John Dixon Hunt

John Dixon Hunt is a European-born landscape philosopher who specializes in the picturesque. Mainly focusing on the time around the turn of the 17^th century in France and England. He personally claims that the facts of his early life had no bearing on his move into landscape matters and that his studies led him into the field. His goal as a landscape philosopher is to retain the original meaning of picturesque in the landscape. To take modern landscapes back to 1800 France and also to keep the 1800 French and English gardens in their original forms. Along with being a philosopher and professor, John Dixon Hunt is the author of innumerable articles [not only in landscape journals but also Apollo, Lincoln Center Theatre Review, and Comparative Criticism] , and chapters on topics including T. S. Eliot and modern painting, Utopia in and as garden, and garden as commemoration. He has written numerous books which include The Pre-Raphaelite Imagination: 1848-1900 (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968), his Critical Commentary on Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” (Macmillan 1968), studies of Marvell, Ruskin, and William Kent, his classic Garden and Grove: The Italian Renaissance Garden in the English Imagination: 1600-1750 (J. M. Dent, 1986), Greater Perfections (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), Picturesque Garden in Europe (Thames & Hudson, 2002), and the most recent The Afterlife of Gardens (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004). (Gardens Guide)

Early life and reasons for becoming involved in landscaping

In his youth he spent time in mountains of the English Lake District and in Switzerland. Neither of his parents were in connected to the field of landscape architecture. Therefore, he began his exploration of landscape architecture during his college years looking at landscape works and how they influenced writers. He would later train and get a degree in literary criticism and history at Cambridge. While at Cambridge he focused on Alexander Pope's poetry, Pope's garden and grotto, and Stowe House landscape garden. He claims that his movement into the field was a short voyage.

Education

*He earned his B.A. and M.A. at King's College, Cambridge.
*In 1964 he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Bristol (UK).
*In May 2000 he was named Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture for his exceptional endeavors in landscape architecture.
*In 2006 he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Bristol (UK).

Career

He began his career with teaching positions in English literature with emphasis on its relationships with the visual arts at Vassar College, Exeter, York, Leiden, East Anglia, and then Dumbarton Oaks where he was the Director of Studies in Landscape Architecture. He also had various fellowships, editorships, and consultancies ranging from tenures at the American Academy in Rome to editorship of the Journal of Garden History (since 1981) and Word & Image (since 1985) to advisory roles in Venetian garden restoration and botanical garden interpretive programs. (University of Pennsylvania)

He became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 and served as the department chair of landscape architecture and regional planning until June 2000. In June he went on sabbatical to pursue his interests in landscape architectural theory. When he returned Dean Gary Hack left for his sabbatical therefore leaving his position as Dean temporarily available and John Dixon Hunt was named to fill the position for a semester. John Dixon Hunt is a member of the Graduate Groups in Ph.D. architecture, historic preservation, history of art, comparative literature and Center for Italian Studies Committee. (University of Pennsylvania)

Examples of his writings and thoughts

*Hunt Defines landscape architecture as exterior place-making and sees the garden as having a 'privileged position' within landscape architecture because gardens 'are concentrated or perfected forms of place-making.'(Greater Perfection)
*"The use of the term 'picturesque' today is generally limp, gesturing at best towards something visually attractive, perhaps old, quaint or scenic."(The Picturesque Garden in Europe)
*"Picturesque is the story that concerns the application of painterly art to the formation of gardens and landscapes; but understanding, presentation and augmentation of 'nature' in designed landscapes, and about their reception by all sorts of visitors, topics just as important in the annals of landscape architecture as a debt to painting."(The Picturesque Garden in Europe)

Books

*The Pre-Raphaelite Imagination: 1848-1900 (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968)
*His Critical Commentary on Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” (Macmillan 1968)
* "The Figure in the Landscape: Poetry, Painting, and Gardening during the Eighteenth Century", Baltimore and London:The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976
* "Garden and Grove: The Italian Renaissance Garden in the English Imagination 1600-1750", London and Melbourne:J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1986
* "William Kent, Landscape garden designer: An Assessment and Catalogue of his designs", London:A. Zwemmer Ltd, 1987
* "The Pastoral Landscape", Hanover, New Haven and London: National Gallery of Art, 1992.
* " Gardens and the Picturesque: studies in the history of landscape architecture", Massachusetts:MIT Press, 1992.
* "Greater Perfections: The Practice of Garden Theory", Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.
* "The Picturesque Garden in Europe", London: Thames and Hudson, 2002.
* "The Afterlife of Gardens", London: Reaktion Books, 2004.
* [http://books.google.com/books?as_auth=John+Dixon+Hunt&ots=EdTEzbuvPU&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=author-navigational Plus many more...]

Edited Books

* John Dixon Hunt (editor), "Garden history: issues, approaches, methods", Washington: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1989.
* John Dixon Hunt (editor), "The Italian Garden", Cambridge, New York and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
* John Dixon Hunt and Peter Willis (editors), The Genius of the Place, London: Paul Elek, 1975.
* John Dixon Hunt and Michel Conan (editors), Tradition and Innovation in French Garden Art, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.

Articles and Book Chapters

* 'Emblem and Expressionism in the Eighteenth-Century Landscape Garden', "Eighteenth-Century Studies", 4, 3, 1971, pp. 294-317.
* 'Marvell, Nun Appleton and the Buen Retiro', "Philological Quarterly", 59, 1980, pp. 374-8.
* 'Pope's Twickenham Revisited', "Eighteenth Century Life", 8, 2, 1983, pp. 26-35.
* 'Pope, Kent and 'Palladian' gardening', in G.S. Rousseau and Pat Rogers, "The Enduring Legacy: Alexander Pope Tercentenary Essays", Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988, pp.121-132.
* 'Verbal versus Visual Meanings in Garden History: The Case of Rousham', in John Dixon Hunt, "Garden History: Issues, Approaches and Methods", Washington: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1989, pp.151-181.
* "Ut Pictura Poesis': The Garden and the Picturesque in England (1710-1750)', in Monique Mosser and Georges Teyssot, "The Architecture of Western Gardens: A Design History from the Renaissance to the Present Day", Cambridge, Massuchussettes: The MIT PRess, 1991, pp.231-242.
* 'Experiencing gardens in the Hypnerotomachia Polifili', "Word & Image", 14, 109-119, 1998.

See also

*Picturesque
*Landscape Architecture
*History of gardening

References

*Hunt, John. Greater Perfections. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2000.

*Hunt, John D. "Personal Life." 02 Nov. 2007. [e-mail]

*Hunt, John. The Afterlife of Gardens. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

*Hunt, John. The Picturesque Garden in Europe. New York: Thames & Hudson Inc., 2002.

External links

* [http://www.bucknell.edu/x31130.xml Bucknell]

* [http://www.gardenvisit.com/t/reviews/john_dixon_hunt.htm Gardens Guide]

* [http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=487 University of Pennsylvania]

* [http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v50/n03/hunt.html University of Pennsylvania Article]