Christopher Edward Clive HusseyCBE(21 October 1899 – 20 March 1970) was a British architecture writer. He was one of the chief authorities on British domestic architecture of the generation that also includedDorothy Stroudand SirJohn Summerson.
Christopher Hussey | |
|---|---|
| Born | Christopher Edward Clive Hussey 21 October 1899 London, England |
| Died | 20 March 1970(aged 70) Scotney Castle,Kent, England |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
| Subject | British architecture |
| Spouse |
Elizabeth Kerr-Smiley
(m.1936) |
| Relatives | William Clive Hussey(father) |
Background
editHussey was born in London, the son ofWilliam Clive Husseyand his wife, Mary Ann (née Herbert) Hussey.[1]He was educated atEton CollegeandChrist Church, Oxford.[1]DuringWorld War I,he was a first lieutenant with theRoyal Field Artillery.[1]
Career
editThis sectionneeds additional citations forverification.(September 2024) |
His first major ventures both appeared in 1927. One was a collaboration with his mentor and predecessor atCountry Lifemagazine,H. Avray Tipping,in Tipping's seriesIn English Homes, Period IV, vol. 2, The Work of Sir John Vanbrugh and his School, 1699–1736(1927). English garden history was an unexplored field when Hussey broke ground the same year withThe Picturesque: Studies in a Point of View(1927; reprinted 1967), which was a pioneer in the history of taste that rediscovered from obscurity figures likeRichard Payne Knight,"a Regency prophet of modernism" in Hussey's estimation.[1]Later in Hussey's career,English Gardens and Landscapes 1700–1750(1967), also covered fresh territory, as a complement to his Georgian volumesEnglish Country Houses.
He is chiefly remembered for the long series of articles he wrote from the 1920s onwards forCountry Life(where he became architectural editor), in which he continued the work of his mentor Tipping in setting architectural history in its social history. Based on his accumulated experience in country houses and their muniment rooms, his series ofEnglish Country Houses:ECH: Early Georgian, 1715–1760,(1955; revised, 1965);ECH: Mid-Georgian, 1760–1800(1956) andECH: Late Georgian, 1800–1840(1958) provided an overview of high-styleGeorgian domestic architecture.[1]Eighteenth century Georgian houses were widely admired, but at the time of publication Regency houses were not regarded, though a collectors' vogue for early 19th-century furniture had spurredMargaret Jourdain'sRegency Furniture(1934). "The surviving houses of the Regency period took on a new lease of life, partly thanks toCountry Lifeauthors such as Christopher Hussey who played a significant role in the rediscovery and popularisation of the Regency period "(Sir John Soane's MuseumNewsletter10)
Hussey's series of monographs on selected houses and a seriesThe Colleges of Oxford and Cambridgecollected material drawn from hisCountry Lifearticles, offered in more permanent format:Petworth House,Clarence House,London,Ely House,London,Berkeley Castle,Eton College,Shugboroughwere all given the Hussey treatment, and they demonstrate the range of his competence. Hussey contributed the chapters on architectural history to H. Clifford Smith,Buckingham Palace: Its Furniture, Decoration & History(1931; reprinted 1937).
He wrote monographs on the conservative contemporary British architectSir Robert Lorimer(1931) andThe Life ofSir Edwin Lutyens,[1]which historianDavid Watkinrated "the finest architectural biography" in English. Lutyens' first big London office building was the Country Life Building (1904) inCovent Garden,commissioned by the magazine's editor, Edward Hudson. With A.S.G. Butler and George Stewart, Hussey contributed to the definitive three-volumeArchitecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens(1950), the opening shot in the ongoing reappraisal of Lutyens' buildings. Nevertheless, Hussey'sCountry Lifearticles on contemporary houses are often overlooked.
In the next generation, Hussey's example influencedJohn Cornforth,with whom he co-wrote the later editions of Hussey'sGuide to English Country Houses Open to the Public(first published by Hussey in 1951), and who wrote a series ofCountry Lifearticles in 1981 "Continuity and Progress: Christopher Hussey and Modern Architecture" (Country Life,vol. CLXIX, 22 October 1981, pp. 1366–68, etc.) To a lesser extent Hussey's example influencedMark Girouard,whoseLife in the English Country House(1979) took a new view, concerned with life downstairs as well as with architects and their patrons among the gentry.
Personal life and death
editIn 1936, Hussey married Elizabeth Kerr-Smiley. From 1952 onward, they lived at his family home ofScotney Castlein Kent, where he died on 20 March 1970.[1]He left the house and estate to theNational Trust,with the proviso that his wife Elizabeth have full use of the house, which she lived in until her death in 2006.
Books
edit- Hussey, Christopher and Tipping, H. Avray.In English Homes, Period IV, Volume II, The Work of Sir John Vanbrugh and his School, 1699–1736(1927), Country Life, London.
- Hussey, Christopher.Thepicturesque:studies in a point of view(1927), G.P. Putnam's Sons, London and New York.
Sources
edit- ^abcdefgCornforth, John(2004). "Hussey, Christopher Edward Clive (1899–1970), architectural historian".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34070.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)