building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

plans, perspectives and cross‐sections to describe the details of the building. These
illustrations were designed to represent more complex scenes, often with
perspective and axonometric projections, in which nature plays a leading role and
where flora is drawn with scientific accuracy. In 1842, the year following the
publication of the Treatise, Norman and Davis continued to work together. Downing
decided to entrust Davis with the general review of the architectural drawings and
details for his new book, Cottage Residences or A Series of Designs for Rural
Cottages and Cottage‐Villas, and their Gardens and Grounds adapted to North
America, published simultaneously in New York and London. Cottage Residences
appears to be a catalogue of solutions. In it, Downing described the relationship
between the house, garden and landscape and he dwelt on the architecture by
means of accurate drawings.
Downing believed the relationship between landscape and architecture to be based
on architectural styles and revealed a complex, methodical approach at the same
time. The recurring terms Downing used suggested solutions, which were the fruit
of an excessive and sometimes fairy‐tale imagination: Tudor style, irregular mansion
in the Italian style, irregular cottage in the old English style, villa in the Italian style,
cottage in the Italian or Tuscan style [Figures 113‐114]. All styles are made from
details, from a preference for vertical lines, for the slope of the roof pitch, from the
shapes and dimensions of the windows, from the arrangement of volumes as a
reminder of Gothic revival, tainted with sudden, personal passions. In 1843, he
edited the American edition of Gardening for Ladies by Jane Loudon, a popular book
of practical gardening. A few years later in 1845, Downing published Fruits and Fruit
Trees of America, another book from the very successful publishing project, which
reached the substantial number of fourteen reprints by 1852, the year he died. The
final years of his life were dedicated to improving and reviewing his publications.
Thus, a new title appeared on the market, The Architecture of Country Houses
(1850), with revised and enlarged contents compared to his previous works on the
same topic. He formulated the details of the architectural trends and taste for the
picturesque of the time, and these writings made Downing extremely popular
among the ranks of experts and the wider public. His fame, however, was not
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