Rustic style

History

The term rustic was most commonly applied to garden architecture and decorative objects characterized by material or treatment of material that imparted a sense of the primitive, the unfinished, or, as J. C. Loudon wrote, the “common.” Rustic arbors, arches, baskets, bridges, columns, gates [Fig. 1], seats summerhouses, [Fig. 2], and other structures were made from rough materials such as wood with the bark left on or from saplings. In some cases, as at Economy, Pa., roughly hewn stone was used in the construction of a rustic hermitage [Fig. 3]. In his extensive description of rustic work (1848–49), A. J. Downing included the moss-house (a framework covered with living mosses) as another type of rustic pavilion. Thatch for roofing also was frequently used for rustic structures, as Loudon prescribed in some of his designs [Fig. 4]. Downing said that structures made of these materials “appear but one remove from natural forms” and so were in harmony with their surroundings. He contrasted the “mural and highly artistical vase and statue” as most properly accompanying the beautiful landscape garden, with the rustic as the most fitting decoration of the picturesque landscape garden. Several garden writers recommended locating rustic artifacts and structures away from the highly finished villa, in secluded spots. As some images illustrate, rustic embellishment often was situated among heavy plantings or in densely wooded areas [Figs. 5–7].

Loudon and Downing, however, both occasionally endorsed the juxtaposition of styles. For example, Loudon depicted a Grecian urn under a rustic arch, because it could produce “a striking contrast.” The rustic was to be used, we are told by Loudon, “to attract attention” amidst otherwise “refined and artistical scenery, whether in the irregular or geometric styles.”

The rustic style suited the picturesque mode of landscape gardening (also known as the modern or natural style), which derived from the aesthetic discovery of the countryside and rural life in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (see Modern style).1 Loudon’s extensive discussion of the rustic exemplified this cultural trend. At times, the terms “grotesque” and “rustic” were used synonymously to denote an unrefined, common appearance. Loudon also used the words “rural” and “indigenous” as alternatives to “rustic,” to refer to the imitation of local scenery. The modern style dominated landscape taste in America after the Revolution, as illustrated by the numerous nineteenth-century descriptions and citations of the rustic that are included in this study.

Downing, who played an important role in the popularization of the “rural taste” in America, championed rusticity in the embellishment of gardens and homes. His publications provided many examples of rustic furniture and architecture, as well as advice on their materials, siting, and construction. He depended frequently upon Loudon’s publications, which he credited as his source. In an issue of the Horticulturist (January 1850), the writer Jeffreys, from New York, associated rusticity with rural taste: “A true country house should also have some appearance of rusticity—not vulgarity—but a keeping with all which surround it. Not castellated, nor magnificent; neither ostentatious nor pretending, but plain, dignified, quiet, and unobtrusive; yet of ample dimensions, and exceeding convenience. Then, in park or lawn, on hill or plain, flanked with mossy foliage, and well kept grounds, it becomes a perfect picture in a finished landscape.” To this pronouncement, the editor, Downing, added “[Most excellent and sensible. ED.].”2

-- Therese O'Malley