Sir Edwin Lutyens | |
|---|---|
 Lutyens in 1921 | |
| Born | Edwin Landseer Lutyens (1869-03-29)29 March 1869 Kensington, London, England |
| Died | 1 January 1944(1944-01-01) (aged 74) Marylebone, London, England[1] |
| Alma mater | Royal College of Art |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 5, includingRobert,Elisabeth andMary |
| Parents |
|
| Buildings | |
| Projects | New Delhi |
Sir Edwin Landseer LutyensOM KCIE PRA FRIBA (/ˈlʌtjənz/LUT-yənz; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944[2]) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed manyEnglish country houses,war memorials and public buildings. In his biography, the writerChristopher Hussey wrote, "In his lifetime (Lutyens) was widely held to be our greatest architect sinceWren if not, as many maintained, his superior".[3] The architectural historianGavin Stamp described him as "surely the greatest British architect of the twentieth (or of any other) century".[4]
Lutyens played an instrumental role in theconstruction of New Delhi, which would later on serve as the seat of theGovernment of India.[5] In recognition of his contribution, New Delhi is also known as "Lutyens' Delhi". In collaboration with SirHerbert Baker, he was also the main architect of several monuments in New Delhi such as theIndia Gate; he also designed the Viceroy's House, which is now known as theRashtrapati Bhavan.Many of his works were inspired by Indian architecture.[6][7] He was elected Master of theArt Workers' Guild in 1933.[8][9]
Lutyens was born inKensington, London,[10] the tenth of thirteen children of Mary Theresa Gallwey (1832/33–1906) fromKillarney, Ireland, and CaptainCharles Augustus Henry Lutyens (1829–1915), a soldier and painter.[11][12] His sister,Mary Constance Elphinstone Lutyens (1868–1951), wrote novels under her married name of Mrs George Wemyss.[13][better source needed] He grew up inThursley, Surrey. He was named after a friend of his father, the painter and sculptorEdwin Henry Landseer. Lutyens studied architecture atSouth Kensington School of Art, London, from 1885 to 1887. After college he joined theErnest George andHarold Peto architectural practice. It was here that he first met SirHerbert Baker. For many years he worked from offices at 29Bloomsbury Square, London.
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He began his own practice in 1888, his first commission being a private house at Crooksbury,Farnham, Surrey. During this work, he met the garden designer and horticulturalistGertrude Jekyll. In 1896 he began work on a house for Jekyll atMunstead Wood nearGodalming, Surrey. It was the beginning of a professional partnership that would define the look of many Lutyens country houses.
The "Lutyens–Jekyll" garden had hardy shrubbery and herbaceous plantings within a structural architecture of stairs and balustraded terraces. This combined style, of the formal with the informal, exemplified by brick paths, herbaceous borders, and with plants such as lilies, lupins, delphiniums and lavender, was in contrast to the formal bedding schemes favoured by the previous generation in the 19th century. This "natural" style was to define the "English garden" until modern times.
Lutyens's fame grew largely through the popularity of the new lifestyle magazineCountry Life created byEdward Hudson, which featured many of his house designs. Hudson was a great admirer of Lutyens's style and commissioned Lutyens for a number of projects, includingLindisfarne Castle and theCountry Life headquarters building in London, at 8Tavistock Street. One of his assistants in the 1890s wasMaxwell Ayrton.[14]
By the turn of the century, Lutyens was recognised as one of architecture's coming men. In his major study of English domestic buildings,Das englische Haus, published in 1904,Hermann Muthesius wrote of Lutyens, "He is a young man who has come increasingly to the forefront of domestic architects and who may soon become the accepted leader among English builders of houses".[15]
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The bulk of Lutyens's early work consisted of private houses in anArts and Crafts style, strongly influenced byTudor architecture and thevernacular styles of south-east England. This was the most innovative phase of his career. Important works of this period include Munstead Wood,[16]Tigbourne Court,Orchards andGoddards inSurrey,Deanery Garden andFolly Farm in Berkshire,Overstrand Hall inNorfolk and LeBois des Moutiers in France.
After about 1900 this style gave way to a more conventionalClassicism, a change of direction which had a profound influence on wider British architectural practice. His commissions were of a varied nature from private houses to two churches for the newHampstead Garden Suburb in London toJulius Drewe'sCastle Drogo nearDrewsteignton in Devon and on to his contributions toIndia's new imperial capital, New Delhi (where he worked as chief architect with Herbert Baker and others). Here he added elements of local architectural styles to his classicism, and based his urbanisation scheme onMughal water gardens. He also designed theHyderabad House for the lastNizam of Hyderabad, as his Delhi palace and planned the layout for theJanpath andRajpath roads.[17]
Before the end ofWorld War I, he was appointed one of three principal architects for the Imperial War Graves Commission (nowCommonwealth War Graves Commission) and was involved with the creation ofmany monuments to commemorate the dead. Larger cemeteries have aStone of Remembrance, designed by him.[18] The best known of these monuments areThe Cenotaph inWhitehall,Westminster, and theMemorial to the Missing of the Somme,Thiepval. The Cenotaph was originally commissioned byDavid Lloyd George as a temporary structure to be the centrepiece of the Allied Victory Parade in 1919. Lloyd George proposed acatafalque, a low empty platform, but it was Lutyens's idea for the taller monument. The design took less than six hours to complete. Lutyens also designed many other war memorials, and others are based on or inspired by Lutyens's designs. Examples of Lutyens's other war memorials include theWar Memorial Gardens in Dublin, theTower Hill memorial, theManchester Cenotaph and theArch of Remembrance memorial in Leicester.
Lutyens also refurbishedLindisfarne Castle for its wealthy owner.[19]
One of Lutyens's smaller works, but considered one of his masterpieces, isThe Salutation, a house in Sandwich, Kent, England. Built in 1911–1912 with a 3.7-acre (1.5 ha) garden, it was commissioned byHenry Farrer, one of three sons of SirWilliam Farrer.[20]
Lutyens heavily influencedSigurd Frosterus when he designedVanajanlinna Manor inFinland.[21]
He wasknighted in 1918[22] and elected aRoyal Academician in March 1920.[23] In 1924, he was appointed a member of the newly createdRoyal Fine Art Commission, a position he held until his death.[24]
While work continued in New Delhi, Lutyens received other commissions including several commercial buildings in London and theEmbassy of the United Kingdom in Washington, D.C..
In 1924 he completed the supervision of the construction of what is perhaps his most popular design:Queen Mary's Dolls' House. This four-storeyPalladian villa was built in 1/12 scale and is now a permanent exhibit in the public area ofWindsor Castle. It was not conceived or built as a plaything for children; its goal was to exhibit the finest British craftsmanship of the period.
Lutyens was commissioned in 1929 to design a newRoman Catholic cathedral inLiverpool. He planned a vast building of brick and granite, topped with towers and a 510-foot (160 m) dome, with commissioned sculpture work byCharles Sargeant Jagger andW. C. H. King. Work on this building started in 1933, but was halted duringWorld War II. After the war, the project ended due to a shortage of funding, with only the crypt completed. A model of Lutyens's unrealised building was given to and restored by theWalker Art Gallery in 1975 and is now on display in theMuseum of Liverpool.[25] The architect of the presentLiverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, which was built over part of the crypt and consecrated in 1967, was SirFrederick Gibberd.
In 1945, a year after his death,A Plan for the City & County ofKingston upon Hull was published. Lutyens worked on the plan with SirPatrick Abercrombie and they are credited as its co-authors. Abercrombie's introduction in the plan makes special reference to Lutyens's contribution. The plan was, however, rejected byHull City Council. He was also involved in the Royal Academy's planning for post-war London, an endeavour dismissed byOsbert Lancaster as "... not unlike what the newNuremberg might have been hadthe Führer enjoyed the inestimable advantage of the advice and guidance of the late SirAston Webb".[26]
Works inIreland include theIrish National War Memorial Gardens inIslandbridge inDublin, which consists of a bridge over the railway and a bridge over theRiver Liffey (unbuilt) and two tiered sunken gardens;Heywood House Gardens,County Laois (open to the public), consisting of a hedge garden, lawns, tiered sunken garden and a belvedere; extensive changes and extensions to Lambay Castle,Lambay Island, near Dublin, consisting of a circular battlement enclosing the restored and extended castle and farm building complex, upgraded cottages and stores near the harbour, a real tennis court, a large guest house (The White House), a boathouse and a chapel; alterations and extensions toHowth Castle,County Dublin; the unbuiltHugh Lane gallery straddling theRiver Liffey on the site of theHa'penny Bridge and the unbuiltHugh Lane Gallery on the west side ofSt Stephen's Green; andCostelloe Lodge atCasla (also known as Costelloe),County Galway (that was used for refuge byJ. Bruce Ismay, the Chairman of theWhite Star Line, following the sinking of the RMSTitanic). In 1907, Lutyens designedTranarossan House, located just north ofDownings on theRosguill Peninsula on the north coast ofCounty Donegal.[27] The house was built of local granite for Mr and Mrs Phillimore, from London, as a holiday home. In 1937, Mrs Phillimore donated it toAn Óige (Irish Youth Hostels Association) for the "youth of Ireland", and it has been a hostel ever since.[28]
Largely designed by Lutyens over 20 or so years (1912 to 1930), New Delhi, situated within the metropolis ofDelhi, popularly known as 'Lutyens' Delhi', was chosen to replaceCalcutta as the seat of the British Indian government in 1911;[29] the project was completed in 1929 and officially inaugurated in 1931. In undertaking this project, Lutyens invented his own new order of classical architecture, which has become known as theDelhi Order and was used by him for several designs in England, such asCampion Hall, Oxford. Unlike the more traditional British architects who came before him, he was both inspired by and incorporated various features from the local and traditional Indian architecture—something most clearly seen in the great drum-mounted Buddhist dome of Viceroy's House, nowRashtrapati Bhavan. This palatial building, containing 340 rooms, is built on an area of some 330 acres (130 ha) and incorporates a private garden also designed by Lutyens. The building was designed as the official residence of theViceroy of India and is now the official residence of thePresident of India.[30][31][32]
The Delhi Order columns at the front entrance of the palace have bells carved into them, which, it has been suggested, Lutyens had designed with the idea that as the bells were silent the British rule would never come to an end. At one time, more than 2,000 people were required to care for the building and serve the Viceroy's household.
The new city contains both theParliament buildings andgovernment offices (many designed by Herbert Baker) and was built distinctively of the local red sandstone using the traditionalMughal style.
When composing the plans for New Delhi, Lutyens planned for the new city to lie southwest of the walled city ofShahjahanbad. His plans for the city also laid out the street plan for New Delhi consisting of wide tree-lined avenues.
Built in the spirit of British colonial rule, the place where the new imperial city and the older native settlement met was intended to be a market. It was there that Lutyens imagined the Indian traders would participate in "the grand shopping centre for the residents of Shahjahanabad and New Delhi", thus giving rise to the D-shaped market seen today.
Many of the garden-ringed villas in theLutyens' Bungalow Zone (LBZ)—also known as Lutyens' Delhi—that were part of Lutyens's original scheme for New Delhi are under threat due to the constant pressure for development in Delhi. The LBZ was placed on the 2002World Monuments Fund Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites. None of the bungalows in the LBZ were designed by Lutyens—he only designed the four bungalows in the Presidential Estate surrounding Rashtrapati Bhavan at Willingdon Crescent, now known as Mother Teresa Crescent.[33] Other buildings in Delhi that Lutyens designed includeBaroda House,Bikaner House,Hyderabad House, andPatiala House.[34]
In recognition of his architectural accomplishments for the British Raj, Lutyens was made a Knight Commander of theOrder of the Indian Empire (KCIE) on 1 January 1930.[35] As a chivalric order, the KCIE knighthood held precedence over his earlierbachelor knighthood.
A bust of Lutyens in the former Viceroy's House is the only statue of a Westerner left in its original position in New Delhi. Lutyens's work in New Delhi is the focus ofRobert Grant Irving's bookIndian Summer.
In spite of his monumental work in India, Lutyens believed that the peoples of the Indian sub-continent were less civilised and less intelligent than Europeans, although these views were common at the time among many of his contemporaries.[36] He thought the Indian Indo-Saracenic style was "formless, not of carved decoration, an anathema...hardly qualified as architecture at all." Endless battles were fought between him and ViceroyHardinge over architectural style: Lutyens wanted classical, the architecture of the Empire – Hardinge wanted elements of the Indian vernacular for political and cultural reasons.[37] A firm supporter of British imperialism he built the Viceroy's Palace as a symbol of glory of the Raj, and considered Indians to be primitive as yet on the verge of civilization, thereby deserving to be ruled by the British.[38]
InMadrid, Lutyens's work can be seen in the interiors of theLiria Palace, a neoclassical building which was severely damaged during theSpanish Civil War.[39] The palace was originally built in the 18th century forJames FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, and still belongs to his descendants. Lutyens's reconstruction was commissioned byJacobo Fitz-James Stuart, 17th Duke of Alba. The Duke had been in contact with Lutyens while serving as the Spanish ambassador to theCourt of St. James's.[40]
Between 1915 and 1928, Lutyens also produced designs for a new palace for the Duke of Alba's younger brother,Hernando Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duke of Peñaranda. The palace of El Guadalperal, as it was to be called, would have been, if built, Edwin Lutyens's largest country house.[41]
Lutyens marriedLady Emily Bulwer-Lytton (1874–1964) on 4 August 1897 atKnebworth, Hertfordshire. She was third daughter ofEdith (née Villiers) and the1st Earl of Lytton, a formerViceroy of India. Lady Emily had proposed to Lutyens two years before the wedding, and her parents disapproved of the marriage.[42] Their marriage was largely unsatisfactory, practically from the start, with Lady Emily developing interests intheosophy, Eastern religions, and being drawn both emotionally and philosophically toJiddu Krishnamurti.[43] They had five children:
During the later years of his life, Lutyens suffered with several bouts ofpneumonia.
In the early 1940s he was diagnosed withcancer. He died on 1 January 1944 and wascremated at East Finchley Crematorium in north London, also known as St Marylebone Crematorium. His ashes were interred in the crypt ofSt. Paul's Cathedral, beneath a memorial designed by his friend and fellow architectWilliam Curtis Green.
Lutyens received the RIBARoyal Gold Medal in 1921, and theAmerican Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1925. In November 2015 the British government announced that all 44 of Lutyens's surviving First World War memorials in Britain[note 1] had now been listed on the advice ofHistoric England, and were therefore all protected by law. This involved the one remaining memorial—theGerrards Cross Memorial Building inBuckinghamshire—being added to the list, plus a further fourteen having their statuses upgraded.[49] For theImperial Tobacco Company's First World War memorial, installed in 1921 at its Bedminster Head Office,[50] this protection arrived too late to prevent its destruction following the company's take-over in 1986 byHanson Trust plc.
The architectural criticIan Nairn wrote of Lutyen's Surrey "masterpieces" in the 1971Surrey volume of theBuildings of England series, while noting that; "the genius and the charlatan were very close together in Lutyens".[51] In the introduction to the catalogue for the 1981 Lutyens exhibition at theHayward Gallery, the architectural writer Colin Amery described Lutyens as "the builder of some of our finest country houses and gardens".[52]
In 2015 a memorial to Lutyens by the sculptorStephen Cox was erected in Apple Tree Yard, Mayfair, London, adjacent to the studio where Lutyens prepared the designs for New Delhi.[53][54]
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![Daneshill Brick and Tile Company offices, near Old Basing, Hampshire (1903)[55]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aLutoffice8Jl6-3786.jpg)
![Country Life Offices, Tavistock Street, London (1905)[56]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aCountry_Life_Offices_London.jpg)
![British Medical Association, Tavistock Square, London (1911)[48]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aBMA_House.JPG)
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![Midland Bank Headquarters, Poultry, London (1924)[57]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aLutyens_Midland_Bank.JPG)
![67–68 Pall Mall, London (1928)[58]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3a67-68_Pall_Mall.jpg)
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![Architectural model of unrealised design for Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (1933)[59]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aLPoolLutyens-wyrdlight-802726.jpg)
![Broughton memorial lodge, Runnymede, Surrey (1930–1932)[60]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aLodgeRunnymede.jpg)
![Runnymede Bridge, Surrey (opened 1961)[61]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aRunnymede_Bridge_(upstream).JPG)
| Cultural offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President of the Royal Academy 1938–1944 | Succeeded by |
| Court offices | ||
| Preceded by | Registrar of the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor 1941–1944 | Succeeded by |
