali under the ownership of Madame fornia estates, including several in Walska was taken by Shreve Ballard Jessie Tarbox Beals Santa Barbara , were featured in in 1941 shortly after she purchased Images of CuestaLinda taken by CaliforniaGardens by Winifred Starr the property and had begun to alter Jessie Tarbox Beals in 1929 are some Dobyns, published in 1931. These PHOTOGRAPHYcontinued on page 3 THE LOTUSUND NEWSLETTER FOR MEMBERSis published by Ganna Walska Lotusland Foundation 695 Ashley Road Santa Barbara, California93108 (805) 969-3767 Boardof Trustees Carol L. Valentine,President ElizabethW Dake Arthur R. Gaudi • Anne W. Jones Pamela B. Pesenti • MichaelTowbes Steven Tun.brook,Ph.D., Executive Director Anne Dewey, AssistantDirecror VirginiaHayes, Curatorof the LivingCollection Mike Iven, GroundsS11peri111endent Janet Eastman, Editor I Lindse's Letter Perfect Graphics,Design Printed by J&S Graphix ~(' ; Printed on recycled and recyclable paper Madame Walska'sfirst attempts at landscar1ingwith cactiat Tibet/and,1941 . photographing cities and natural wonders along the way. His finest photos were compiled in a book he published in 1957 entitled This is California,including 13 images of Santa Barbara. Though none of his Lotusland images were used in the book, we are very happy to have them for reference. The most striking of the images he took are of the exotic, conical, and spiky cactus along the main drive. Sometime in 1957 LIFEmagazine :i:~ ~ sent photographer J.R. Eyerman to re < ~ cord the famous gardens of Lotusland ;j LT__._ ....... - ... and its even more famous owner. § The 216 color transparencies that he li took over a period of several weeks <3"' that summer show Ganna Walska in her garden at work and play, and ~ ~-----=-.:a.a....zJ ... ~---~::::.:_~L:::_---:.ilil --- ____:~ ~:..::...:t.:..a~ - capture many features of her gardens Exoticcacti, including many graftedand crestedspecimens, along the maindrive, 4957 at their peak, such as the horticultural clock and topiary garden and water PHOTOGRAPHYcontinued from page 2 see in this photograph that she has gardens full of Victoriaamazonica the landscaping in front of the main already begun to try her hand at water lilies: The story and photo house. The photograph, which Mme. imaginative landscape design-for graphs were never used by LIFE,but ;Nalska published at the end of her which her home became famous. fortunately the Lotusland Foundation ( Lotusland has 25 images of memoirs Always Room at the Top1 was able to purchase the collection shows the house against the back Madame Walska's gardens taken by from Eyerman's widow in 1990. ground of a slightly stormy sky look German photographer Karl Obert, Than ks to proper archival storage, the ing stark with the new, imaginative who devoted 30 years to capturing Anscochrome film used by Eyerman cactus plantings in sandy beds the vast beauty of California in black has held up remarkably well over the before the house. The caption below and white. Beginning in San Diego, years despite the inherent instability reads "Tibetland in Santa Barbara." he traveled up the coast following of the emulsion. These images pro At the time Ganna Walska hoped her the Camino Real of the early mis vide important historical documenta new home would become a retreat sionaries to the Oregon border and tion that will be useful in planning for Tibetan monks-though one can then down the middle of the state, PHOTOGRAPHYcontinued on page4 Victoria amazonica lilypads fill the watergardens, 1957. Madame Walskaentertaining on the main lawn, 1957 PHOTOGRAPHYcontinued from page 3 the future reconstruction of the topiary garden and have been used in recent Lotusland publications . Weddings in the Gorden Hal Boucher, resident photogra pher at the Biltmore Ho tel since the early 1950s, where he photographed prominent gues ts, including presi dents, dignitaries, and movie stars, had a hand in photographing Madame Walska's estate when he was hired to document her niece's wedding there in 1958. Santa Barbara photographer Eldon Tatsch, active in the mid - 1950s, had the honor of document ing Madame Walska's "horticultural zoo" when he photographed the wedding of the son of a beloved gardener in 1961. The black-and white photos show the topiary animals just before their decline. Both sets of photos show Madame Walska with bride and groom, clearly the proud parent of a very important member of the wedding parties- Sun backlightsAloe plicatilisin the aloegarden . her enchanting garden . Lotus/and: A Case Study in the Trans Lotusland, William B. Dewey had Recent Important formationof a Gardenfrom the Private to built a reputation as a fine art and PhotographicWorks the Public Realm. Chamber lin also aerial photographer in Santa Barbara, exhibiting at numerous local galleries During Madame Walska's final authored the cover story for the March 23, 1989 issue of the Sama and museums . His pho tographs years, when the garden was allowed BarbaraIndependent about the process have appeared in many publications, to become somewhat overgrown as including Santa Barbara Magazine she refused to permit the usual prun of opening Lotusland to the public . Her work is an important record of and Sunset, and galleries, museums, ing and thinning so necessary to and private collectors have commis maintain an ever growing landscape, this period of transition . In 1990, Connoisseurmagazine sioned him to produce images of Gregory Padgett, a young Santa paintings, ob jets d'art, sculptures, Barbara artist, obtained access to hired renowned photographe r Robert Glenn Ketchum to take images of and tapestries. The images Dewey Lotusland . His misty, dark images has taken of Lotus land are both the garden to accompany an article included in Lotus/and: A Photographic beautiful and inspiring - a memora - by the late English garden writer Odyssey- bring out the mysterious ble record of the composition, garden Magg ie Keswick. Ketchum has given moodiness of a garden enclosing and design, and artistry of all those in Lotusland a set of the beautiful color hiding its reclusive creator. volved in creating the gardens - and slides he took at the time- many Local garden historian Susan are featured in the recent publications of which were featured in the recent Chamberlin recorded changes in Lotus/and: A Photographic Odysseyand