{{Short description|British gardener, garden designer and landscape architect}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}} {{Use British English|date=August 2022}} {{For|the Australian dancer Russell Page|Russell Page (dancer)}}
thumb|right|Russel Page, {{circa}}1956 '''Montague Russell Page''' OBE (1 November 1906 – 4 January 1985) was a British gardener, garden designer and landscape architect. He worked in the UK, western Europe and the United States of America. thumb|144px
==Biography== Montague Russell Page was born in Lincolnshire, the second son of the three children of Ida Flora, ''née'' Martin (1875–1963) and her husband, Harold Ethelbert Page (1876-1966), a solicitor in Lincoln.<ref name=":0">{{Cite ODNB|title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|date=1 May 2008|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/96728|pages=ref:odnb/96728|editor-last=Matthew|editor-first=H. C. G.|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/96728|access-date=6 December 2019|editor2-last=Harrison|editor2-first=B.|editor3-last=Goldman|editor3-first=L.}}</ref> He was educated at Charterhouse School in Surrey (1918–24), going on to study in London at the Slade School of Fine Art in London University (1924–26), under Professor Henry Tonks. From 1927 to 1932 he studied art in Paris, and took some small gardening jobs in France.
He began his professional career with projects in Rutland (1928), and chateaux in France at Melun (1930) and Boussy-Saint-Antoine (1932). On his return to the UK, Page was employed by the landscape architect Richard Sudell, and he began remodelling the gardens at Longleat – a work which would continue for many years. Between 1934 and 1938, he contributed articles to the periodical ''Landscape and Gardening''. From 1935 to 1939 he worked in partnership with Geoffrey Jellicoe. Page and Jellicoe designed the landscape and building for the 'Caveman Restaurant' at Cheddar Gorge on the Longleat estate in Somerset, and worked at the Royal Lodge, Windsor; Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire; Holme House, Regent's Park, London; Broadway in the Cotswolds; and Charterhouse school. During this period, Page also worked at Leeds Castle, Kent (1936 and later); château Le Vert-Bois in France (1937); château de la Hulpe, Belgium (1937) and château de Mivoisin, France (1937 – 1950s).
During World War II, Page served in the UK's Political Warfare Department in France, the United States, Egypt and Sri Lanka.
After the war, Page went on to design gardens in Europe and the United States. His clients included:
*Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor<ref>Page, Russell (1994 [1962]) ''The Education of a Gardener,'' passim—check book index for pages</ref> *Count Sanminiatelli San Liberato * King Leopold III of Belgium * Susana Walton, wife of Sir William Walton<ref name=":0" /> *Babe Paley and William S. Paley *Oscar de la Renta *Marcel Boussac<ref>Page, Russell (1994 [1962]) ''The Education of a Gardener,'' chap. IX, pg. 265</ref> *Olive, Lady Baillie *PepsiCo * Baron and Baroness Thierry Van Zuylen van Nievelt *Frick Museum
His works include the National Capitol Columns in Washington's United States National Arboretum<ref name=aci-nb>{{cite web|title=A Capitol Idea|url=http://www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/collections/columns.html|work=Official website|publisher=The United States National Arboretum|accessdate=1 May 2011|date=1 April 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703042359/http://www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/collections/columns.html|archivedate=3 July 2009}}</ref> and the Tenuta di San Liberato, Bracciano near Rome.
In 1947, Page married Lida Gurdjieff, a niece of the spiritual teacher G. I. Gurdjieff, and together they had one son, David. They divorced in 1954. In 1954, Page married Mme Vera Milanova Daumal, widow of the poet René Daumal and former wife of the poet Hendrick Kramer. She died in 1962.
Page's autobiography, ''The Education of a Gardener'', was published in 1962.<ref name="Great British Gardens">{{cite web | title = Russell Page (1906–1985) | work = Great British Gardens | publisher = Web Publications Ltd. | url = https://www.greatbritishgardens.co.uk/russell-page.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190619110452/https://www.greatbritishgardens.co.uk/russell-page.html | archive-date = 19 June 2019 | url-status = live | accessdate = 19 June 2019 }}</ref>
Page died on 4 January 1985 in London and was buried in an unmarked grave in Badminton, Gloucestershire.<ref name=":0" />
==Spiritual interests== Page was an aficionado of the mystics George Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky, whose views inspired part of his approach to gardening.<ref>Fox, Robin Lane in the introduction to the 1994 edition of Page's ''The Education of a Gardener,'' pp. xvii-xviii</ref>
In an interview by Christopher Woodward in ''The Telegraph'', Page's niece, Vanessa showed Woodward some of the "treasured fragments" of her uncle's life, including a pamphlet on medicinal herbs by the writer and thinker, Idries Shah who, she explained, was a teacher in the Sufi mystical tradition, and who became "Page's spiritual mentor in Sixties London."<ref name="Telegraph Christopher Woodward">{{cite web | author = Woodward | first = Christopher | title = Russell Page: the most famous garden designer no one's ever heard of | work = The Telegraph (online) | date = 21 March 2015 | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/11483478/Russell-Page-the-most-famous-garden-designer-no-ones-ever-heard-of.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180921102546/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/11483478/Russell-Page-the-most-famous-garden-designer-no-ones-ever-heard-of.html | archive-date = 21 September 2018 | url-status = live | accessdate = 21 September 2018}}</ref>
==Further reading==
===About Russell Page=== * R. Page, ''The Education of a Gardener by Russell Page'' (1962 and reprints) * G. van Zuylen and M. Schinz, ''The Gardens of Russell Page'' (1991; reprinted 2008)
===Other=== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} *{{cite book |first1=Alicia |last1=Amherst |title=A History of Gardening in England |edition=3rd |year=2006 |orig-year=1910 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fk4KTrvZ8nMC |location= Whitefish, Montana|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|isbn=9781428636804 }} *{{cite book |first1=Sir F. Reginald |last1=Blomfield |first2=Inigo, Illustrator |last2=Thomas |title=The Formal Garden in England, 3rd ed. |year=1972 |orig-year=1901 |location=New York |publisher=Macmillan and Co |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/845951?q&l-decade=190}} *{{cite book |first1=Derek |last1=Clifford |title=A History of Garden Design |edition=2nd |year=1967 |location=New York |publisher=Praeger}} *{{cite book |first1=Marie-Luise Schröeter (1863–1931) |last1=Gothein |authorlink1=Marie-Luise Gothein |title=History of Garden Art |volume=2 |year=1928 |orig-year=1910 |url=http://www.gardenvisit.com/history_theory/library_online_ebooks/ml_gothein_history_garden_art_design |last2=Wright |first2=Walter P. (1864–1940) |last3=Archer-Hind |first3=Laura |author4=Alden Hopkins Collection |location=London & Toronto, New York |publisher=J. M. Dent; 1928 Dutton |isbn=978-3-424-00935-4}} 945 pages Publisher: Hacker Art Books; Facsimile edition (June 1972) {{ISBN|0878170081}}; {{ISBN|978-0878170081}}. *Gothein, Marie. ''Geschichte der Gartenkunst''. München: Diederichs, 1988 {{ISBN|978-3-424-00935-4}}. *{{cite book |first1=Miles |last1=Hadfield |title=Gardening in Britain |year=1960 |location=Newton, Mass |publisher=C. T. Branford}} *{{cite book |first1=Christopher |last1=Hussey |title=English Gardens and Landscapes, 1700–1750 |year=1967 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5mVRAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Country Life}} *{{cite book |first1=Edward S. |last1=Hyams |first2=Edwin, photos |last2=Smith |title=The English Garden |year=1964 |location=New York |publisher=H.N. Abrams}} {{div col end}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.scribd.com/doc/19153452/Russell-Page-Gardens-that-look-Inevitable 'Gardens that Look Inevitable' by Russell Page (1980)] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20051220025931/http://www.greatbritishgardens.co.uk/russell_page.htm Great British Gardens biography] *[http://www.gardenvisit.com/b/page.htm Biography of Russell Page]
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Page, Russell}} Category:British landscape and garden designers Category:English landscape architects Category:British gardeners Category:1906 births Category:1985 deaths Category:People educated at Charterhouse School Category:LGBTQ architects Category:Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire